Odds & Ends

These are some small, weekend projects that I have completed lately.  I sold some of them at the Farmer's Market, and learned lessons from others...

Wood-burned designs!

String art sunflower as an experiment.

Heraldic device of Eärendil to practice engraving.

Restored and refurbished Greek xiphos.

Attempt at a painting of a bridge.

Making a guard for a fencing sabre.

An interesting new way to spell cocoa.

testing lamellar plates

forging arrowheads

My dad has been helping me make a forge.  It is a lot of hard work and is taking a really long time.  It is also hot.  But then I will be able to make some of the metal pieces to go with my costumes.  My mom says I look like my dad used to in this one picture.

“Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, you all had great moments, but you never tasted the supreme triumph; you were never a farm boy riding from the fields on a bulging rack of new mown hay.”  ~Grant Wood

This quote by Grant Wood shows quite well how even the greatest of men can miss out on the smallest of things. Grant Wood was an American artist and was particularly well known for his regionalist works. Regionalism is a naturalist modern art form in which rural countryside and small towns are depicted as stylized and with all lines crisp and defined. Regionalism began during the great depression and into the 1940s but was relatively short-lived as far as styles go. Grant Wood was one of the three big artist that produced the regionalist works.

Grant Wood grew up in a small town in Iowa and learned to paint at a small school there. It was here that he would later revisit and create the famous portrait of American gothic. It is also most likely here that he came by the inspiration for this quote. Since most of his work was completed during the great depression, it is reasonable to assume that Grant would have a deeper appreciation for the simple things in life that most people take for granted. In Grants mind, the great people like Caesar, Napoleon, and Alexander never knew what is felt like to not only feel triumph, but also feel satisfied with their position. When people like Napoleon and Alexander achieved victory it was never complete more was always needed, but to people like Grant, they could feel victory enough enjoying the simple pleasures in life and appreciating what good fortune they have rather than chasing a thirst that will never be quenched.

elven quiver

For Christmas I received a recurve bow. After several practice sessions I found that it was irritating to bed down and pick up the arrows from the ground and that I often had to clean them. I begun as I do with any project: research. After looking through several kinds of quivers and styles, I found one similar to this one. With some modification it turned into a quiver witch was not only simple and elegant, but also reminiscent of northern mythology and Tolkien's Silvan elves.

I began by tracing a pattern and cutting out the leather. I then used a compass the evenly space the holes away from the edge and the punching them out on all the sides but the bottom. After this on a large pace of paper I traced the intricate vine pattern leaving a space for the center crest.along the top I added decorative double loop lacing. and dyed all but the vines and crest brown.

The I tooled it in as well as a Leaf of Lothlórien which I dyed green.

Inevitably, as with all handmade items, their will be some minor mistakes.

After I sewed it up, I created this decorative end cap which I riveted on with double cap leather rivets.

Finally I coated the entire piece in protective resolene and riveted on two rings to attach straps too.

Bookbinding

Pursuing a new interest, we went a bookbindery to learn how it is that books are classically bound.

First the text block is made either by sewing or gluing pages of text together. This is a machine used for sewing together text blocks

 Here the binder is showing how boards and card stocks had a grain like wood and which directions the need to face.

 Here we are measuring and cutting the leather we will use for the cover.

 Bookbinding requires a lot of glue for the cover and some kinds of text blocks.

 Here he is skiving the edges with a cutting tool so that the leather folds smoothly over a kind of thick card stock called binders board with a minimal seam.This will will be used to add rigidity and strength to the sides of the book.

 Here he is adding glue in preparation for adding the binders board and a material he calls "pink" that goes along the spine.

After this is done they can hot press letters into the cover using the machine above. This machine is prepared to stamp holy bible in either silver, white, or red.

Leathercrafting

When making something with leather. I find its always best to get every part down on paper first. As you can see here, I've laid out the entire bag with the design and holes.

Here, I've taken a piece of veg-tan leather and cut it to the size of the larger piece.

Now I've wet the leather and have begun to trace the pattern with a leather stylus.

Now that I have traced the pattern onto the piece, I'va taken a swivel knife and begun to cut of the design in preparation for carving.

Now that the leather has been cut, I have wet it just enough to soften it but not enough to make it like wet paper.

In this picture, I've taken a beveler stamp to add depth and contrast.

Here I've taken a pace of pebble grain leather and traced the design though in the picture its not very visible.

Now I've cut in out in preparation for sewing and final assembly.

Here I've started working on the edges by taking an edge beveler and removing the corners from the leather preparing it for burnishing.

Finish by dye as desired and finishing with resolene. Then stitch all three pieces together and if desired, add a drawstring.

Enjoy your viking inspired leather pouch!

Creating a new hilt for a knife

We dug this old knife out of the bottom of a closet. After seeing it I decided that it needed to be restored. The first stage as when making anything is design. As it is a jungle style knife and the sheath appears to look like a stylized fish body I decided the handle should look like a head.

I started with the cross guard. I cut it out of a scrap piece. I then drilled a hole for the tang and elongated it with a file. I then polished it and applied gun black.

the handle is a piece of oak I polished after I carved gills and eyes and then accented with a wood burner.

After all that was done I mixed some epoxy and glued the whole thing together.

The finished product.

Making Tongs

 As part of making my forge I had to make a set of tongs. I decided to make a very basic set of round stock tongs for my first time. Because my propane forge is made of an old air compressor tank, I added extra length to the handle to make it easier to pull out pieces, and I can hold it closer for better control.

I started by pounding the end of the rebar flat; then I curved it into a semicircle. Then, about an inch away from that, I pounded it flat at the opposite angle. To cause the pieces to fit together, I bent each end slightly.  To make the joint, I drilled a hole in each piece and slid a nail through. I heated up the nail and pounded it flat. The tongs are done. 

World War 2 Movie - Costumes & Props

Check out the special features section to see how I made all of the costumes for this movie.  I also designed and created all of the props....the Howitzer was my favorite!  And I did the special effects (with the limited stuff my mom would let me use).