 |
A friend of mine was recently
elevated to the Order of the Laurel, and I volunteered to make
something for her ceremony. I was asked to make a book for people to
leave messages and rememberances. It started out, since I knew nothing
about book binding, that I was going to make a leather cover to put
around a commercially bought blank book. But once I got the covers
done, I just couldn't bring myself to do that. So I went online and
found instructions and video tutorials on how to make a limp binding
book. The binding has 5 signatures of 8-sheets of resume paper, folded
in half, to give a total of 160 pages to the book. The tooling on the
front cover is a Russian firebird surrounded by a laurel wreath, and
the back is the recipient's arms. |
||
 |
This bracer
was a commission for
one of the founding members of our Shire who is starting to become more
active again. She requested knotwork done in her colors of red and
silver, on a black background. |
||
 |
This
custom bracer was done as a donation item for the EK travel fund. The
pattern is from the recipient's heraldry. |
||
|
This was my first leatherwork, my own back quiver, bolt quiver, and bracer. I'm very grateful to Mistress Ygraine of Kellswood for sharing her skill and knowledge with me. The knotwork on either side of the griffin on the backquiver cuff is the same pattern as on the bracer. The fur along the top is gray rabbit. All the hardware is nickel to match the silver in the griffin and the knotwork. | ||
 |
This bracer
was made as a commission for Teresa Giani. The shark is from her
heraldry. The nickel hardware matches the silver of the shark. |
||
   |
This is
Antonio's archery kit. For some reason, the blue dye on the bracer
turned out darker than the quiver, despite the fact that it was from
the same bottle (and also different in color from Teresa's bracer,
above, which was also from the same dye bottle). The gold fox on the
bracer is matched by the brass hardware. The fox and acanthus leaves on
the quiver cuff are also gold. I did acanthus leaves instead of my
usual knotwork, because I thought they would be more Italian
Rennaisance in styling. The quiver also has gold hardware, and white
rabbit fur lining. The painting on this was made a lot easier by my new magnifying worklight. I got one of those spring-arm lights for my workspace, and made sure I got one with the built in magnifying lens. Wow, does it make a difference. My eyes aren't what they used to be, and painting without going into the tooled border is getting challenging without a magnifying aid. |
||
 |
This bracer
is for my younger son, using the same pattern as the adult bracer, but
cut smaller for a youth arm. The figure is a wyvern, which he picked
for his heraldry. The nickel hardware matches the silver of the wyvern. |
||
   |
This
backquiver and bracer were a comission for a young archer (16 years
old at the time) who likes snowy owls. The leather is dyed black, with
white lacing
for contrast. The white knotwork on either side of the
quiver cuff is the same design as on my own quiver. The hardware on
both
pieces is nickel, and the straps on the quiver are adjustable with
buckles, since the young man is likely to grow a bit yet. I was a bit worried about the entire design screaming of Harry Potter, but I'm pleased with the end result, and so was the customer. One detail that is difficult to pick up in the pictures is the mule-foot tooling done on the owl's body to give the impression of feathers. |
||
 |
I made this back quiver (the one on the left) as a bribe gift for Master Li Kung Lo. The tooled scythe and primroses represent his heraldry, as does the scalloped edge of the cuff. |
