Circlets

I made it. Was quite pleased how it turned out.

Quilted Leather Bracer and UnderBracer Tutorial: DIY for under $10

Here is my tutorial of how I made these awesome quilted bracers/vambraces.

Part 1: Drafting a Bracer Pattern based on the Vambraces of Gondor

Part 2: Sewing the underbracers, How to Quilt Bracers, and a Lacing Ring Solution
Part 3: Assembling the Bracers: How to make Thin Leather look like Thick Leather

Part 4: Inserting Grommets/Eyelets without a hole punch, and Painting the Leather with shoepolish
Part 5: Glam Shots of the finished project

Dwarven Pouch Inspiration: Cool Links on Deviant Art

My new Dwarven Pouch inspiration by a reenactor VendelRus on deviantart here

Sooo, I hate blogger right now. I spent 2 precious hours wasting time on the internet a few months ago, and had collected a whole bunch of links to deviant art of cool dwarven inspiration, plus some bonus eye-candy of guys in really impressive Knight Templar recreations.
It's been sitting in my drafts folder for a month.

And I thought, since I've been mostly doing carpet beetle stuff lately, I may as well edit it with a few comments and post it....And then when I had the tab open, I accidentally hit a button, and BAM it was deleted. completely. and I can't get it back, because blogger autosaved it while I stared helplessly at the computer trying to figure out what to do. Blogger, I am so totally switching to wordpress next year. I hate this.

You are a hand of google on its self stated creepy mission to get "an information monopoly", you get me to give you loads of info for free webmail and bloghosts that you sell to marketers take over the world and perhaps my own dear NSA, you "accidentally" release Palin's password to her gmail during the elections, you blocked "climategate" from your search engines for 2 weeks before the story broke, you collaborated with the Chinese government to catch dissidents, you creepily stalked the nation and had your little google map streetview car collecting people's info on secured networks that took 38 or some state attorney generals to sue you over for you to at least feign shame about it, and now you delete my Dwarven and Templar links.

That is going to far. Deep Breath. Ok. So.

I was able to re search some of them, but now I'll never know if I have them all. And I still can't find the Templar links.

OK, so, Inspiration #1 VendelRus on Deviantart. The pouches and knife scabbards and belt contraptions are EXACTLY what I had in mind for dwarves.
Hah, and I thought I was inventing it with a little historical flavor.
It appears the Vikings invented these things ages ago...(And historical reenactors reinventing them now)

My ideas (blogged about here)

 And now look at Vendelrus's Viking Woman Image....
 

From VendelRus HERE.

This totally encapsulates what I think of as Dwarven Women's Clothing. Just imagine lots of feet of braids wrapped around her head, and either a baby or a pick axe strapped to her back. Or both.
And shorter.


More images from VendelRus's Gallery (just click through the numbers on the bottom to see all the pages)

Anglo Saxon Sheath by VendelRus.

This is totally something dwarves would do, decorating their functional things. Practical and Beautiful. That's the dwarves. The elves would make something beautiful just because. The dwarves like purposes to things.

Bag Bling by Vendelrus

 I love this pouch soo much. I totally would wear something like this every day. I never could get into the whole purses thing, I hated always having to remember where it was with a vague sense of worry, but this just clips onto your belt. And besides, purses matching shoes has got nothing on THIS AWESOMENESS.

And just because I can't get over this awesome configuration, I will post it again. "Hanging Pouches" is what I thought the dwarves would have. THIS IS TOTALLY IT. Knife, check. Pouch, check. More pouch, check. Awesome belt, check. Awesome hanging configuration, check.
All it needs is a horn.

Viking Bling by VendelRus

And besides, this VendelRus has got the cutest little Viking/Dwarven baby I ever saw....

"Superior Stick Handling" by VendelRus on deviantart

 More Inspiration, from DarkSunTattoo on deviantart, (his viking handcrafts gallery here, his reenactors being vikings here)

By DarkSunTattoo on Deviantart

By DarkSunTattoo on Deviantart

By DarkSunTattoo

More awesomeness....

