(any faults are entirely my own - I'd not secured them well enough from mice in the barn overwinter, and Udwin managed spectacularly well with what I had to hand him last spring)
I've been trying to figure out what to do with them for months, since as lovely as the work is, it doesn't seem to fit a Dunedain impression, and I don't do much colonial anymore.
Aha! I thought. Why not something in the Beorning fashion?
.. what I forgotten until re-reading the description of Beorn was how he seemed to be adament about not killing animals:
'If you must know more, his name is Beorn. He is ... a skin-changer.'
'What! a furrier, a man that calls rabbits conies, when he doesn't turn their skins into squirrels?' asked Bilbo.
'Good gracious heavens ... NO!' said Gandalf. '... don't mention the word furrier again as long as you are within a hundred miles of his house, nor, rug, cape, tippet, muff, nor any other such unfortunate word!' ...
...
'He lives in an oak-wood and has a great wooden house; and as a man he keeps cattle and horses which are nearly as marvellous as himself. They work for him and talk to him. He does not eat them; neither does he hunt or eat wild animals. He keeps hives and hives of great fierce bees, and lives most on cream and honey.
-The Hobbit, Queer Lodgings
It seems odd to me for a bear-man, but there it is in the text. Which implies I imagine that the Beorning-men themselves are quite possibly likewise.
But there are numerous allied tribes in the area between the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood if I recall correctly - perhaps it could be from them?
So two part question:
Do we have solid evidence of leather or lack thereof among the men who allied with Beor?
Is there a particular cultural touchstone referenced that might be good for artistic inspiration? Scythian perhaps?
Oh - one more - any ideas what to craft from the hides? It will be some time before I can work my way down to it, but I'd love to start turning ideas over in my head. I've of course been thinking of a bag of some sort, but I'm drowning in bags as it is.