Projects and A&S Goals for the New Year

While there were some highlights (like finally getting the stick-purse project to the point where I had something to show off at QPT), overall 2014 wasn't nearly as productive as I had planned. Particularly later in the year, with travel and real life stuff taking over much of my time, I feel like there were long stretches where I didn't really do much in the workshop. I know Avelyn feels the same, with most of her hobby time being taken up with officer positions.

So with 2015 now here, I thought I would put down on paper some of the things I want to get done this year. If past years are any indication, if I get even half of the stuff done it will be an accomplishment, and there will be other projects I take on that weren't planned that will take up large chunks of time. So, in no particular order:

Personal A&S Stuff

1. Finally finish the stick-purse (potentially for A&S in April)
2. Finish developing and teach my class on period leather dyes (submitted for Practicum in February)
3. Publish my leather dye research and experiments more formally online so people can access it for their own research and use
4. Decide on next major project for future QPT/A&S and start planning (possibly leather filigree work based on the period Islamic book covers we saw at the Chester Beattie Library - maybe as a scroll blank?)
5. Do groundwork research on possible Pent theme to see if its feasible (does it hit the right categories etc.)
6. Get the helm padded and strapped, and finish modifying my kit so I can finally start working towards getting my armoured combat authorization
7. Get Avelyn's leg armour back in shape so she can get back on the field
8. Finally make some banners or pennants or something for events.
9. Continue uploading my UK artifact pics on Pinterest for people to see (still several thousand pics to go).
10. Try to find a blue leather dye recipe that works (in the summer when I can work in the garage and vent it properly)
11. Make a pouch with a kraken design on it
12. Make a rainbow badge for Maggie :)

MOAS Stuff

1. More consistently get the Twitter account going and do up a plan to promote it.
2. Investigate idea of setting up group "research days" at local university libraries.

Non-A&S Stuff

1. Start getting out to rapier practice more regularly
2. Get my bow inspected and getting ready for the archery season now that I have arrows
3. Do a better job of both sending in award nominations and tracking them so I know which ones are still needed

Practicum Wrap-up

Yesterday was Practicum in Caldrithig (Ottawa). This is a bit of a unique event up in or end of the Kingdom because its entirely focused on classes and learning (mostly related to A&S). Most of the day isn't even in garb, although a lot of people wear it anyway so they don't have to change before court.

Lots happened during the day.

First, I was able to present the item I had promised Her Majesty to be included in Their gift basket for Gulf Wars next month. She was coming up for Practicum so I wanted to get it done as it would probably be the last event I'll be at before They head down south. The recipient of our gift basket this year is Trimaris. I won't be posting any details or pictures until after the event as I don't want to ruin the surprise, but I hope they'll like it. Stay tuned in a few weeks as I took lots of pictures over the past couple of weeks as I worked on it.

I also officially came full circle at Practicum this year. It was about 5ish years ago at Practicum that I took my very first leatherworking class taught by Baron Tiberius. Yesterday, I taught my first A&S class at an event, which was of course an intro to leatherworking class. I had four people, and we spent about two hours going over leather basics and working on a leather pouch. Hopefully they enjoyed the class and with any luck I'll have gotten some of them interested in leatherworking at least as well as Tiberius did with me.

I was able to take a few classes about armouring and SCA fighting being taught by Mistress AElfwyn to help me get a bit more of a background in that area now that I'm starting to go to practices and such.

The other "big" news from Practicum is that I was chosen by Baronial Council as our new Baronial A&S Minister. I have some ideas for some things I'd like to do, so I'll probably do a bit of a post about my plans in the next few days. I'll give you a hint though and say that social media will be involved. :)

All in all a pretty full day.

Workplan - General A&S projects

My other two workplans were more timelines for specific steps of each project. On this one I'm not going to get into as much detail but I'm going to at least try to set myself a timeline for some of the projects that are on my to do list. I'm hoping setting myself deadlines will work better than what I've been doing, which is just making a list and getting to items when I get to them.

Priority will be on getting the leather dye and stick-purse projects done, but I hope to be able to fit some of these in during gaps in those workplans.


