Well, it has been over a month since my last post, but Open Shop keeps happening every week.  Here are a few highlights:

 Wyllow has been sewing up the corset for her new Elizabethan outfit.

 Marita returned to open shop after a long abscence to get help with a weaving project.

 Daniel has an armour plan.  It is good to have a plan.  I find that a head-to-toe plan for a kit and how it will be made/acquired really helps folks stay on track and get out on the field in a nice kit they can wear with pride.  See my armour planning article with sample plans at  pages.suddenlink.net/egrim/papers/armour.doc

 Grain'e has new splinted vambraces, used for both cut-and-thrust and armoured fighting.

 Dietrich came by for a visit and showed his sketches for a new late 14th century kit inspired by armour from the collection at Churburg.  See http://www.mallet-argent.com/images/churburg_harness.jpg

 Wolf finished his body armour, meant to be worn under a Mongolian "del".  See http://www.thescorre.org/literature/Mongol_Garb.htm

 Ben is working on some armour of scales interwoven into mail.  He has also nearly completed a gorget of hardened leather with steel re-enforcement in the front.

 One method for doing steel repouse is to work the steel into a pitch backing.  If some of the pitch sticks to the work piece you can just burn it off with a torch.  This really is as much fun as it looks!

 Diedre's Vendel helm is nearly finished!  4 more rivets and then she can pad and strap it.

 For Grain'e we made an aluminum back-of-the-head protector to wear with a mask for cut-and-thrust fighting.

 Fun and cookies!

 Troy is making a coat-of-plates with plates of 18g. stainless.

 Here he is drilling holes in the plates with the drill press before attatching them to the cloth shell with rivets made from roofing nails.

 Wolf is dshing some knees for Grain'e as part of a complicated exchange that I believe involves lasagna.

Grain'e's knees are a perfect fit for her son Peter to wear as a skull cap.

8-16 and 8-24...Shop productivity continues

On August 16th we had a sizeable crew for spaghetti followed by Graine' assembling her first latigo vambrace with aluminum splints, Cameron making splints for his vambraces,Wolf working on his helm liner, Graine's friend whose name I've forgotten discussed armour plans, Deidre added many more rivets to her helm, Wyllow dyed her weaving samples, Belle worked on  documentation for her bardic entry for Laurel's prize, and several others worked on other projects.  I've lost track partly because I didn't ever bring out my camera and get pictures, so I have nothing to jar my memory.

Jackie and Gunna and Evie and Artorius all sang songs well into the evening with various others joining in as other projects allowed.  That was a first for Open Shop night and a very pleasant change of pace.  This was also Artorius' last Open Shop before he returns to UT Arlington for the  fall semester.

On August 23rd I took pictures!

Wylow made a delicious potato-leek-cabbage soup, and Deidre added some cheese biscuits and garlic lumpy bread.  Evie and Gunna and Abby brought cinnamon rolls to bake.

It was Abby's birthday so I gave her a set of pre-cut pieces for aluminum gauntlets and elbow cops.  One of the cops was already dished and she got a start on the second. Later on she and everyone else helped Belle with taste testing some throat-soothing drinks with rosemary, lemon, honey and other ingredients.

Meanwhile Gunna and Evie finished in the kitchen and come out to the livingroom to...plot a coup d'etat? Or maybe just read Facebook.

Colin evaded the camera but he stopped by to get some leather gluing advice and to drop off a generous donation of used and unused armour bits.

Troy came to his fist Open Shop night and completed an armour plan for a late 14th century knightly-class man at arms from southern Germany/northern Italy.  He then cut out several plates for his Wisby-style coat of plates.  I had some donated steel knees and elbows in the shop that would both fit him and be suitable for his portrayal, so I gave them to him.  It was his lucky night!

 Troy's mom dropped in to see what we were up to.  She is originally from Argentina and has childhood memories of carding and spinning wool on her grandfather's ranch.  Wyllow showed her some of the projects she has been working on. Then Wyllow got back to work preparing her display for Laurel's Prize Tourney.

Frosti stopped by to show us his new tunic and visit with folks.

Open Shop 5-31-2012

 Nora sews her new dress

 Wyllow helps Julia select a time and place for which to dress.

 Abby lays out her gorget plates, marks and punches holes in the leather, and rivets the plates in.

 Frosti cuts out a leather half-gauntlet using my one-piece pattern.

