Finished bottle

[Manveruon]

That's brilliant!

[Ringulf]

Neccesity is the mother of invention I suppose, I have worked with bladders to do alot of odd things including raising ships that have sunk and other salvage projects so this was just another displacement issue.

The thing is, I set out to make a simple bottle, got waylayed by my dwarven need to embelish and though the bottle turned out fine structurally, I look at it and shake my head.

Having spent much time in cutting, sewing, tooling and staining, I lost the majority of the decoration, and this due to the excess amount of watter used after staining and sewing. I needed to do the sewing to stretch the bottle but I needed to stain the layers prior to sewing so in retrospect I needed a process that would cut down on the water.

BTW another interesting trick to start you off before the balloon while wetting the leather is to use a water balloon filler that you can attach to your sink or outdoor hose. this lets you waterform the bottle while you wet the leather and create the pocket you need to stretch and fill with the balloon.

I learned quite a bit and will do my next one very differently!

[Dinendir.]

I never thought about using a bladder. It sounds like it would have been fun to try it. I still haven't seen any pictures of yours, Ringulf.

[Ringulf]

Well I suppose I should bite the bullet and post the pictures of the step by step and then the final outcome.

I think it is important that we share the process, despite the results, so we can learn by our successes and failures. Actually I think I learn much more from the latter. Well then, in an effort to be completely candid.....













Add Barley and water to 100+ degree weather and travel in jeep 12 hours, that is when the Cokatoo hit the fan...





Well there you go alot of tooling and staining that will never be seen beyond these pictures and the end product, useful but not exactly as I intended. The Bladder will help next time I try anything regarding stages of staining and leather, but honestly the bottle project itself is very cool and I plan on making more with simpler tooling and fewer layers.

That is if I can hold back the inner Dwarf!

[Greg]

Interesting. I never would've thought to add additional layers onto a bottle for decorative purposes. It's not really my style, but it's a pretty cool concept, and well executed. I think the fact that your tooling didn't show up on all surfaces adds more character...makes it look more worn, right from the get go.

[Ringulf]

Thanks Greg,

Yeah it really looks like it has been on the trail for a while, which gives it character.
If you want it to look like part of a well worn kit, it's pretty much there.
Kit wise I think it is cool.

[Manveruon]

Wow! Now there's an ambitious project! What Greg said pretty much sums up my thoughts. Overall a very interesting and cool project!

[Mirimaran]

I loved where you were going with this as well. We all make our own items for kit, but it is the small touches that make those items unique to us, or to our culture. I hope that you will tackle this again because it is so very Dwarvish, and I'd love to see a pic of you carrying it.

Ken

[kaelln]

Dude, it's an awesome build. I think my favorite stage though is where you have just put on the mask. I'm sure your next one will be even more awesome, though. After all, that's who you are!

[Erhilir]

Wow this looks really difficult to make!

[RangerKellen]

Good job! It looks great!