Herald's binder for Harrowgate
Deadline - Break the Back of Winter (done and presented to Canton at Christmas party)

I've bought what I need and I have the carving pattern, so now I just have to get it done. I think Break the Back is a reasonable timeline to do it. (surprised them by having it ready three months early). :)

Leatherworking class for Practicum
Deadline - Practicum (February 22)

I'm mostly ready to go. The class itself is ready, I just have to prep some more kits and maybe prep a few more examples to show during the class.

Badges for Largess Contest at Break the Back
Deadline - Break the Back of Winter (March 15)

I started at Fall A&S by cutting out the leather squares. Just have to carve and paint 12 of the badges.


And here's a list of some of the other ongoing projects I have on mys list, just to keep them on the radar:

1. Replace Avelyn's favour (likely make a second more sturdy one for wearing in armour as well)
2. Develop carving pattern for my heraldry and badge
3. Finish Avelyn's lamellar
4. Start work on designing new leather leg pieces for Avelyn's new knee armour
5. Do "commissioned" children's archery glove for Eluned
6. Do "commissioned" belt favour (with award badges) for Robert the Blue
7. Figure out shoe pattern

Back from Pennsic

We have safely returned from Pennsic.

Leatherworking wise, I showed off my stick-purse mock up a bit to nice reviews. I only made it to one leatherworking class, the "what's in your toolkit" class. It was a decent review of tools but I don't think I got much out of it since most of the tools were things I already have and know how to use.

While I was busy at the rapier list, Avelyn did finally make it to Cariadoc's cuire boulli class after four years of both of us trying to fit it in. I believe her comments were something like "this is so stupidly easy, why haven't we done this before!" She had the same opinion of Master Cariadoc as I did following the two cooking classes I attended, that man can teach!

Shopping wise I did buy a new leather stamp, a pair of crossed axes. It looks really cool. I also asked about thinner waxed linen thread but it doesn't seem to be available, so I may have to see if I can find linen thread for sewing and wax it myself. Otherwise I'll never get the tight stitches I want for the stick-purse pouchlet because of the size of needle I need to use for the thread I have. Avelyn also bought some armour pieces we were missing so hopefully we'll be able to get her lamellar done soon.

Sadly, our Pennsic this year was overshadowed by situations at home. We spent most of our time trying to stay up to date, sharing information with friends and supporting each other. We ultimately ended up leaving earlier than expected, and I missed a number of leatherworking classes I had planned to attend as I just didn't have the heart to go.

Pre-Pennsic update on various and sundry

With just over a week until the first wave of people leave for the wilds of Pennsic, we've been busy working on all fronts.

Leatherworking class:
For my October leatherworking class for the Canton, I've completely finished my hand out and its ready to be printed. I've also started to cut out the leather for the class, but I have a long way to go. I have the pouch pieces for five pouches cut but still need to do the draw strings and belt flaps. Plus, I'm going to need a lot more than 5 kits.

I did a quick show of hands for who is interested on the Canton e-mail and Facebook page and so far have about 12 people saying they are tentatively interested in taking the class. I'll probably cap the class at 15, just to keep it manageable, and so that people get some one-on-one help if they need it. Right now, I'm thinking I'll probably need to charge a materials fee of a few dollars, just to recoup some of the leather costs, but I'm trying to use scraps and leather I already have on hand (as much as possible) to reduce costs.

I'll probably do 15 kits and if I don't get that many people, I can always use them if I decide to offer the course at Practicum next year.

Stick-Purse project:
Design-wise, I think I'm about done. I may fiddle a little bit with the waxed linen to see if I can get some thinner threads pulled out (so that I can in-turn use a smaller needle and get the stitches tighter), but otherwise I think its good to go.

This week I started working on my documentation and I'm now about 80 per cent done. Really, the only information I need to add in is stuff from Purses in Pieces that I need to pull out. The content is about six pages, with another 4-ish pages of annexes with pictures of artwork and extant examples, links and bibliography.

Once we're past Pennsic, I'll need to spend a bit of time going back to my period leather dye project so I can figure out at least a few more colours. I've got the yellow for sure. I'd like to try to get a red since I have the brazilwood. Black or dark brown would also work if I can't get the blue or green recipes to work.

Once that's done, I'll actually be ready to work on the final project, which means there's a small chance I'll have it ready for this year's Kingdom A&S.

Armouring:

I did a full inspection of Avelyn's body armour pre-Pennsic and did some minor repairs (some of the stitching had blown). Also did some work on her leg armour to hopefully make it less of a pain to wear.

