The future and the "accountability tour"

Leather is my third or fourth hobby of choice. I think I started back in 1989-1990 making bad live action role-playing armor. Over the years I have increased my tricks and tools and branched into different types of projects. Working on leather in the SCA opened a lot of new avenues and projects that I would have never messed with on my own. This has moved my work more towards art then function, but in the end, I am not artist. 

I enjoy working with leather, but over the past few years growing obligations and shifting focuses has cut into my time for leather working. Sadly, what I didn't learn fast enough was how to manage my agreeing to do more projects. This caused a large back up in promised projects. Some are behind an embarrassing long time. So, I have entered into what I call "the accountability tour". The goal is to get caught up 100% by the start of event season 2026 (let us say April-May). So far this is going well, and I am pumping out projects starting with what is owed to others, followed by what is owed to my wife, and hopefully at the end a few things I promised myself. 

Along the way I hope to pass as much knowledge as I can to the people who need it. As I mentioned I am not artist and I am even less of a teacher, but I am willing to impart what I know to the people who wish it. If people have questions, please feel free to ask! 

What will happen when I reach the end of the accountability tour, I am not sure. I am getting older and I am interested in exploring my miniature and model work more before my hands and eyes start to fail me. We shall all see. To the folks I owe projects, I am working around the clock to pound them out. I will continue update you all with annoying posts about the progress. 

I will also continue to post updates to my blog. 

More leather coronets

This project took far too long to complete. The new owners remained wonderful and understanding the entire time. I was happy to hear they arrived at their new home safely. I have included some in progress photos to document the journey. Two Baronial coronets in tooled and painted leather. Some progress pictures included to show the process. 

Leather vambraces, Order of the Mark (SCA - Peerage - Ranged Martial Prowess)

Now that they went out. Leather vambraces, Order of the Mark (SCA - Peerage - Ranged Martial Prowess) for Master Chebe. Awarded at Æthelmearc Kingdom 12th night. Tooled and painted leather. Some progress shots to show method of construction.

Helmet Shields

It has been a while since my last leather project. I have focused a bit more on miniature work and with the start of event season I have even less free time. Just before the The Road to Rouen (2024-SCA) Sir Richard Larmer contact me about making two leather helmet shields. These attach to the mail of the helm just below the face plate. These are made of tooled and painted leather. Having about a week to finish, I painted them faster than I normally like. This should not impact durability but did reduce the finished quality (in my opinion). Below are a few production shots and a final photo with the shields attached to the helms. 

I finished two new leather medallions just before Pennsic 50. One is another Order of Thorbjorn's Hammer (Kingdom of Ealdormere) for Sir Richard Larmer, the second is an Order of the Gage (Armored Martial Prowess Kingdom of Æthelmearc) for His Excellency Christian Goldenlok. Both medallions are tooled and painted leather. I have included a couple work in progress shots as well. Enjoy! 

Leather Pelican Medallion

This was done before Pennsic, but just handed off to the new owner in August. Sorry for a bit of dust on the finished project I was in a hurry to take the photo before leaving the deliver it. Thank you to Vanessa Hayes (Thalia Papillon) for making the cord for this project. It really brought it together. Medallion is tooled and painted leather. The black portion is leather dye and increase durability.

Millrind medallion for my Lady

I made this Millrind award medallion for my Lady's (Thalia Papillon) induction into the order of the Millrind (SCA Kingdom of Æthelmearc high merit service award) Tooled and painted leather. The edges are black leather dye and finished with water and wax burnishing. Pardon the backdrop I was working on a model making commission at the same time and had to take a photo in a hurry. 

Painted plague medallion

My Lady Thalia (Vanessa) bought these plague Pennsic medallions a while back and asked me to paint hers. Finally got it off the backlog. Painted it in an hour and a half one afternoon. To be clear I just painted the purchased item. The design, stamp, and construction are the work of the merchant. My apologies we do not recall the name of the merchant. 

Protege belt

This project was done before SCA War Practice (Kingdom of Æthelmearc). A Protege belt for Baron Ronan O’Gobhann commissioned by Baroness Ekaterina Volkova. Dyed leather belt. Tooked and painted design. Construction, tooling, and painting was done by me. The hardware was provided for the project by Ekat.

Sycamore Medallion

Insert comment about how long since I have posted...So I was able to dust off the leather working tools this month and pound out a project. A Sycamore medallion (SCA Arts and Science award). Made from my Lady, Thalia, who was recently inducted into the order. Tooled, dyed, and painted leather. I made this in about a week, in secret, so there are only two production photo. I will try to get better about updates. 

Projects from the quarantine bunker!

I am still working full time, but the rest of the time has been spent in the quarantine bunker waiting out these hard times. I was lucky enough to have a good supply of raw materials on hand before the lock down so I was able to keep working on a few projects. Recently I completed two Baronial Coronets for Baron Snorri skyti Bjarnarsson and his wife Baroness Annika Iosafova. Commisioned by Their Graces (at the time Majesties) Timothy of Arindale and Gabrielle van Nijenrode.

 

The coronets are tooled and painted leather. I went outside my wheel house a bit and tried my hand at just painting on the heraldry instead of attempting to tool it first. I did this in large part because I was worried that size and detailing required for tooling the heraldry might leave it looking a bit "muddy" (in other words in might have been so small it was beyond my skill to do well). 

This was a challenging project due to the lock down. I had what materials I had (mostly the leather) and there was zero room for error. There are a lot of small mistakes here and there, but I had to push forward and ignore them as there was no option to start over. In the end I am pretty happy with them, but as with all things, if I had a time machine I would make some changes next time around.