A&S 50 Challenge

This year is A.S. L, also known as the fiftieth year of the Society for Creative Anachronism. In celebration of this momentous occasion, a challenge was put forth to artisans across the Knowne Worlde. An artisan could choose to make one item from each of fifty different crafts, or to make fifty items of one single craft. This feat was to be accomplished before the fifty-year celebration, which will be held in June 2016.

I opted for the latter challenge: fifty items of one craft. The craft I chose was Viking Wire Weave. It has taken me a year and a half to complete this challenge. Herein are my fifty items. All are woven of 26-gauge enameled copper wire, unless otherwise specified.

Item #1: A copper, six-loop, single-weave necklace, which I entered in a winner-takes-all competition at Lochmere's Battle on the Bay event in September 2014.

Item #2: A silver, six-loop, double-weave necklace, which I entered in a competition at Lochmere's Battle on the Bay event in September 2014. I won this competition.

Item #3: A silver, seven-loop, single-weave necklace, which I made as a token of my favor for my fiance, Luke.

#4, in progress

Item #4: A double-stranded necklace of blue and green, six-loop, single-weave, which I made for my protege-sister Isolde.

Item #5: A chain of alternating blocks of green, silver, and blue, to be worn suspended between the brooches of my Viking apron dress.

#7 & #8

Item #6: A double-stranded chain of blue and silver, to be worn suspended between the brooches of my Viking apron dress.

Item #7: A silver circlet. This chain was actually a mess-up that I drew too tightly, causing the weave to become deformed. It also featured my first hand-made hook clasp, however, and I was darn proud of how that came out.

Item #8: A green, six-loop, double-weave necklace to be worn by me.

Item #9: A silver, six-loop, single-weave necklace for my Opal medallion.

Item #10: A blue, six-loop, double-weave necklace given to the Barony of Lochmere as largesse.

Item #11: A chain of alternating blocks of single-strand, double-weave silver and double-strand, single-weave gold-and-blue. Experimental. Added to stockpile of largesse.

#12 - #20: Avacal Largess

Items #12 - #20: An assortment of red, gold, and silver chains, made to contribute to the Principality of Oertha's largesse basket for the new Kingdom of Avacal.

#21

Item #21: A new technique: six-loop, single-weave green over six-loop, double-weave silver. Intended to be a bracelet, but a bit too long. I wear it as an anklet instead.

Item #22: Six-loop, single-weave red over six-loop, double-weave gold. Necklace. I'm not actually sure where this one ended up!

Item #23: Six-loop, single-weave blue over six-loop, double-weave silver. Added to stockpile of largesse.

Item #24: Six-loop, double-weave red necklace. Added to stockpile of largesse.

Item #25: Six-loop, triple weave gold necklace with blue glass pendant. Christmas gift for my aunt.

Item #27: Six-loop, double-weave blue necklace. Auctioned at the fundraiser for Lochmere's new coronets.

Item #28: Six-loop, triple-weave green necklace. Entered in an A&S competition at Lochmere's Feast of St. Brigit, with item 29. Won the competition.

Item #29: Six-loop, double-weave copper necklace. Entered in an A&S competition at Lochmere's Feast of St. Brigit, with item 28. Won the competition. Later given as prize for A&S competition at Lochmere's Battle on the Bay 2015.

#28 and #29. Photo (c) Lady Cassair Warwick

Item #30: Six-loop, double-weave blue and silver necklace. Site token for the Queen of Atlantia at Lochmere's Feast of St. Brigit.

Item #31: Six-loop, double-weave blue and silver necklace. Site token for the King of Atlantia at Lochmere's Feast of St. Brigit.

Item #32: Six-loop, single-weave silver over six-loop, double-weave blue. Necklace. Auctioned at the fundraiser for Lochmere's new coronets.

#33

Item #33: Six-loop, single-weave blue over six-loop, double-weave gold. Necklace. Added to stockpile of largesse.

Item #34: Six-loop, triple-weave gold necklace woven of 28-gauge wire. Displayed in Atlantia's Kingdom Arts and Sciences Festival 2016.

Item #35: Six-loop, single-weave necklace in alternating blocks of green, silver, and blue. Meant to be worn with Viking apron dress, and items 5 and 6.

Item #36: Six-loop, single weave blue necklace. Given to the Barony of Lochmere as largesse.

Item #37: Six-loop, double-weave blue necklace. Added to stockpile of largesse.

Item #38: Six-loop, single-weave blue necklace. Given to the Barony of Lochmere as largesse.

