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| North-Steading
North-Steading
♂️
[6358296]
[2008-01-06 13:04:06 +0000 UTC]
"Would-be Renaissance man"
(United Kingdom)
# Statistics
Favourites: 158; Deviations: 71; Watchers: 126
Watching: 93; Pageviews: 25318; Comments Made: 429; Friends: 93
# Interests
Favorite visual artist: Andy GoldsworthyTools of the Trade: Leather, metals, blades and hammers
Other Interests: Leather and Metal work, History, Natural World
# About me
UK crafter and developer - follow my work on RPGs & Larps at twitter.com/RPG_Elements# Comments
Comments: 83
Cheers - it almost passed me by. Too busy.
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Hah, I know that feeling...!
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You have a very interesting gallery, that I stumbled upon quite by accident whilst browsing the Newest section, and I'm glad I did!
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Thank's for the interest. I've pottered through a lot of stuff over that last few years and most of my recent uploads are just house keeping stuff.
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Hi! I realize we've never met before, but I just wanted to wish you a good day (or evening), and if it hasn't been a good day so far, I hope that it will get better! Smile and laugh, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day/night and I hope that your holidays are wonderful!
p.s. if you're wondering how I got to your page, I used the Random Deviant button
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Ah, well thanks.
You too.
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You're welcome! Thanks!
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so i dunno if its just because I'm using round cores, or if my adhesive is just crap.. what do you use to slap those sandwich pieces together and make the blade stay on your core?
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If you'd got any pictures of failures then I might be able to offer some thoughts.
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I'll post some tonight. Made a short sword, and the layers split on the side where the middle layer (thick foam) had a textured surface. The adhesive did not hold well on that size, probably due to the combination of the texture of the foam mixed with the round core. it really only seems to be a problem on longer weapons for some reason. perhaps i didn't press it down firmly enough the first time i put them together. Also, various tips and pieces of it tore off, but I think that was due to switching to a spray-type plasti-dip coating instead of the brush on kind. maybe I needed to go over it a few more times, but I feel like the stuff goes on more solidly when I brush it on. Maybe now I can spray it first a few coats, and then do a brush-on coat to finish it up. (easier to brush plasti-dip cleanly onto itself than onto pored foam.) I'll mess around with some things and see if I find any improvements, and I'll post some pictures of the tears and splitting layers so you know what I'm talking about. Also, the 3mm foam may just not be durable enough, but I don't know if it was the foam not being durable enough or the covering that was supposed to hold it together. I dunno. Like I said, I'll post a pic later and let you take a look to see what you think. Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.
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Evo Stick impact adhesive (the solvent one, solvent free is crap). Round cores don't join so well but even then I don't have many problems.
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Thank you for the thought.
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I hate to be a terrible bother, but I was wondering if you take commissions. I am in need of a breastplate for a cosplay and I was wondering if you could possibly quote me a price on one.
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Thanks, I've sent a note.
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wow thanks for my membership! 
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No worries, it's some nice, fine, work there.
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I love your leatherworking. Just starting to get into it myself. I appreciate your tutorials as well.
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Cheers for the watch. I'm glad that my work is of interest to you, I keep meaning to finish the tutorial off but I tend to forget to take all the photos. Good luck with your own work, leather is really good to work in as it fits nicely around other things in the shop and is good when combined into other costume parts.
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So far I have just been using the tools that I have on scrap leather to see how they work. Don't want to go buy a hide and ruin it heh.
One thing I have been noticing are the stamping tools are a bit pricey at my local craft store. Any suggestions on where is a good place to shop online for tools?
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Yes, if you've got a good supply of scrap it's worth getting started on. It doesn't take that much skill before its worth working on a hide as you tend to get enough material out of a one that it's better value than scrap (though that might depend on suppliers).
I've got a very good national-leather supplier very close to me so I'm not sure about internet suppliers. I find that you only need a few forming stamps (maybe five or so) and everything else I need I make. Some people work with lots of decorative stamps but I don't really use them – I find them a bit ‘fake’ or modern for what I do.
If you wanted to work on a budget you could get away with a scalpel, a big-nail and small nail with rounded off tips and one bevelling-stamp. The tools in my tutorial 1 are what I have as a minimum for armouring.
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very cool. Yeah, not looking for the fancy decorative ones really as armor, belt pouches and props such as leather bound books are my main goal.
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Worries - I am impressed by your styles and card work.
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That could be 'No worries' even...
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Helluuw. Just wanted to thank you from the watch
See ya arooound.
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No worries - I'd been digging a fair few of your pieces without twigging they're all from the same creator.
Liking the halloween stuff! (Good to see people away from the regular-bland stuff)
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Yes, they are definitely helpful.
