Open shop Thursday

We start with a traditional Scottish dinner of roast lamb with caper gravy, turnips and carrots.  For dessert Wyllow made a delicious Saxon pot, which is a baked, sweetened fruit dish with oatmeal that resembles cobbler.

I had been working on converting Wyllow's small signboard into a tall, free-standing signboard/basket holder.  Wyllow rigged the baskets to hang the way she wants and then we dis-assembled the whole thing for transport to Gulf War.

Colin made a pair of leather half-gauntlets for combat archery.  He got them cut and shaped but he'll have to sew them together at the cuff and sew on straps across the palm later.  He also plans to dye them black to match the rest of his armour.

Khutulun chose patterns and cut out a pair of elbow cops and a pair of knee cops, with a little help.  I spent about 10-15 minutes getting the first elbow into rough shape.

Abby/ Annabelle needed a new rapier gorget, so we started from some existing patterns and cut, beveled, burnished, glue-soaked, shaped, and baked the four main pieces in one night.  Next it will need strapping.  When we are in less of a hurry we may have to go back and make a prettier one with tooling and dying and painting.

Note that the pointed front piece is slightly dished for the right fit.  I did this with finger pressure while the piece was wet from the glue soak.  The inward curve at the top of the back piece was also done by hand, but I used a mallet and the edge of a board to get the sharp flare of the neck pieces.

We also made some articulation lames to add to an old pair of hand-me-down vambraces for Abby.

Gunna worked on embroidery, helped test the Saxon dessert, and helped keep folks entertained.

Belle wood-burned some Bardic Circle signs to put up at Gulf War.

Wolf padded his elbow and knee cops and punched holes in the knee cop straps.  His new helm has not come in and he has not gotten authorized, so it looks like he will not be shooting people at Gulf War this year.  But next fall melee season, watch out!

Wyllow added some quick temporary felt thistles to her banner so that it would display her arms correctly.  When she finds time (ha!) she will go back and applique some better thistles on.