#37

Item #39: New technique. Six alternating loops of silver and copper. Double-weave necklace. Added to stockpile of largesse.

Item #40: Six-loop, double-weave green necklace. Christmas gift for my future sister-in-law, Jamie.

Item #41: Six-loop, double weave silver necklace with a blue-and-white heart pendant. Christmas gift for my future sister-in-law, Juli.

Item #42: Six-loop, double weave blue necklace for a coworker.

Item #43: Six-loop, double-weave silver necklace with a seahorse zipper-pull pendant. Personal, in memory of a friend who passed away in May 2015.

Item #44: Six-loop, single-weave blue over six-loop, double-weave copper bracelet. Added to stockpile of largesse.

Item #45: Six-loop, single-weave silver necklace. Given to the Barony of Lochmere as largesse.

Item #46: Six-loop, double-weave green necklace. Added to stockpile of largesse.

#49

Item #47: Six-loop, double-weave blue necklace. Intended to bestow as largesse to the Shire of Vaca del Mar at the end of February 2016.

Item #48: Six-loop, double-weave red necklace, made for a Secret Santa gift exchange at work.

Item #49: Six-loop, double-weave gold necklace woven of 28-gauge wire. Christmas gift for my mother.

And, for the grand finale, it seemed only fitting that I combine techniques and create a truly masterful chain for the woman who is my inspiration in the Society ...

Item #50: Multi-part chain. Six-loop, single-weave green over six-loop, double-weave gold, joined at each end to short chains of six-loop, double-weave gold. Pelican medallion from Combat Medallions. Christmas gift for my Pelican, Mistress Arianna Morgan.

Leather Award Medallions: Order of the Opal (Atlantia)

My original plan for the A&S 50 Challenge, back when I first learned of it, was to do a set of leather award medallions for the Kingdom of Atlantia. Eventually, I decided to do fifty Viking wire weave chains instead, but now I've decided to tackle the medallions as well.

Her Majesty Thora will be attending Nacht in der Stadt in Lochmere at the end of April, and I decided this would be a great opportunity to present the first set of medallions. I decided to start with the Order of the Opal.

I ordered the leather circles pre-cut from Tandy. They are two and a half inches in diameter. This was simply a matter of convenience--I could have cut circles from the sides of leather I already have, but that would be tedious at best (and likely would have resulted in medallions that were less than perfectly round).

I have a diamond-shaped leather stamp, so the tooling on these medallions turned out to be really easy in that regard. However, keeping the pattern neat and even took some trial and error. For my earliest attempts, I used graph paper to try and space out the diamonds. This resulted in a very busy medallion, more blue than white.

After five or six of these, I changed tactics. I tooled the center diamond, and then used a ruler to mark parallel lines across the circle, lined up with the edges of that central mark. I then lined the stamp up within these lines, spacing it its own width from the last diamond tooled. This was much easier to keep aligned, and resulted in fewer diamonds on the medallion overall.

After the medallions were tooled, I painted them with acrylic paint. The blue only took one coat, but the white took as many as five or six coats to completely and evenly cover the surface.

Once the painting was complete, I allowed the medallions to dry for twenty four hours. Then I dropped them one-by-one into melted beeswax and allowed them to soak for about a minute. I extracted them from the wax and immediately wiped away the excess before placing the medallion on a sheet of parchment paper to cool and harden.

I was pleased to see that after the wax was applied, the texture of the surface of the leather stood out through the paint. This was an unexpected but pleasant surprise.

After the waxed medallions cooled enough to handle them, I drilled the holes for the ring in the top of each one. I used my Dremel tool and a 3/32 bit to drill the holes.

All-in-all, I produced thirteen medallions. Twelve will be presented to Her Majesty at the end of the month. The thirteenth was an "oops"--it must not have been completely dry before I dropped it in the wax!

The rings are made from twenty-gauge, silver-enameled copper wire. The simple style is well-documented in Viking finds.










I am also presenting Her Majesty with twelve fingerloop braid cords in kingdom colors, and twelve Viking wire weave chains. These medallions could be worn suspended from either cord or chain.

Flacket Gone Wrong

When I agreed to run the Arts and Sciences competition and display at Lochmere's Nacht in der Stadt event, I intended to make the first- and second-place prizes for the Newcomers' Showcase competition. First place would be a leather flacket.

The project started well enough. I had just received a side of lighter-weight 5-6 oz. leather, and I was excited to use it for the flacket. I found a pattern for the shape of the bottle on instructibles.com. It was a bit too squat for my tastes, but that was easily correctable by stretching the image slightly in Paint before printing it.

