Kingdom A&S - What was lost is now found

Kingdom A&S was in November. I submitted a leather belt pouch and had two judges go over it with me. We had good conversations, so I certainly had most of the information from those chats. But I was looking forward to getting the written judging forms so I could see if they had any other suggestions or comments.

I waited..and waited...and waited. Avelyn contacted the A&S Minister early in the new year when neither one of us recieved our forms. We waited some more. Avelyn's forms showed up via the Baronial courier service (someone else had gotten them and given them to Her Excellency Lucia to pass on). Mine were still missing.

Finally, this past weekend at Late Winter Shoot (on March 24th) the forms appeared. They had been sent to Master Dafydd in Petrea Thule. Looks like the A&S Minister just assumed there was only one person with that name and didn't bother cross checking addresses (I think the same thing happened with Avelyn's forms).

Anyway, what makes me really happy is that both of my judges gave me 5/5 for my research. Given that I completely started over and re-did the pouch when I couldn't find documentation to support the design, this makes me really happy. I knew the craftsmanship wasn't great but I put a lot of effort into making it as accurate as possible, and in documenting the design.

Overall, the scores were OK, and I think I could do much better just by applying a few of the judges' suggestions on the detail-work (cleaner finished edges etc). I also knew the design was really simple, so the scores for the complexity of the project could have been higher too. Add in some more ornamentation or some carved leather and suddenly it could be a really nice pouch.

Update on Project List Progress

Well its been a while since I posted, largely because I haven't really done much leatherwork. I've been spending most of my SCA time working with Emelote on planning the feast for our upcoming Border Spat event in May.

That being said, I have about nine different leather projects I have to get finished by then so I better get moving.

I did manage to make Avelyn her new belt pouch as a surprise a few weeks ago. Its a draw string style pouch that I made out of a nice purple pig skin. She wore it to Late Winter Shoot and it seemed to work well.

I also started to work on my thank you gifts for Border Spat. I'm going to be pulling together small rapier-oriented emergency kits with a bunch of stuff that would be useful for fencers (tips and tape etc). I'm going to put it all into small leather pouches. I started working on the pouches while we were at Late Winter Shoot this past weekend. Got one pouch cut out and sewn together. Just the closing button and the belt loop to add on. Six more to go!!!

I've consulted with a few people about my plan for the rapier prizes for Border Spat and it seems to be a good idea. I'm going to keep it somewhat hush hush so the winners can enjoy the surprise a bit. One will be for the winner of the mass melee rooftop tournament, and the other will be for the person selected as "most inspirational" by the Barons and Baronesses as part of the Baronial Selection Tournament.

Thora has also commissioned me to make her one of my leather rapier sheaths, like the one I made for the Baronial Rapier Champion when I stepped down from the position. She'd like it to have some sort of Ealdormerian or Skrael symbol on it. I think this one will have to wait until after Border Spat, don't think I'll have time until then.

Updated Project List

I thought it might be a good idea to start making a list of my leatherworking projects that I need to work on over the next few months. Just so I can keep track.

1) Pouch for Avelyn to replace the one that got wrecked at Pennsic
2) 3 prizes for rapier activities at Border Spat
3) 5-7 thank you gifts for Border Spat
4) (Long-Term) Figure out engineering and pattern for A&S competition pouch
5) (Long-Term) Figure out shoe pattern

There's probably more but that's a good start. :)

Re-supply run and new projects on the horizon

So I braved the 90 km/h wind gusts today to make a re-supply run to Zeli's. I replaced my solvent-based Fiebing's dyes with water based ones now that I know the difference. I now have a nice variety of colours of the water based dyes, and of course they have the advantage of being mixable, so I can make a variety of other colours as well. I also picked up some leather lace for decorative stitching  (including some lace that can be dyed in case I want other colours), some pouch closure clasps, some lacing needles and a book on stitching and lacing techniques so I can try to learn some additional decorative stitches.

The flurry of activity is because I'm going to be the Rapier Marshal in Charge for our upcoming Border Spat event in Cornwall (May 12th), and I was thinking of making some prizes for the winners of the tournaments. I haven't decided yet on what to make, but I have a number of ideas from some of my project books. Avelyn also suggested I could make a nice leather sheath for a rapier, like I did for the Baronial champion when I stepped down. It would need to be something fairly practical, since I don't know who will win it, and the colours and any carving would need to be something that doesn't scream Skraeling Althing.

This afternoon I think I'll go down to the basement and start working on what I want to make. I'll need at least two prizes, probably three. I also need to talk to Jocelyn to see if she was planning any thank you gifts for the high ranking fencers that are travelling to come to the event for the Academy of Defence bouts. That would add some additional work possibly.

Pictures - Leather Carving

So, I finally got around to taking pictures of both my completed project from my leather carving class. I also did some dyeing work over the weekend on my Ealdormere populace badge. Here's the pictures:

First,the finished luggage tag we made for the carving class. As mentioned I'm not entirely happy with it but it was a good learning project:

Next we have my Ealdormere populace badge, which I did up spontaneously just to work on my carving skills. It's a modified version of the graphic that can be found on the Ealdormere site at:
http://www.ealdormere.ca/files/graphics/populace_badge_final.pdf

I'll keep working on it since its a design that I can use for pouches and such. I tried a bit of a more advanced technique on the red wolf to get a bit of a funky pattern to it, thought it looked kind of neat instead of just having it solid red. Helps show off some of the detail too.

Leather Carving Class - Day 5

This is the last class of the 5 day leather carving class. Today we focussed on dying leather.

The teacher walked us through the different types of dyes available (who knew all the stuff I have is the wrong stuff for the projects I was doing?).

So we used some of the water based dye to paint the background of our project and then applied the clear coat on top to help protect it. Project looks pretty good if you ignore my mistakes on the carving.

I didn't have time to paint any of my other projects so will have to do that next.

Short summary of the dyes for future reference:

1) Fiebings is a chemical dye (can't remember the exact term). Hard to wash up, but goes much deeper into the leather. Can't be mixed to make new colours and needs some extra work to finish. Also needs to be sealed properly or it will rub off. Best used with a dauber.

Fiebings also makes a paste dye that works really well for an antique effect. Use sheep skin or a rag to apply and then buff using a sheepskin.

2) Highlighter is a dye that you use to emphasize your carving. Rub it on the whole project and then lightly wipe it off. It will wipe of the surface, but will stay inside the lowered edges of your carving and"highlight it" Can use a foam brush to apply.

3) Acrylic dyes are kind of like acrylic paint, except they dry flexible. Generally used for small accent colours rather than painting an entire project. Paint brush to apply.

4) Water based dyes are the Zeli's brand product. They can be combined to make other colours and are more easily cleaned since they are water based. Can also be mixed with water to thin it so that the colour is less opaque for specific effects. Best applied using a brush or foam brush. Don't use the dauber.

So that's it for my class. I think I picked up a lot of basic technique that I can apply to my SCA projects.

Carving Project

So, heading into my last leather carving class I thought I would work a bit on a project of my own, so I can bring it in and get some tips from my instructor on how to improve it.

I printed out the Ealdormere populace badge, and used it as a pattern. The badge is essentially a wolf head over a trillium. I figure this is something I should learn how to do since it's a useful design to apply to various leather pieces.

Tomorrow I'll dye it if I have time, so the red and white colours show up, but for now here's how it looks: