Middle Earth Ranger Forum

As promised, some more detailed pics of the new stuff I made before Scotland (https://www.ranger.budgetauthenticity.o ... t=scotland):


Belt:



When I started making this I decided it would be something Iodo brought with her from the Iron-hills and that it should have a slightly different look to it, the Iron-hills dwarves seem to have a more utilitarian view to things (my interpretation anyway) so the pattern I went with is much simpler the Erebor stuff but still blocky and bold. Despite looking like a costume piece everything has a function, the actual belt (less the back piece) is thiner and narrower than my other belt and the whole thing is actually lighter even though it looks bigger. The back piece prevents belt pouches, knife sheaths etc.. from sliping around (got the idea here: https://darkbladeuk.co.uk/sliced-bread? ... ed%20bread) and it works pretty well. The brass plate on the front is slightly angled (like Nori's belt from WETA) which makes it more shaped and a lot more comfortable when loaded with stuff.

The top left image is the back of the brass plate, the runes say Iodo because it seemed right that it should have been an old apprentice piece of hers, who doesn't name an apprentice piece? and on the top right you can see that the leather is different on the left side of the plate, the real reason being that I ran out of one type, but I'm going to say that at some point in time, possibly in the battle of the five armies, that piece got damaged and Iodo remade it at a later date. I always like to add some story to stuff - It's my overactive imagination

Some pic's from the build:



The brass plate would have been better casted but at the moment I don't have access to the kit I'd need for that, so instead I cut it from 3mm brass sheet using a hand saw then filed the edges square. The only bit I did with power was drilling the holes to start the cuts. After that I hand engraved the lines and runes on the back, the lower pic shows my DIY engraving jig made from an old miller vice from work (that was scrapped for damaged jaws, I was going to make new ones but never got round to it) The final step was to darken the brass, I used birchwood casey brass black.

I'll post some more stuff (hood + some extras) soon

Wow very nice!

Love it!!

Impressive!

Iodo, not having a beard, what drew you to a Dwarf persona?

I like the belt a lot !

Thank you all

Harper wrote: Iodo, not having a beard, what drew you to a Dwarf persona?

I just like making stuff anyway, back to it:

Hood:
(sorry for modern clothing)



I still stand by what I said about it being the only hood I've ever liked, it sticks out just far enough to keep rain out of my eyes but not far enough to affect my field of vision, I think the trick is to get the mantle heavy enough for the whole thing to stay where it is - there's nothing more annoying than a hood that slowly rotates as you walk and needing to keep stopping to straiten it, here's it from the side:



I was going to make it to the standard viking hood pattern (which for the life of me I can't remember the name for), pattern shown on the left, then when I started playing with cheap cloth to get the dimensions I ended up changing quite a lot, new pattern shown on the right. The flat section at the top of the front panel made a huge difference in making it more comfortable and the angle of the shoulders actually matches my shoulder angle making it sit much better. At first I was thinking I shouldn't change it because then it wouldn't be historically accurate then I decided dwarves were more advanced at making stuff and why wouldn't they make simple changes to something like this?



It's edged with the same raw-silk wool blend I used for the surcoat and only has a tiny little bit of embroidery on the very front:



All machine sewn again

Mittens:

Given how cold it was in Scotland last year I decided to make these, only it was to hot to wear them, British weather



Made to a simple pattern, from off-cuts from the cloak


Surcoat Embroidery:



I didn't want to add to much complexity, or for the pattern to stand out so I didn't use a contrasting thread. The main reason for this is so the wool doesn't crease up inside the border, I guess that's a disadvantage to very wide edging


I have one more update to add

I really really love that surcoat!! And this mittens are awesome!!!

Oh my word... that's just jaw-dropping work! I love love love the buckle!

(nice adaptation to the hood by the way: I've done something similar at the neck, and it's amazing what a dif it makes. )

Very nice work, as always! The mittens look great.

Thank you

Elleth wrote: (nice adaptation to the hood by the way: I've done something similar at the neck, and it's amazing what a dif it makes. )

Agreed, with that tiny gap at the neck and slighter angles the whole thing hangs so much better


New improved Picnic Roll:

Youv'e Already seen this in the pictures with the hood, what I did find was that It could be worn across my back as well as under my arm:



it's more comfortable and out of the way on my back but everything has a catch, it's then not the right way up to be waterproof. The whole thing is exactly the same as the original with two straps, one round and one through. The shoulder strap is tied to a piece of hemp rope, in the top left picture there are two colors of rope (color balance is bad, the green one is actually a bit darker), I'm still not sure which one is best and again all the brass and rivets are darkened with brass black:



The whole thing is intended to be Erebor make and has the same patterns as my first belt, the rivet in the middle is meant to represent the arkenstone

Fantastic Iodo! you do such a splendid job of thinking things through and giving an honest, no-nonsense interpretation with beautiful, clean craftsmanship. it just keeps getting better and better!

Ringulf wrote:Fantastic Iodo! you do such a splendid job of thinking things through and giving an honest, no-nonsense interpretation with beautiful, clean craftsmanship. it just keeps getting better and better!

Thank you