Viking Drinking Horn by DarksunTattoo

And a bag with a rigid carved top, I could make something like this...

Viking Bag by DarkSunTattoo

AND THIS, which is SO TOTALLY WHAT I WAS IMAGINING FOR DWARVEN WOMEN!!!!

hannah ideas

Viking Women's Outfit by DarkSunTattoo on Deviantart

Viking Women by DarkSunTattoo

Just imagine her with lots of braids, and a belt (I don't know why its missing in this picture) with the pouches above, and ofcourse, shorter.

More medieval/viking woman awesomeness from reenactors on deviantart

This one (Aspova on deviantart) just look so right to be somehow. I love her head kercheif and her expression, it seems so Dwarven/Germanic to me, smiling but cautious, reserved, strong.

Viking-Age Woman by Aspova on Deviantart

 While I imagine Tolkien's dwarves clothed like Vikings, I imagine their culture to be much more Germanic. With all the emotion and pride of the Celts/Vikings, but tempered with restraint and sense and dignity and long memory, like the Germans. (I know I am painting with a very broad brush here) Prone to hold grudges, but also to remember generations-old debt, and lay down their lives for it.

Another Viking Reenactor, 'weavedmagic' on deviantart. Love the tablet woven detail, especially on the neck of her dress.

Viking Woman by weavedmagic on deviantart

Okay, so another image by weavedmagic, not really dwarven at all but it was too beautiful not to share. Looking toward the light, the window composition, how the light catches her hair....this is high art.

Blue Dress by weavedmagic on deviantart

 ALL IS FORGIVEN!!!! I found my Templar Links!!! (and some Hussars and more...)
http://chavi-dragon.deviantart.com/art/Templier-Knight-167417835
http://darksuntattoo.deviantart.com/art/Slavic-Battle-192754184
http://speculumhistoriae.deviantart.com/art/Behind-the-Horizon-192935558
http://nivelis.deviantart.com/art/Crucial-Moment-172556009
http://nivelis.deviantart.com/art/Battle-at-the-sunset-292803101
http://nivelis.deviantart.com/art/Pushing-forward-177578543
http://nivelis.deviantart.com/art/Red-Knight-on-Horseback-152180053
http://nivelis.deviantart.com/art/Bloody-Sunset-173994867
http://gummybearxyxy.deviantart.com/art/Templier-321765567

AND MORE
http://chavi-dragon.deviantart.com/art/Templier-Knight-5-167529426
http://chavi-dragon.deviantart.com/art/Templier-Knight-3-167529150
http://chavi-dragon.deviantart.com/art/Templier-and-Teutonic-Knight-167417717
http://chavi-dragon.deviantart.com/art/Groupement-Knight-3-167417267
http://marqoni.deviantart.com/art/Polish-hussars-171406231

SO. MUCH. AWESOMENESS
http://mopasrep.deviantart.com/art/Polish-XVIIc-Husars-308901819

Making My Room Like Rivendell part 3: Thoughts on Making Elven Banners

I must make this. applique trees and leaves etc (w/ heat n bond, I have no shame. The elves probably had cool stuff) maybe outlined in silver stem stitch? Definitely do the scrollwork with couched silver cord.

 

Just looked up some more pictures. They totally used paint. Guess that's medieval enough. I guess I will too. Def not puff paint though....

Definitely paint there....

Ok, so just looked at these helpful links of other fellow banner makers on alleyscratch

After looking at various recreations, I realized my favorites were ones done on a sort of matte fabric surface, they somehow looked less costumey to me than the ones done on satin (perhaps this is all the fault of flash camera...)

This was my favorite

Arwen's Banner by Sidhe on Alleyscratch

 Which was done completely with paint on fabric. She did it for her wedding decor, and afterwards hung it up in their room, which I thought was very cool.....

Then there was this one, done with heat n bond and lame applique, and details in a silver paint pen.

