New Projects!

[Manveruon]

Hey folks! So I've been working on a ton of new stuff lately. A lot of it has been for my Etsy shop, but some has been for my own purposes, and mostly medieval/ranger related. The newest project I finished was a belt, and the one before that was a new archery bracer. And a few months ago I also finished my first hand-sewn pouch. I've put up some pics of all these for everyone to take a look. Here's the album on photobucket:

http://s39.photobucket.com/albums/e173/ ... 20Costume/

Like I said, the belt is the newest item I completed. That one was done yesterday, start to finish. The buckle is from Raymond's Quiet press, and is a copy of a buckle recently found in Scotland, dated to the 12th Century. The belt is approximately 1" wide, and there are 10 decorative mounts along its length. For these I just used bezel conchos from Tandy Leather, and fastened them on with brass rivets. I was surprised at how much I liked the silver/gold contrast, as well as how period it looks. Although this piece might be a bit ornate for a ranger, I fancy it would fit right in on your average turn-of-the-13th -Century man, and I may still use it for rangering purposes. The belt mounts might even pass for Dunedain stars, and I specifically included the oak-leaf stamping between the mounts because of my intent to use it with a ranger/woodsman type impression.

The bracer was a project I deliberated over for quite a while. I couldn't decide precisely what style I wanted, so I eventually decided to combine several. What I ended up with wasn't quite what I wanted, but overall it works nicely. I sewed the two layers together by hand, with a sewing awl, and they provide lots of excellent protection against string-slap. Soon I intend to build an under-bracer out of a much softer, thinner leather, and build a half-glove into it. I also want to make a matching bracer for the other arm, but possibly with a hand-guard attached.

Finally, the pouch, which is the oldest of these items. It was based in a general sort of way on historical pouches, but with no specific, documentable example. The closure was inspired by Viking birka belt bouches, and I liked it because it secures the flap very well without using any buckle or other metal closure. This was my first foray into stitching with a sewing awl, and overall I was very pleased with the results. As you can see in the pictures, all seams and straps were sewn to avoid the use of modern-looking rivets. Of course, I then broke down and used rivets for my other projects, but I thought they were fitting for those particular items. This one I wanted to be metal-free. It's actually made of three different weights of leather - heavy for the straps, medium for the body, and lightweight for the gusset (which I now wish I had made a little wider, but ya' live ya' learn).

All of these items were dyed using a combination of Fiebing's medium-brown alcohol based leather dye and Eco-Flo antique leather gel, also in Medium brown (and in the case of some parts of the bracer, antique black). I LOVE the Eco-Flo antique gel because of the amazing depth and richness of color and texture it produces. Before constructing and dyeing the pieces I worked them and distressed them in my hands to give them a wrinkled, lived-in quality. Then when I applied the gel, it really got into all the cracks beautifully, and gave this lovely, variegated dimension to all the pieces, making them look as though they'd been in use for a while already. I love that stuff, and I've worked with it for a while on many projects. If you haven't tried it yet I highly recommend it.

Anyway, that's basically all! Just wanted to show off a bit! Now I've just got to come up with an excuse to garb-up and take some new pics of me in all my new gear!

[Manveruon]

Ah yes, and I almost forgot! I also made a new bowstring just the other day - first time for that too! Some very nice folks with the local SCA chapter showed me how. So now I have a string for my hickory bow, and can finally shoot again! Man, I feel productive lately, heh.

[Peter Remling]

Very nice ! I like the closure on the pouch too, but I had to zoom in to get the idea. Would you take another pic with the pouch open so we can clearly see how it's set up?

[Mirimaran]

That pouch is awesome! Got a step-by-step?

Ken

[Kiriana]

That pouch is nice.. and it's a heck of alot better than some stuff I've seen lately on AA or DAG.. Hand sewn too. At least yours don't look like they were sewn by a 3yo hehehe some people's hand sewn stuff is well.. just awful

Yours ROCKS!!!

[E.MacKermak]

Very nicely done!

[Gondian]

AWESOME! ABSOLUTELY AWESOME! (About to pilfer most of your ideas, with your permission of course !)

[Manveruon]

Thanks a bunch, folks! I'm pretty proud of all the projects! Next up is a large-ish coin purse made from softer leather (overstock leather from the film production of Pirates of the Caribbean, incidentally - random fact, heh), and after that the mother of all my new projects, a new quiver. I'm basing the quiver loosely on Aragorn's from the Peter Jackson films, and it's causing me a real headache trying to figure out how to construct it. Hopefully I can find a way that will yield a satisfying result. In the meantime, if anyone has any really good, hi-res pictures of his quiver, I would be hugely indebted to you!