 Link and Josh and Daniel and Frosti all finished their armour plans, so they can start marking out elbow and knee cops on sheet aluminum 5052 alloy pieces.  This stuff is dirt cheap at $1/pound at Metals4U in Pflugerville.  All of the aluminum will be hidden under sleeves or pants when the armour is complete.

 Ben lays out the fabric for his coat of plates while Toner supervises.

 Daniel learns to cut aluminum on a throatless shear.  (Not a Beverley shear but a cheap Chinese imitation.)

 Gunna and Evie practice period cooking.  Come over to Open Shop night...we have cookies!

Link, Daniel, Josh, Ben and Frosti show how much they got cut out tonight.  Wolf has been busily lacing his lamellar.

 Then everyone else gets into the picture too.  At this point Belle had left to take Nora home and Julia had left also.  Counting them and counting the guy (me) taking the picture we had 15 people at Open Shop night.  A new record!

I even found a few minutes to work on the cheek-plate hinges for my helm.  My son took the picture and my wife is "helping" behind me.  Isn't it great to have a supportive family who takes you seriously?  :)

Armour night!

We had a great turnout for armouring last night with Kansuke, Chris, Jeanne-Marie, Wolf (right-handed Horde archer, not the left-handed Thunder swordsman) and Nora working on various projects. Jeanne-Marie la Verriere made aluminum splints for her gamboised cuises, Kansuke worked on aluminum gauntlets, Chris cut out and edged a birch plywood shield and Wolf wrote up an armour plan and did most of the dishing on his first elbow cop. Nora is looking at an 11th century personna associated with one of the Celtic monasteries where illuminated manuscripts were produced. I worked on a loaner-armour coat of plates and a shield for somebody who just can't seem to make it to armour shop.  Oh yes, and I also made a double batch of Barley porridge which was enjoyed by all. :)

Armour nights have been happening nearly every Thursday lately.  I'm trying to remember to take pictures and post them, but I'm usually running around like a ringmaster in a 3-ring circus so I often forget.

Do YOU have your armour ready for the fall melee season?

Hello there...it's been a while.

After my last post came the rush to get ready for Gulf War, then to get ready for Lysts, then to get my house on the market...so I've only gotten back to armouring fairly recently.

Failure to Blog
I've hosted sessions for Marita to work on a new shield, Martel to make a helm liner, Jens to collect and begin strapping some donated gear that would only fit him, Katrina and Artorius to assemble 3 boffer-legal rattan-core swords, Alfred to help sort out some donated loaner gear and work on his curie (leather breast-and-back plate), and Nicola to refurbish a borrowed helm and begin work on a 14th cent. curie for his early 14th century Italian kit. I've taught a class at Tuesday fighter practice on making linen helm liners and at least one student has finished one. Thanks Tivar! I also went over to Rachel's place for a war company surcoat/tunic sewing session that included Helene, Nicola and Artorius as well.

Current Events
Last night Avery came over to work on a helm liner for his new spring-steel 16th cent. Burgeonet for cut-and-thrust fighting. He got the pattern made and the fabric cut out, and took a bag of wool with him so that he can finish it at home.

Nicola worked on beveling the edges of his curie and also cut out a helm liner using fabric I had available. Buying all those "doggie bag" specials from http://fabrics-store.com has really paid off!


Josh also came over to discuss an armour plan (mid-14th cent. Welsh) and get started on a coat of plates. Again I was able to provide materials from what I had on hand. His CoP shell will be a sturdy blue cotton velvet with a heavy white linen lining, The plates will be white plastic barrel or "faux horn" riveted on with roofing nails. We got a pattern drafted, linen cut, and plates cut out. It will be very similar to the ones Helene and Rachel made previously.

Hrethric and his daughter Caitlin came over to work on an 11th century Saxon armour and hang out with my son Artorius, respectively. :) Hrethric bought himself a strap end cutter and brought along a 10-12oz. hide which he is cutting into 1 5/8" wide strips and then 2 5/8" long scales. We will glue-soak and bake the scales after they are all cut and the edges burnished.

Artorius removed some broken straps from his gauntlets and worked with me on plans to re-strap them and keep his fingers safer, but then he seemed to get distracted for some reason. He will need to finish them up this weekend if he wants to use them next Tuesday.

This weekend I hope to straighten up my work areas, put the rawhide edging on a linen-covered birch shield for Duke Kein, wax-seal a pair of light leather vambraces for me so that they are ready for me to rivet on the spring steel splints, and post some pictures of all of this to this blog.