Elvish Banner by Sarah (Aranel13) on Alleyscratch

I lover her speckled stars look, it just looks So. Incredibly. Awesome.

 This one's pretty cool too....

(Leah on Alleyscratch)

Done with fabric applique with fusible interfacing.

So I think I shall do fabric paint, with stars cut out of lame and appliqued. Because they are geometrical and easy to cut out :)


I remember than Joan of Arc referred to the making of her banner as hiring someone to "paint" her banner, so it must be authentic.

So paint, here I come....

(Although I know Arwen sewed Aragorn's standard....so there's that....maybe I'll embroider it a little bit....)

So I am planning to probably do a rendition of Arwen's banner.

Although make the trees more like the trees on the gates of Moriah....

And do it on a blue-black matte fabric, with speckled stars on it like Sarah Aranel13's elven banner above....

And a Gondor banner, ofcourse. I need a Gondor banner. I am planning to paint some sort of elaborate medievalish looking border on it, all in silver.
Some mix of the below designs....

I think Tolkien would approve.

Dwarven Women Clothing Design by Me

We don't see a lot of Dwarven women (for that matter, we don't see a lot of Elven women either) in the Lord of the Rings books, but from what little there is in the appendix....

Dwarven Woman Clothes

DWARVEN WOMEN ARE AWESOME!!!!

From the appendix, we learn, they are stubborn, picky, romantic, stubborn, do men's crafts (smithing, etc.), and stubborn.
I mean, there's a 2:1 birth ratio of male to female dwarves, and yet with the odds stacked like that a good percentage of them never marry because either, they are career types (smithing and all that), or because they only really fall in love once, and refuse to settle for anyone else if they can't get that one guy. So they're stubborn. And Romantic.

And if any race in Middle Earth has ninja-esque women with weapons it would be the dwarves. And yet...in movies they're just side-lined as a joke, and their menfolk are supposed to fall for elvish chicks. (??!?! It's its...as if a mole fell in love with a squirrel in Redwall...would. not. happen)

And I was sad that the only glimpse we got of dwarven women in the Hobbit Movie (in all of the 2 seconds they were in) wearing boring brocade Italian-Renn dresses, weighed down with skirts trying to run from the dragon.

Dwarves like ornament. But they also like things being functional. They make art out of functional things (weapons, instruments, armor, axes, harps, etc.). They love beauty, but they are very very practical.

Kind of like this belt & scabbard set from this amazing website.

from http://www.danegeld.co.uk/page13.htm

Dwarf Women's Clothes a.k.a. Costume Design for the Hobbit Movie in my head

 
Hence I think they would make jewelry out of practical things, like the key-ring of a woman's household, very much a symbol (but also, practical), would be decorated with jewels, or cleverly wrought metal. Their cloak chains and clasps would be elaborate. Perhaps they would have other symbolic/functional things.

buckle from Sutton Hoo

Detail of above

 Like Boromir's horn, functional for blowing for help/reinforcements, beautiful and decorated. And knives, suitable for both cooking/working and self-defense, would have elaborately decorated handles. I think Dwarven women would each have a personal dagger. On Royalty, it would obviously be more ornamental (like the weapons at Sutton Hoo) because they would have a bodyguard.

Horns from Sutton Hoo, note the remnants of the elaborate gold-work

 They would have lots of packs/bags/pouches to carry things, because dwarves are good at carrying things, and they like having little trinkets and tinderboxes and things.

Their culture also strikes me as very Germanic/Viking. So I started out with an apron dress. (Very practical, cuts down on laundry)

picture from reproductions sold here

I think they would have very thick hair, given their menfolk's pride in their beards, they probably take pride in growing it out quite long and probably wear it in all sorts of elaborate braids, woven with gold or leather straps.

