6/14/2012 Open shop without me!

Last Thursday I found out just how important I am to a good open shop night...I was out of town and everyone had a great time without me!

 Frosti burnished some leather.

 Julia burnished the edges of her rerebrace while Wolf petted the cat. Someone had to do it!

 Nora was sewing...

 Gunna was patterning..

 Jackie was carding wool...

and Belle moved too fast to see.  Actually Gunna was helping Belle with a dress pattern.

 Artorius helped with other people's projects.

 Link started to dish some knee cops.

And Josh made progress on both half-gauntlets and knee cops.

Thursday, May 17

I got so busy I forgot to take pictures again.  But we started with my Barley Porridge and Diedre's Beefy Cabbage.

Sage fleshed out his armour plan for a 15th century Italian boffer kit with upgrade to adult armour potential.  It will include a lot of King-Renee-inspired hardened leather.

Ben worked on a 1200 Hospitaler armour plan.  He really likes the look of the flat-top helms but will probably use one of our baronial loaner sugarloaf helms for a while.

 Here is what he wants: 


Belle and Josh and Nora re-painted some miniatures that had been banged up the recent  Rube Goldberg project.  I'll try to provide a link to the video.  (Yes.  There is video.)  Nora also drew up a lovely knotwork piece for Wyllow...involving a willow tree of course.

Wyllow sewed a hammock cover that she plans to use on a Girl Scout campout this weekend.

Gunna worked on projects and visited with folks but I never actually saw what she was working on.  Maybe it is a secret present for me!  Or maybe not...   :(

Wolf laced together more lamellar scales and figured out how many he will need for each row, so he took some more plastic with him to cut out the remaining scales on his bandsaw.  Working at home between open shop days=armour done sooner!

Diedre finish the last of the rivets for the skull of her Valsgarde 6 helm.  It looks great!  Now to rivet on the cheek plates, back slats, nasal, and face-protecting bars. She is on track to finish her kit in time for War of Ages this fall.

Crisdean dyed his leather vambraces and rerbraces black with iron-based "vinegaroon" dye and dished the vambraces for that sexy tulip shape.  Next week he'll be ready for glue-soaking and baking!

William/Artorius helped with several projects and worked with Aaron and I on where to re-locate the grip and strap on his shield.  Maybe this week he will drill the holes and move them?  It could happen...

Aaron repaired the articulation on a knee cop and did some quick preliminary padding for his new helm to see where the chin strap needs to go.  We had a wee bit of trouble drilling the holes for the chinstrap because his aventail seems to be designed not to be removable, but we managed to get it done.  We also worked out a pattern for a linen liner for this helm.

Another Thursday, another Open Shop

I got an early start on dishing some leather so that it would be ready for dying later.

 

Note the high-tech method I used to curve out the tab on the top of the foot.  I also hit it with a hammer a few times.

 

 Wendy made some excellent Cornish game hens using a Roman recipe and modifying it a bit for the ingredients we had on hand.  The extra juice and roast garlic were both good on sourdough toast.

 Maggie started new vambraces and rerbraces.  She managed to customize the patterns, lay them out, cut them out, bevel and burnish the edges, and shape them with a little dishing.  Next they'll get a glue soak and baking.

We finished the baking on Friday, added an 18gauge stainless steel splint to each vambrace, added straps and assembled the arm armour by tying both pieces to a plastic elbow cop.  Done!

 Wolf baked his vambraces last week, so we marked and drilled holes for rivets and points, pointed on the elbow cops, and riveted on the straps and buckles.  Ready to pad and wear!

 I dyed the greaves with "Oxblood" dye from Fiebings, using a sponge-brush and latex gloves.

...and that was enough for one night!