A Little Show-and-Tell

As I mentioned in my inaugural post. I'm pretty active in the medieval reenactment community. So I thought I'd take a break from all of the heavy political discussions and show you a few of the things I've managed to manufacture in my basement for that hobby.

(all the pictures are links to larger versions that will launch in a new browser instance btw)

The first item is a belt and pouch ca. 1450. You see in the middle ages, you simply didn't have pockets in your pants to carry your personal effects. So all the best dressed people wore a pouch suspended from their belts. This one is constructed from top grain cow hide. I hand manufactured all of the fittings. The little heraldic plaques on the belt are etched and enameled.

A very dear friend of ours is a duchess in our organization. Being a duchess requires a coronet. Here is the one I made for her. Again all pieces are hand manufactured. The picture is a little blurry because it was taken with our old camera that had been dropped once too often. If it were clearer, you would be able to make out that the four small joiner plates are actually etched into the metal and then the etching is filled with enamel work.

The next piece is a piece of armour called a spaulder. A spaulder fits over the tip of the shoulder and protects it from blows. Pictured is one of a set of two that I made as gift for our group's king.

We actually do wear and fight in our armour. Here is a picture of me in in one of my sets of armour. If you notice that the ground is white, that's called snow. There was a lot of it that day and the temperature was about -20^o!

Moving right along. I mentioned in my inaugural post that I could drive a sewing machine. This next piece proves it. It's an Elizabethan doublet. A doublet is a vest, like the vest from a three-piece suit. This particular one is made of glove leather with black satin detailing. What you don't see are the sleeves. The sleeves for this doublet can be removed. They're laced onto the shoulder of the doublet body. The ones I made for this particular doublet are slashed and puffed at the shoulder to reveal some of the black satin.

Obviously, if you're going to sword fight, you need a shield. Here is mine, freshly painted, but the leather edging has not yet been applied.

Here I am once again in another set of armour I made, looking mean at a public demostration for our group.

Here is a collection of various bits of armour I've made:

And if anyone is wondering what I really look like, here is a picture of me, armoured & close up. (by the way, the squinting is because we were training when this picture was taken and I had sweat running into my eye!)

This is certainly not everything I've made, just those things that I could find pictures of on the quick. Well, drop a comment and let me know what you think of my handiwork!