UPDATE My quiver hardware and bedroll/needwallet strap buckle frames are complete in bronze, and they look AWESOME. Shapeways is still having problems with the tongues I made for the latter, but hopefully the last model I uploaded won't get kicked back. We'll see. Onward! merf-buckles-shapeways.jpg

So between other projects, I've been working on some new leather stamps. All are loosely inspired by the Professor's flower drawings: my working rationale is that they draw a bit from Tolkien's heraldry of the elves filtered through the Dunedain kingdoms, simplified and ornamented a bit by Dunlendis...

There's a good chance you've heard of Tod's Stuff - a gentleman in England who makes all kinds of medieval bits and bobs, and has made quite a name for himself making very nice reproductions of knives, daggers, crossbows, andwhatallelse. I was just over at his site looking at some aiglets for lacing...

The lighter leather may make it less durable over time, so I'll have to keep an eye out for that and report back! One thing I have noticed is that the "wings" that the strap goes through are still pretty flexible, since they weren't hardened like the body in the lining process. If I were ...

oh very cool! It looks fantastic! I'm curious: I cant tell for certain from the photo, but it seems it may be a lighter weight of leather than the leather vessels I've seen in the past (maybe they were too chunky?). anyhow, was the weight you chose a deliberate decision, or simply what you had on ha...

cool!
I like the star.

Are there interior pockets as well? Or one big compartment?

Didn't Gandalf make fireworks? That would imply a little more chemistry knowledge than simple matches and gunpowder. For Gandalf, yes. For the hobbits of the Shire, not necessarily I think. I wonder... As it's written, the only M-e entities associated with explosions are Gandalf, Saruman, and...gob...

Hunh - that is interesting. I confess, a spot of coal burning in a pinch doesn't bother me - even bessemmer-like smelting of iron using tall mountain shafts as natural chimneys sounds entirely reasonable. Stainless steels I don't know enough of metallurgy to comment on, but at least of late I've tur...

Someday, someone is going to have to work out the mystery of the Shire's economy, technology, and hidden heavy industry. Perhaps Saruman's meddling was much more pervasive, and started earlier than we had ever expected? I think a lot falls out from Tolkien searching more for emotional resonances th...

Oh goodness - that is coming along well!

I ended up going down a very similar road with my original cloak modeled off your drawing in ages past, overlapping the front rather than fastening it straight down the center.
Thanks for the inspiration.

I've been listening to the Fellowship audiobook while doing crafts and chores of late, and just came across this little bit of trivia yesterday: 'You may make a fire, if you can,' answered Gandalf. 'If there are any watchers that can endure this storm, then they can see us, fire or no.' But though t...

Oh very cool!

I wonder what sorts of things Aistan might mark on his map... hazardous spots on the river? Hunting camps? Meeting spots for trading parties?

Okay, progress! First, I'm very happy with the belt buckle now. Anyone who wants one, PM me and I'll send you a private link to order one in bronze, brass, steel, etc.* They also have some "bronze steel" "gold steel" etc which aren't period I'm sure, but are certainly cheaper tha...

I just tried to upload a 47K image of some new work, and got a "could not upload" error. Is the functionality broken? Have I hit a total K size I'm not aware of? (I prefer to upload images to the forum rather than remotely host, so that folks looking at these threads in the years to come d...

Happy Birthday!