100 Days of SCA Service

I began the 100 Days of SCA Service challenge with low expectation of actually being able to complete it. After all, I don't do heraldic consultations every day. There's only so much commenting to be done in OSCAR. Archery season is over for the year, so I'm not marshaling. How would I come up with something to do every single day?

Making largesse became the glaringly obvious answer. Hats, medallion cords, pouches, balls for the toy chest, wire-wrapped rings. Quick and easy projects--just one a day has left me with quite a stash to donate to barony/kingdom in the coming months.

Day 100 is next Tuesday. I can't believe I've made it!

Commission Chains

I began 2019 with the unexpected expense of a new car. To help make up for my depleted bank account and offset the monthly car payments, I decided to accept a limited number of commissions. Along the way, some interesting barter proposals were made as well. I've enjoyed making these chains for people, though I still feel guilty accepting payment for them!

My first commission was for a necklace and bracelet set for my friend Elspeth. These are silver-plated copper, double-knit, six-loop chains. The necklace is 27" and the bracelet is 11".

My second commission was for a 10" silver-plated chain, to be worn suspended between the brooches of a Viking apron dress. This was one of the barter commissions--I got a set of handles from Elska for a Hedby bag in exchange, and I'm super excited to work on that project!

My third commission was a daunting one. Snorri wanted a 30" necklace, but the length wasn't the daunting part. He wanted this chain made of fine silver. I've never worked with fine silver before, though I have worked with Sterling. Fine silver, as you might imagine, is expensive, so I was paranoid about making a mistake the entire time I was weaving it! Fortunately, despite discovering that fine silver work-hardens REALLY fast, I completed the chain without errors. This was another barter commission--I received a dozen beautiful arrows from Snorri in exchange.

My fourth commission was for my friend Janna. She wanted a 16" silver-plated necklace. That was a nice, simple project. It was unique among these commissions in that I delivered in person, and got to see her put it on right away! There's nothing quite like the feeling of seeing someone wear and enjoy something you've made.

I posted process photos of all of these commissions on Facebook as part of my 365 Days of A&S Challenge, and it seemed like each post led to another commission request! Now on the docket, I have a silver-plated necklace for my friend Christi, and two Sterling silver bracelets for Atlantia's Royal Baker. I can get to work on Christi's right away, but I had to order the wire for the bracelets.

Elspeth's Blackjack

(c) Etienne le Mons

My latest leatherwork project was a heraldic blackjack for my friend Elspeth. She really likes her arms as rendered by Etienne le Mons (right), so I printed them out to use as a template for the tooling.

I thought it would be a relatively easy project, as far as the tooling went. Certainly easier than the semy of crosses on my last project! I discovered, however, that getting those flowers to come out looking like anything other than nondescript blobs was quite a challenge (one I'm not sure I completely overcame, to be honest).

I did a lot of the tooling for this project during downtime at work, which generated quite a bit of interest from some of my coworkers. That was pretty cool.

Once the tooling was done, I drilled the holes and stitched the blackjack together. Then I warmed the leather to 185 degrees in my oven before coating the outside of the jack with beeswax.
Once the wax had cooled, I mixed up the EnviroTex Lite and poured it inside the mug. When all interior surfaces were covered, I set the mug aside to dry for 24 hours. After that, I sanded the lip and inside surfaces before pouring in the second coat. After another 24 hours, I repeated the process for the third and final coat.

When the last coat was dry, I once again placed the mug inside my oven, heated to 185 degrees. As the excess wax melted off, I used a pastry brush to touch up where it had absorbed unevenly. This proved very effective, and created a pleasant, uniform, dark brown tone for the mug.

Nobelese Largesse Swap 15

The theme for this round was to create something to keep your recipient warm during the cold winter months. Well, I don't sew, so my initial ideas (a hood, mittens) were right out. But then I thought, what better way to warm up on a snowy, bitter day than with a piping hot mug of cocoa?

My recipient was Mistress Giraude Benet from Calontir. She provided a link to her heraldry in the questionnaire, which was great! Eagerly, I clicked the link...and then I groaned. A semy of crosses! Oy. That would be a tooling challenge.

Nonetheless, I got to work. I cut the mug from a side of veg-tanned cow hide, and drilled the stitching holes. Then I started the tooling.

The crosses were as frustrating as I had anticipated. After fighting with the first one for more than an hour, I gave up for that night, convinced I had ruined the whole thing. The next day, however, I gave it another go. It was still rough, but I eventually worked out a stamping pattern that seemed to work.

Once the tooling was complete, I stitched the handle and the bottom using waxed linen thread and a saddle stitch. Then I soaked the entire piece in cool water and inserted a mould (in this case, a cannister of spray glue!) to shape the blackjack. I set it aside to dry for a couple of days.

In hindsight, the cannister wasn't be best choice as a mould. Extracting it from the blackjack after it dried was nearly impossible, because there was no good way to grip it firmly enough to pull with force. It took a lot of wiggling and gentle prying to finally extract it. Next time, I'll look for something with a better handle!

Once the cannister was out, it was time to seal the leather. The exterior of the blackjack is sealed with beeswax, which I melted in a crockpot and applied with a soft-bristled brush. I applied an extra-thick layer along the seams, to prevent the inner sealant from seeping out.

The inner sealant is Envirotex Lite, a completely modern epoxy. Using this sealant instead of a historic alternative allows the blackjack to be used for beverages that are hot, acidic, or strongly alcoholic--options that are not available if it is sealed with beeswax or pitch.

All together, there are three coats of sealant inside the blackjack. Each coat had to dry for twenty-four hours before the next could be applied.

After the last coat of sealant had set, I placed the blackjack inside a warm oven, heated to 195 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature allowed the excess wax to melt off, without risking the boiling of any lingering moisture, which could ruin the entire piece.

The initial applicating of wax absorbed very unevenly into the leather, which I only discovered after the excess was melted away. I decided to apply a second coat to the entire exterior of the blackjack, and then repeated the process to melt away the excess. This improved the evenness, though there were still some irregularities. I was leery of trying a third application, however, and decided that the variations were probably due to a natural characteristic of this particular leather.