So I’m having to add a new category.  This is by no means the first time I’ve worked in leather.  I embossed some leather for the book that I made here.     

Looking back it doesn’t look like I’ve included that information of the other book that I made.  I’ll have to fix that.  Sadly, only about a third of the work that I do gets included in the blog.  Sometimes I make something as a gift, and I don’t want to spoil the surprise, so I don’t post it while I am excited about it, and then it never gets a write up, or sometimes the weather is too lousy to get outside and get good photos, and sometimes I just get squirreled onto another project and never finish the write up. 

After I taught a class on Gothic book binding to my local arts and science group this fall, I had some leather left over.  It was a little thicker than I like to use for books, so when the family started shooting archery again this spring, I knew what I wanted to do with it.

I’ve been trying to find an activity within the SCA to hold my husband’s attention, now that he can no longer heavy fight.  He enjoys archery, so I’ve been trying to make sure that he has the gear that he needs to be able to enjoy himself should he decide to attend an event.  To that end, he go the first quiver.

To make this quiver, I cut out a round piece from a heavy cow hide that I had bought to make armor.  The piece was the size I wanted for the base of the quiver.  Then I cut the thinner leather wide enough to go around the base and tall enough to contain the arrows.

Those of you who know my husband will recognize the dogs.  These are very similar to the tattoo he has on his back.  In an upcoming post I will go over how I carve and emboss the leather.  If I had this project to do over again, I would have not made the design quite so large.  Not all of the design can be seen from any angle.  I stitched the pieces together using an awl and artificial sinew.

Here is what it looked like before I stained it.  I also should have stained it before I sewed it together, but I was pressed for time for it’s first use.  I used shoe polish to stain the piece and found that the embossed regions around the design took up the dye more strongly than the rest of the piece, creating a natural outline to the design.  I had considered painting it to bring out the design more, but I doubt that I will do that now.