The former MrsCR used to knit them, butthe weight of them - as you say - got too much for her arthritic fingers. So now she makes Scandinavian-style rag dolls.
Speaking of chain mail ... (excuse the tangent) we have a local mediaeval fair here too (that was last Thursday). Many, many years ago, MrsCR had cobbled together a "bishop's cassock" costume for SonNo.1, which ended up in the dressing-up box and moved with us. One year, we went to the mediaeval fair, and SonNo.1 decided to take on the challenge of dressing the part. He fished out the bishop's frock and passed himself off as a (small) crusader. During a sword-fighting demonstration, the lead swordsman spotted this one child in the audience that wasn't dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, invited him into the arena, promptly gave him a telling off for wandering around the battle-field without his chain mail and hoiked a spare suit out of a trunk. SonNo.1 sunk about 6 inches into the ground when the guy let the full weight of it fall on his shoulders!
WE were involved in archery many years ago, and still have all the bows, some collectible. We used to fire at a target mounted on an 8'x4'x2'thick
block of polystyrene. Shooting one day and the arrow clipped the top of the block and went skyward................it sailed out over the perimeter fence which was over 12' high.............so it was out in the roadway.
Luckily enough there were no invaders, or friendly forces struck that day. Its amazing what a bow with about 80lb draw weight can do
Yep. We've had those incidents too! I believe there's still an arrow in the lawn somewhere, waiting to be found by the mower (or a spade) one of these days.
Back onto the shoes. The leather was surplus material that was left over from a chap who had just upholstered his Volvo P1800 car. It was the car the same as the model in the Saint. So I like green and decided to go with that.
First process is either to buy or make a pair of wooden shoe lasts that match your feet. I can go through that process if someone wants.
I chose to buy a pair of lasts from a collector in the US, and modify them to match my feet. Once they arrived i attached small strips of leather to them
to match the dimensions of my feet. As well as adding leather to broaden the width of the shoe to widen it to give me more room.
Once i was happy, the next part was to lay up masking tape to the shoe to get a pattern.
I think another craft that is fast disappearing thanks to high tech is woodcarving. A craft that requires a high level of skill thats now getting beaten to the post by cnc and 3d printers faster than it takes to sharpen a gouge. As a woodworker and wood turner I have made many one off things by hand, as well as by the thousands on mass production machinery.
But every single hand made one is unique. Just like this fellow, the green man.
CelticRambler wrote: ↑Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:45 am
And seeing as they're already talking about December festivities on that other thread ...
Taking advantage of the fact that I would have no visitors to mess up my table arrangements, I took a notion to build a centrepiece around an old jar (found in one of the sheds ... the observant amongst you might begin to see a pattern here ) the colour of which went "quite well" with my antique Wedgwood china.
I made a stopper for it from a piece of freshly cut hawthorn, found a set of suitably shaped oak prunings, sprayed them white (several times) overcoated with a silver glitter from Lidl, and decorated with a selection of turquoise and white baubles from the Big Box In The Attic (augmented by a few new items being sold off cheap in the local supermarket).
I came across some pictures from the chap that taught me shoemaking, and I thought I would share his
craftwork.
Two pictures, one showing the boot completed pattern from below after fitting the welt to attach the sole.
And one from above showing the completed boot upper, ready for attaching the sole.
Would these be unsuitable for foodstuffs like sugar because they are yew? What did you use as a finish?
Love the gates too btw. Very Ponderosa Ranch . Did you stain or paint them or just leave them natural?
Uncle Frank wrote: ↑Sun Aug 22, 2021 7:52 pm
Would these be unsuitable for foodstuffs like sugar because they are yew? What did you use as a finish?
Love the gates too btw. Very Ponderosa Ranch . Did you stain or paint them or just leave them natural?
I personally would not put foodstuffs into them, unless I had a plastic or glass container in the vessel. Which I do for vases ect.
The gates were originally natural with a coat of clear on them. I cant remember whether it was lacquer or oil. And the missus a few years ago wanted to paint them with grey ducksback paint.
Here is the wooden shoe last, with the leather counter already attached, ready for the outer completed shoe cover to be attached to.
This was from the very first pair of shoes I made to learn the skills I was taught.
Here you can see the shoe covers attached to the wooden last, and the heel welt attached.
And the first trial pair I made to see if I could learn with instruction over the internet.
And I was happy to keep going. These were me Jim Carey Mask shoes.
I dyed them brown after.
The stitching on the shoe cover was done by a traditional Singer 29 k machine. It is commonly known as a patcher.
Al the stitching of the shoe cover to the sole is done by hand with 2 needles, or in the case of traditional method, it
was done with 2 hogs boar bristles, which are still available.
If we look at the shoe covers here we can see how they slip onto the wooden last. And we can also see the leather sole attached to the last,
and worked to provide the necessary holes to sew to the upper.
Attachments
Picture 063(1)r.jpg (141.87 KiB) Viewed 7167 times
And because its expensive and difficult to source some tools in Ireland, you could either find and order them online,
or make your own small straight and bent awls as I did. One straight, and one bent one
Not exactly crafting as 'a good man should always know his limitations' Clint Eastwood - and this one does, but I frequently carry out repairs or take pity on things. These three lads are all in for repair at the moment - the garden skittle is the only survivor of the set (the rest ended up in the fire years ago); the rabbit is a child's make your own bunny from a crafting set and the pull-along elephant has been awaiting attention for about 15 years after being bought at a car boot sale. If you think brown is odd - he was red before and anyway there's still the final coat to go!
What's anybody else working on for light relief?
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Nothing just yet. Bought knitting wool 2 winters ago, still sitting in the box .... just no time. Today I came across a crochet doiley I made when I was a teenager! Really quaint now, I made loads then, and whenever the relations from UK/USA visited I'd offload them - they'd be thrilled to bits going away with their bit of Ireland . In fact, when I paid a visit to Indiana 6 years ago, Auntie still had hers on her little lamp tables!
Del.Monte wrote: ↑Sun Sep 12, 2021 3:29 pm
What's anybody else working on for light relief?
Nothing. As long as there's light, there's no relief ... from garden work and other hard(ish) labouring. Craftwork will be resumed in the darker months of the year.
)
. Did you stain or paint them or just leave them natural?
These were me Jim Carey Mask shoes. 
. In fact, when I paid a visit to Indiana 6 years ago, Auntie still had hers on her little lamp tables!