After tracing the outline of the flacket onto the side of leather, I quickly discovered that thinner leather doesn't necessarily equate to easier-to-cut leather. Oooof! It was no easier at all.

Once I had wrestled it free from the side of leather, I marked the seams and spaced the stitching holes. Then I drilled the stitching holes all the way around. I had also marked the holes for the carrying strap, but I didn't have a drill bit that large. I decided to go ahead and stitch and sand-pack the bottle, and I'd have Dad drill the bigger holes when I saw him next.

For the first time ever, I didn't break a single needle as I stitched the project together! I count that as a major victory. I also hit a point about half-way through the stitching when I got *super* excited about the finished project--it went from this hypothetical concept in my mind to something I could actually visualize as a complete, usable object! I love that point in projects. It's such a neat feeling.

Once it was stitched, I soaked the leather with water and then packed it with sand, stuffing it as full as I could. Then I wedged an old, dried-out highlighter into the neck to hold it in a perfectly round shape as it dried. I let it sit for three days to dry completely.

After it had dried, I took it over to my parents' house to have Dad drill the big holes. It turns out that waiting was a mistake--even though it wasn't yet wax-hardened, the leather was so stiff from having been soaked and dried that it was very difficult to drill through. The drill actually skidded across the leather a bit on the first hole, an imperfection I hoped would be disguised by the waxing and then further hidden when the carrying strap was attached. Next time I know: do ALL the drilling first.

With the holes finally in place, I took the bottle back home and popped it in a warm oven for about twenty minutes. Then I applied hot beeswax to the exterior surfaces. I immediately noticed that the leather didn't turn a deep, rich brown like the thicker leather has in the past. Still, it did darken somewhat, so I attributed it to the different leather weight and kept working.

When I applied the wax to the back, something very strange happened. Most of it matched the front, but there was a spot roughly the diameter of a quarter where the base of the neck began to widen out into the body that turned MUCH darker. I still haven't figured out why that happened, and it looked really strange. Crossing my fingers, I hoped that it would even out when I melted off the excess wax--maybe the additional absorbing of wax would darken the rest of the flacket a bit?

I poured four coats of EnviroTex Lite inside the bottle, taking great care to spread it evenly over all the surfaces and allowing each coat to dry for twenty four hours. I couldn't see the inside very well, though I did my best by shining a flashlight down the neck. The only way to know for sure would be to melt off the excess wax and then fill the bottle with water and check for leaks.

When I filled it with water, I didn't see any leaks or seepage around the seams. This was good. I poured the contents into a measuring cup--the flacket holds about a cup and a half of liquid.  That was a little surprising--I thought it would be at least two cups.

I looked back at the bottle, and was surprised to see light speckles in the finish that hadn't been there before. I immediately jumped to the conclusion that the sealant hadn't completely coated the inside and the water was seeping through the leather in places. Worrisome, but not a disaster--I just had to let the leather dry out, and do another coat of sealant.

I left the bottle standing inverted in a cup for three days before reapplying a thick coat of beeswax along the seams and pouring in another coat of the sealant. I painstakingly tilted the bottle this way and that, doing my very best to ensure that the entire interior was covered. When I was at last convinced that I could do no more, I set it aside to dry.

When I put it back in the oven to again melt off the excess wax the next day, I was pleased to note that the light speckles darkened back down to match the rest of the surface. When it came out of the oven, it looked exactly the way I hoped it would--except for that strange dark spot on the back, which had not blended any better.

I decided I had better let it cool completely before testing it for leaks again, so I set it on a shelf in the living room and left it overnight. The next day, I carefully filled it with water, holding my breath the whole time. No spots appeared! I held it full for several minutes, watching carefully for any sign of seepage. It maintained its perfect finish, and I breathed easier.

When I poured the water out, some of it dribbled down the sides. Immediately, speckles of discoloration began to appear. I stared at it in disbelief and horror. It was thoroughly sealed with wax! What was going on?!

I flipped the faucet on and ran water over the entire exterior surface. And ... well ... it did this:

I don't understand why this happened--I've never seen anything like it. I can only surmise it has something to do with the leather itself, because the wax is the same and all of my techniques are the same as my previous projects.

It has become apparent, though, that I cannot give this flacket as a prize. It's useless for its intended purpose. It's only good as a display item, really. And it's only good for that IF I can bring it back to its pre-water appearance with another coat of wax.