An offbeat lifestyle and crafting blog from Ann Arbor, MI
Another shoe repair! This one had some serious damage to one of the heels. As you can see, the right heel was completely worn through. Not only that, but it was worn through where it touched the ground. This required more than a simple patch. I added patches of strong black leather to the back,
I’ve been using these as my rapier gloves for over four years now. In fact, these gloves are the very first piece of rapier gear I made. I didn’t realize that making your own gloves was odd until I showed up with them and everyone started oohing and aahing – it just seemed like a
Almost three years ago, DeForest and I had an awesome Saturday spending 3 hours going through our neighborhood garage sales. One of the items I found was this great wooden box! It now holds my everyday SCA items, separate from the garb chest behind it. It was a little beat up and dirty. I gave
I designed and made a custom-fit heavy weapons dagger sheath for a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, the medieval reenactment group I’m in. Heavy fighting weapons are typically made out of rattan, which is similar to bamboo, that is wrapped in padding and tape. It’s often useful for those that fight long-range weapons,
This post is all a bunch of random photos of inkle weaves I have made! Above is some of the Midrealm trim that I donated as largesse in January. A few years ago, I laid out my current stash of weaving on a blanket to take some photos of it (my photography skills have improved
One of the joys of Pennsic (medieval camping event) is getting a unique medallion every year. While at Pennsic, one wears the medallion as a site token. The question is often what to do with the medallions afterwards. They are unique pieces of metal art, tied up with lots of memories, so discarding them isn’t
I made the handle of my fencing dagger over a campfire at Pennsic, a two-week medieval camping event I go to every year. My campmates were thoroughly entertained. 🙂 The handle was made of many compressed leather discs. The first step was to soak leather scraps in beeswax. I bought beeswax at the Pennsic marketplace,
Last April, Master Phillipe de Lyon taught a class on pewter casting at the SCA event It Takes My Child to Raze a Village (an awesome event where children are the stars). It turns out that you can do simple pewter casting with very inexpensive materials. I thought this was really quite amazing, so I
Each piece of leatherwork I make is one-of-a-kind. Entirely hand-sewn with strong saddle stitch to last a long time, this pouch is big enough to hold a regular paperback novel, wallet, keys, and cell phone. To ensure that it would hold everything an introverted SCAdian would want at an event, I formed it around the