Now as for the stuff already posted, first of all Gondian, yes! By all means, please go right ahead and pilfer away! It feels good for my work to inspire others!

As for the pouch, If you guys want I can make up a pattern and post it here. To tell the truth, it's basic in the extreme. Thanks again for the compliments! I was very happy with how the stitching came out. I honestly thought it would be a lot more difficult than it was. Now I'm totally addicted to that sewing awl. If I get some crazy urge I may even start selling pouches like that over on the Castaway Trading Etsy page, but I'm not sure yet, given that all that hand-stitching was a pain and took a lot of time.
Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the pouch in-progress (I'm really bad at doing that), but like I said, I'd be happy to put up a pattern, and basic step-by-step instructions.
The closure is amazingly simple. All it consists of is a square hole in the flap, a loop sewed into the front wall of the pouch, and a long strip of leather attached to the back of the pouch that falls down over the front and goes through the loop, which comes through the square hole in the top flap when the pouch is closed. Here's a picture of it open to give a better idea:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e173/ ... CN2233.jpg


Hope that helps!

[Kiriana]

Very very kool

Ummmm ok.. is that a CRACKBERRY I see in that pouch??? ok.. just ruined the fantasy for me!! HAHAHA just kidding

I think it looks awsome!!!

[Ringulf]

Good job man! I love all your projects, you are quite skillfull and yet for your level of obvious aptitude you have still given it the character of a homemade peice (or peices, I should say) Now I am going to go pilfer your ideas with or with out your permission, because they are really good, and imitation is the highest form of flatery! hee hee!

[Greg]

Good stuff, that! Well done! We'll have to drag you out to the midwest to join us for a moot.

[Manveruon]

Thanks again, folks! Yes Greg, you will indeed! I'd love to come! Hopefully sometime in the future I'll be able to figure out a way.

And Kiriana, haha... man I WISH that was a "crackberry" or other fancy hi-tech device. In actual fact it's only the most basic cell phone Verizon offers, heh. All I can afford currently. But I put that in there along with the keys and wallet to give an idea of size and usefulness for such purposes as lugging around all the trappings of a modern life within a "period" looking package. I'm dreadfully sorry it ruined the fantasy for you. I shall keep a better eye on my anachronisms next time

At any rate, tonight I put the bracer through its paces in earnest for the first time, and I was quite happy with the results! It definitely needs some breaking in still, but by the end of the night it was quite comfy, despite being a bit stiff and annoying at first. My only gripe about my design is that when the string hits the bracer, sometimes the front edge of it digs into my wrist a bit. I may need to trim this part down, or possibly add a softer edging (like that cool throwing-knife-bracer Ringulf posted over on another thread). We'll see though. It only did that towards the beginning.

[Druin]

Fantastic work! I really like the look of your full outfit.

[Manveruon]

Thanks! The pictures of it in the album there are as it was when I wore it this past Halloween. The sketch was my original concept of the general look I wanted to achieve, and I'd say I did a pretty decent job. But now I've got all these new items to add! Can't wait to gear up and take some updated pics!

[Kiriana]

And Kiriana, haha... man I WISH that was a "crackberry" or other fancy hi-tech device. In actual fact it's only the most basic cell phone Verizon offers, heh. All I can afford currently. But I put that in there along with the keys and wallet to give an idea of size and usefulness for such purposes as lugging around all the trappings of a modern life within a "period" looking package. I'm dreadfully sorry it ruined the fantasy for you. I shall keep a better eye on my anachronisms next time

Ah ok you got the crackberry look alike.. same one as I got our youngest.. I used to have him on tracphone but switched him over to verizon pay as you go ($50 a month for unlimited everything) as there was no way in HELL I was gonna add him to our current verizon plan.. that boy just txts WAY TOO MUCH hehehe plus now us calling/txting him doesn't affect us nor him since we are all on verizon.

Oh and you DON'T want a crackberry or any smart phone.. they are overpriced paper weights if you ask me hehe.. I want internet.. I have my puter.. I want to call/msg someone I have my phone hehe.

And it's ok.. you didn't ruin the fantasy hehe.. I like the pirate keys hehehe