Two Bears' Black Jack

Shortly after I completed my first Black Jack, my former Barony in the West announced an A&S Exchange project. The idea was that each participant would be secretly assigned to another participant and would create some spiffy SCA item for them. Long before I knew who my recipient was, I knew what I was going to make: a Black Jack!

I was assigned to someone I had never met and given the suggestion of bears and bear paws. Perfect! I looked up his registered SCA device and made that the focal point of the design. For the background, I created a pattern of bear paw tracks and the stars from his device. Unlike on my own mug, I decided not to paint these designs in the background.

Most of the tooling and construction process was identical to my first project (albeit without Geoff to guide me at every turn), so I won't recreate those details here. Rather, I will discuss the differences and challenges.

I did not have a Dremel tool of my own at this point, but Geoff very nicely allowed me to come over one afternoon and use his. I resolved to purchase one of my own before any future projects!

This project from beginning to end was a learning process for me. Right from the start, it was a lot of trial and error. I did not have Geoff's patterns at hand, and so I created one using my own Black Jack and vague memories as a guide. This finished mug came out a good bit narrower than mine, and I neglected to follow the curved stitch pattern at the bottom of the handle. Despite these faults, though, I was very proud of the finished product!

The device itself was mostly painted, again using acrylic paints. However, I was inspired to leave the bears unpainted with the hope that the natural leather, when waxed, would turn an appealing shade of brown. That hunch paid off, and I was very happy with the result!

Further complications arose as I raced the deadline to complete the project: my oven didn't work and I had no easy way of melting the excess wax off the finished product. I attempted to do so with a lighter, which resulted in the somewhat streaked look of the finish. I actually found that I liked that effect on this piece, though--it gave it a more rustic feel that I felt went well with the bear theme.

In particular, I was pleased with the hand-tooled bear paw prints and the stars in the background. I love how the wax took to the leather, making the paw prints darker and emphasizing the details of the stars.

In the end, I met the deadline and mailed the Black Jack off to Alaska. It was received with delighted surprise, and Two Bears and I are now Facebook friends!