Added straps to her demi's she bought at Pennsic last year although there's some question if they are usable (may be too short, leaving her wrist not adequately protected).

I tried to rivet the straps onto Avelyn's full gauntlets last week and it was a bit of a failure. Because of the curve of the gauntlets and the size of my anvil (plus the fact I have to work on the floor) I couldn't get the right angle to cleanly rivet the straps on.

We went to the Canton A&S and armouring day this past Monday. I was there for a meeting and Avelyn going to get some help with the gauntlets. Unfortunately she had a bit of an incident and discovered how sharp my leather scissors are, and didn't get much done the rest of the night.

Morag was able to help with some structural ideas and did help her cut out the leather pieces, so I may see how far I can get with assembling it all. We can always go to A&S this coming Monday to get help with the riveting. This may end up having to wait until after Pennsic though since we're running out of time to get projects finished and get everything packed.

Weekend project updates

Over the long weekend Avelyn and I made progress on a bunch of long-standing projects to help get ready for Pennsic. This is just a quick post to track some of the work we did on the weekend for future A&S reports:

Added finger straps to Avelyn's new leather demi-gauntlets
Cut out new shield rim leather piece to replace worn section
Inspected and repaired Avelyn's body and leg armour
Trimmed Avelyn's leg armour

Still to do pre-Pennsic:

Re-rim the shield once new tubing has been acquired and heraldry has been glued on
Adjust Avelyn's armour belt and legs
Add straps to Avelyn's full gauntlets
Add trigger loop to Avelyn's sword

Leather Geekery at Fight Practice

Avelyn wasn't planning on fighting at practice this week, but we did go out anyway, with Lone Star chips and salsa in hand. She needed to pay her annual site fees for the practice, and we wanted to bring out the lamellar armour for some of the more experienced fighters and marshals to take a look at for input.

Overall, it went over pretty well. We need to trim some of the leather back a bit in a couple of places around the arms (which I figured) and we need to check it with her gorget to make sure her spine is fully covered. Otherwise I'll need to add some extra plates at the back or something to make sure.

The general feeling was it's nice and light, but we'll need to see how it feels with the padded gambeson before she'll know if it gives enough protection.

I also got talking to Mistress AElfwyn on the side about Kingdom A&S and such. Turns out this year she didn't get asked to judge my project (even though she had something crazy like 15 projects to judge) and she wasn't sure who had looked at it.

It also turns out that she's done some experimenting with the leather dye recipes from the Plithco (she even has an actual copy), without much success on any of the colours. She was very interested in the fact that I got a nice yellow out of the one recipe, as she's had trouble getting anything but various shades of brown. I was able to pass on my process, so hopefully that will help. She certainly seemed interested in the results, as well as the idea of applying the dye hot.

I also talked to Shahid about his leatherworking setup, so when I go over for A&S day this upcoming weekend I'll take a look and see if he has what Catherine will need to work on her quiver project. If that's the case it will make things easier since I won't have to haul my gear out for her to try.

Armouring Weekend

This past weekend I spent a good chunk of my time working on Avelyn's lamellar.

We'd bought the plastic lamellar plates a couple of years ago and I had started to lace together the plates back then. I had the general shape of the armour done and had attached buckles on it, but didn't get any further. The problem we ran into was that the armour needs a padded gambeson and it was going to be hard for me to fit the lamellar without it.

As a result, the laced-together plates have been sitting in the basement for a while now, lonely and forlorn.

I picked it up again a few weekends ago and attached some temporary shoulder straps so that I could put it on Avelyn and check the fit. We decided it needed some fine-tuning because the plates were interfering with her arm movements. However, I had to scale the plates back so much that it was going to leave large opening with no protection. That's where leather comes in.

This weekend I took the measurements and cut out leather pieces to form the upper torso and shoulders of the armour. I then riveted it on to the top of the lamellar and looked at attaching the pieces at the shoulder.

I made a few mistakes, like:

• Laying out he pattern wrong for one of the pieces so that half the leather is good side out and the other piece is bad side out. (Groan).
• Measuring the shoulder strap length wrong so that I ended up with the armour hanging too low (it basically added an extra 4 inches to what it should have been).
• Fixing the shoulder strap length to find out that the neck hole is now a neck slit and doesn't fit around Avelyn's head.