I've got a square meter of veg-tanned leather 3mm thick incoming next week and first of all I will be making a mask with it that has no facial expression ( spooky! 
With the left overs I will try and produce some kind of armor used in LARP ( as will the mask ) so it doesn't have to have a real protection value as long as it looks like it could protect.
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That kind of thing is pretty easy to do. It's deffinitely worth playing around with hot water and scraps first just to get a feel of it and get used to the shrinkage and working time.
I'm not sure you'll have enough to do a harness from 1m^2. Maybe if you're small enough and you're efficient with your parts - making a good pattern will help you there. Making and then getting to wear your own armour is a great feeling so I wish you all the best with it. If you have any questions during the build just let us know.
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Not at all, your work is interesting (not to mention good). I've always wanted to give tablet-weaving a go myself. How hard is it to pick up?
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Slightly easy. There is a bunch of tutorials online.
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I've seen some, but getting a pattern in seems pretty complex. I guess it is easier to see what do to with the gear in hand - I'll have so get some time free and give it a go. I always find it hard to get anything to trim garments with.
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No worries - you have a good base of work.
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Not a problem - good to keep track of people doing good work. I like that you produce fantastical work but with a believable base and direction.
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Really great stuff you make.
I would really like to make a leather spaulder for myself,
but I can't find any tutorials or guides on Google on how to make such thing.
Do you have any? Or is it possible to explain how you make them?
What measurements to take, how you give them the round shape,
any materials that are as thick as leather to test it out first and make all the necessary adjustments before touching the leather?
And what's the actual difference between a "spaulder" and a "pauldron"?
They're being used both here on DA :s
(If mailing is easier to answer all of these questions, my mail address is on my profile.)
Thx in advance.
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They're very similar but pauldron's are of a later design and cover more of the body. I think these days they're fairly interchangeable terms but pauldron's are typically found in the higher-gothic style armours.
I'm in the process of putting together some leather-working tutorials at the moment. I'll try to put some notes together about spaulders in there.
In short answer to your questions though:
*Yes, making a spaulder is fairly easy - the trick is to take the variations in thickness and curvature into account. This usually takes experience but can be done by adjusting the pieces during the build.
*Dimensions are taken across the shoulder and upper arm (usually a 1/2 to 3/4 of the arm circumference is covered).
*The round shape can either come from water forming or simply held in place by tension added during the construction.
*I make my patterns out of paper but as you say it doesn't have a thickness that matches the leather - I just make an allowance as I design. You can however use corrugated cardboard (readily supplied by old boxes) which as a bit more of a realistic thickness.
*Don't always worry about having everything right before you start cutting so long as you factor it in. If work with a symmetrical pattern the bottom most lame is going to be the closest to the dimension of the arm then up from that each successive lame is a little larger (for aesthetics and to take into account curvature and thickness) - though this takes experience when starting out you can simply draw everything of the centre line of the lames and give and allowance to the ends of each part. A rule of thumb is that for every additional 1cm of thickness (overall) you need to add at least an additional 3cm of length.
I hope that this makes some sense but I'll put some better notes together in time. Just ask if you have any more questions.
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Thx for the explanation already.
*Could you tell me what leather (if it has a certain name) can be water formed?
I assume the thickness is around 2-3mm?
*How would you get the curves using tension?
I only have experience with thin leather of 1mm.
*Thx for the cardboard tip. It really sounds like a good way of constructing a test version.
I might just put some around my shoulder, and draw the shape on it should have.
Additional notes and details would help a lot
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No worries, to answer your queries:
*To water-form you need to use veg-tan leather? This good for both cold water forming and hot water forming. Though with hot water forming there must be an allowance left for shrinkage. Strong curves can be achieved this way though:[link]
*I normally work in thickness of twice that, but thin stuff can be used also but it won't hold its shape as well (though as its flexible it doesn't have to). Having worked with thin stuff is good though as you'll have experience of how leather works.
*With multiple lamed pieces curves can be tensioned in by joining the edges of the different sized pieces together. An example would be if you had a strip of paper 10cm long and another 15cm if you overlap them and then join respective pieces together at the end the resulting 'sandwich' will carry a curve in it. Sorry it's quite simple but hard to explain with words - if I get chance I'll show it with an image.
*It takes a bit of practice but it comes together that you can get pretty good at visualising the shapes needed to form about the body. Though wet forming can do more complex shapes try to keep in mind that leather only wants to bend on one axis. Practicing with card is a great way of getting started.
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Here is my first tutorial but currently it only covers the intial tools required:
[link]
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I have included you in my feature news article Celtic and Norse Knotwork . Please 
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Thank you for your interest and exposing my work to others.
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