Here's my take on a middle-class Dwarven Woman's clothing. She'd have a dress-tunic (with lace up on the front, that can be lengthened for nursing) with an apron dress over it. The medallions on the shoulders of the apron-dress would be as decorated as she could afford. The same with her cloak-chain, as it doubles as a sort of necklace.

belt buckle, Sutton Hoo

She would have a sturdy leather belt, with hanging pouches and a place for her horn, her household keys, and her dagger, as well as however many other things she carries. Dwarves are strong, so if in her childbearing years she'd likely carry her baby on her back as she works, as most cultures still do. Being working-class, she'd probably wear a linen head-kercheif, but her long hair would be elaborately braided under it.

My take on a Royal/Richer dwarf. Its the same basic dress design as the lower class dwarf, but her status symbols are more elaborate: her cloak chain is multiple string of jewels, her belt is gold-work, the chains holding up her keys and horn have jewels worked into elaborate metal beads, her keychain is full of keys, her dagger's scabbard is a work of art.

Shoulder Clasp from Sutton Hoo

  Her tunic-dress would be of richer colors of blue and red and green, her clothing embroidered with gold, her skirts more numerous and longer (as she doesn't have to work), her hair-style more elaborate (perhaps a mix of crown braids with hanging braids), and she would of course be wearing rings and necklaces as well. However, her skirts are not so weighty as to keep her from running, her horn would be loud, her ornamental-looking dagger would be very sharp and she would most probably know how to use it.

This is my take on an Adventure Dwarf. A Dwarven woman who for whatever reason, finds herself traveling through less-than-hospitable lands. It's really a more practical take on the Middle-Class dwarf, her tunic dress is cut off at the knee and supplemented with pants for better climbing, her apron-dress is replaced with a leather overtunic-jerkin thing. Her household keys are replaced with more tools and knives. Slung across her back she has an axe, a bow and arrows, and perhaps a pick-axe too for good measure. The rest of her worldly goods are probably in a sturdy leather pack on her back. She probably has another knife in her boot.

Dwarven women are tough. And stubborn.

One day I'm planning to make a Dwarven Outfit....have a lot of projects to finish before then. But I think it would be perfect thing to wear while camping. I'd have tinderbox in one of my pouches.

Making Bracers/Vambraces/Gauntlets Part 4: Inserting Grommets/Eyelets into Leather without a hole punch, Dyeing Leather with Shoe Polish

(All parts of tutorial listed on this page)
See tutorial part 1,and  part 2, and part 3
FINISHING (Grommets, Dyeing)

Note the kind of "weathered" look. I achieved this with fabric dye and shoe polish. (plus some ill fated salad dressing) See below.

How to insert grommets into leather without a Hole Punch.

1. Using an exacto blade, and a pencil to insert 1/4" eyelets without a hole punch.
2. First, cut a (small!) slit where you want the eyelet to go. 
3. Then force a pencil through it, underside out. 3x. It should feel difficult, as the leather stretches. Then send the pencil through the 4th time, from the leather side (this pushes the leather in). 
4. Now insert the tall side of the grommet from the leather side. I used a pencil to help push it through.
5. Then flip it over, and using a fingernail or the tip of the pencil, poke all the unruly threads down around the lip of the grommet.
6. Now put on the shallow side of the grommet.
7. Put it on the eyelet "anvil" and hammer the "tool" part onto it, making sure to rotate the tool while hammering.
8. DONE.

Re-dying leather bracers.
 
To change the color of the leather, dye can work, but it kind of hangs out on top and rubs off. (I used RIT dye orange).  I didn't like the look of it alone, and it seemed to come off to easily. However, it works very well underneath shoe polish. I had greenish brown leather, and I wanted a warmer brown leather, so I rubbed orange RIT dye on all of them, and then rubbed them all down with brown shoe polish and brown shoe cream after I was done quilting them. I liked the uneven color, it gave more depth. If you want even color, shoe polish it before quilting.

I had a bad experience with hand-made conditioner (salad dressing, basically vinegar and olive oil). It blotched and stained funny. I guess if you want darker stains on it to look weathered, then go for it.

The 5 part tutorial is here.