Ahh, the joys of trial and error and working without a pattern.

Once I shave leather off the neck hole so Avelyn can put the armour on, I'll see if I corrected the shoulder strap problem. I can then permanently attach the pieces together. I'll probably re-enforce the shoulder straps with an extra layer of leather, since that's where shoulder and arm armour will be hanging.

I can then look at the arm holes and areas where the leather is overlapping and trim it down a bit more so that it isn't interfering with her movement.

I'm hoping to have it ready for her to take to practice in the next couple of weeks to get input from the marshals and experienced fighters, with the goal of having it ready to test out for real at practice early in the new year.

Of course, we still don't have the padded gambeson ready so hopefully that won't throw the whole thing out of what.

Leg Armour Modifications

While Avelyn has bought some new metal knee armour we haven't figured out how we want to mount them yet. We'll probably wait until she has her new padded gambeson and pants ready and then work it out for her new armour.

In the interim, we've decided to modify her old leg armour to make it easier for her to armour up. Right now all of the straps buckle behind her legs, making it almost impossible for her to get into her armour on her own given how bulky it is.

Last night I popped the rivets on all of the leg straps and moved the buckles so that they are at the front. It increases the chances of her getting hit on a buckle a bit, but it also will hopefully mean she can actually get out on the field more often to get hit in the first place. :)

Of course, by moving the buckles, the straps themselves needed to be replaced since they are not long enough any more, so that all got done as well. Tonight after the Canton meeting, I'll get her to put them on so I can figure out where to punch the holes in the straps, and where to trim the straps so they don't dangle too much.

I also checked all of the other straps and lacing and everything seems to be holding up well. The kidney belt I made is definitely doing the job, so it's possible we'll re-use it for the new legs. She's been using this set-up with very few repairs for at least three years now so I'm pretty happy with its durability.

Avelyn's Armour - Update

We decided to go to an A&S day this weekend, and I took the opportunity to get started on some new leg armour for Avelyn. We had seen how some of the Harrowgate folks have done their knee and shin protection, so we are going to try that approach.

Of course, when I went down to the leather stash to find some leather for the project, I discovered I didn't have enough of it left for the pieces I was going to make. This of course meant a road trip to Zeli's was in order. After spending way too much money, we were supplied, and made our way to the A&S day. I also picked up some of the items from my list of equipment (see an earlier post), so it was a good pit stop.

We were only at the A&S day for a short time, but I was able to trace out the paper pattern for the shin pieces and fit them to Avelyn. After some adjustments and another paper pattern we were good to go. Once we got home, I cut out the first piece, which looks like it will work.

Now I just have to figure out how the strap them on, because she needs to be able to put them on and take them off herself, so buckles aren't ideal. Avelyn suggested a hook and eye system, but I'm concerned the hooks will constantly be popping undone. We also have to figure out how best to attach the shins to the knees.

I will also have to cut some strips of armour grade leather and wax harden them to use as splints. I can then rivet them to the shin-guards to give her some extra protection without a huge amount of weight added.

Armour Projects - A List

So, at Kingdom A&S, Avelyn was the subject of a Royal order to get her armour fixed up so that she can get back on the field.


So, with that in mind, we have some projects that need to get finished:

Lamellar armour: (made from plastic so not technically a leather project but I am making the straps and such out of leather). The main torso section is done but Avelyn needs to finish her padding for underneath it so I can finish the sizing. We'll also want to test it out to make sure it gives her enough protection. I'm not entirely sold on the thickness of the plastic. Back-up plan is to find someone to make steel plates for a new coat of plates so she can return the one she borrowed from Constance.

Shoulder/Upper arm protection: I was originally going to make the shoulder protection out of lamellar but will need to see how that will work once we can get it on Avelyn. We have her current lacross pads that can go under any upper-arm protection so lamellar could work I suppose. Would be worried about the tops of her shoulders though.

Legs/knees: Avelyn is looking into ordering some new knees, so we'll need to reconstruct her leg armour and probably her kidney belt that I made. I'm thinking metal strips backed by leather is the best bet. I think she was planning to build some of the leg armour into her fighting pants, so we'll have to see how that will work. Needs to be easier for her to armour herself up however we end up doing it.

That's the bulk of it for now I think. May be other projects as well but I'll update as they come up.