So this is fun: I just came across a real-world northwestern European antecedent for this thing - the "Birka Wallet" of 9th century Norse provenance. The construction is different: a horizontal slit instead of a vertical one: but It's got the "market wallet" idea of a large compa...

That edge is still drying: I might have to re-hang the groundcloth, or rub tons of dust into that edge, or something. Worst case I can cut it off I guess. Anyhow, re: getting a nice dark color in linen: first boil the heck out of it in a water/alum solution. These folks say 1.75Tbsp / pound of fabri...

I figured that what it was for- beautiful!

... I assume some of the raised lines are to hold the carriage in place - is the lengthwise one purely decorative?

WOW - that looks great!

... I could imagine the tinder in either a small greased rawhide parfleche, or perhaps a bit of ramhorn hollowed out with a wood stopper?

One more thing - here's the Marshal Historical knives: probably 14th-15th c. designs, more or less. The sheaths come as raw undecorated tooling leather: it's up to you to scratch in any designs and dye/wax/oil/whatever you want to do. Lots of medieval sheaths were pretty crudely decorated, presumabl...

I'm trying to find someone who might be able to help out with a project, and so far etsy isn't much help. I'd like to get a small rectangle cut from a piece of marble tile, and hemispherical "watercolor palette" divots ground into the top face. Does anyone here have the tools/knowhow or co...

I confess I didn't do a thing other than dye it and soak it in the oil - I don't think I even scoured the linen prior to tossing it in the dyepot, come to think of it. It's possible this linen was left over from a batch I DID scour though, so don't trust me on that - it certainly took the dye remark...

I wanted to get a bit more use out of my walnut dye bath before dumping it for the season, and I still wasn't ready to get back to those gosh-darned trousers from last year. Aha! I thought: why not experiment with a new groundcloth, since I've been wanting a more period-correct one for a while? Firs...

Oh my goodness - that's lovely!

What do the runes say again?

Oh, old Bilbo would have been delighted with those!

Hi Jessee - that's awesome! I've been wanting to get into illumination one of these days, just... not this year, clearly. :) I see you do other vegtan products as well. By any chance, would you consider offering - - bark tanned hide, especially deer (it might get some traction here, but the colonial...

Wow - that's a much closer match than what I was remembering. Normally the high polyester content would turn me off, but for this use it sounds like that's no problem. For the record, these are the folks I was remembering. It would need to be dyed, but they do some amazing fabrics (albeit not cheap)...

wow- ambitious! I used to have a bunch of heavy greenish oilcloth, but I think I sold it years ago. I'll doublecheck, but I'm not optimistic. Scarlet Scarab carries a nice brown oilcloth if you can't get any from jbook. Might have a source for the wine wool, I'll look. Never seen anything even close...

OMG I remember those moccasins! They were *the* rage when I was in middle school for good ol' boy metalheads and SCA geeks alike. Back in the dark ages before lots of historical craftsmen had websites and importation businesses it was the closest thing you could get to a medieval boot. I still have ...

Hunh. I had always read "supple leather" to be referring to the uppers of Aragorn's boots, and not necessarily the soles. The other quote though certainly implies a comparatively light sole as well though. Neat - I'd never noticed! If anything, it's the heavy soles that are a bit anachroni...