As a long time lurker of this wonderful thread on this wonderful forum, thought I should post some of my work. As you can probably guess, a
lot of this is inspired to a greater or lesser extent by the stuf over at Frayed Knot Arts...
Credit to my dad for all the picturesThis is the earliest piece of decorative work I ever made which I still have. My mum got me doing some macrame and I made this belt. It doens't fit anymore, but I've still got it.
Much more recent belt. Slatt's survival belt with a survival tool-type buckle. This one
does fit me!
This is my fountain pen, used all day, every day (I'm a philsophy student, so really does see a lot of use) and consequently now looks a lot less new and shiny... It was my first piece of grafting, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I had lots of advice and emails from Vince on this one, so credit to him.
Some thimbles with a turk's head and a gaucho knot
Stitching too/thimble/sailmaker's palm-type-thing. Made for the times when you need a palm for a really heavy stitch, but only for one or two stitches. Putting the actual palm on and then taking it off again is all a bit of a hassle, so instead just pick this up. The domed cork top fits into your palm as you push the needle with the ten pence piece tied into the bottom of the turk's head. Eventually I'll have a custom dimpled piece of metal machined to fit just right into another one. One day... (see bottom of post)
This is my pricker, made up around a big sailmaker's needle, for REALLY big sewing.
And for actually doing the sewing, this is my needle case. plg's are based on Vince's, with turk's heads around them.
This is probably the piece I'm proudest of so far. It's a case for pins (again, for actually doing sewing), containing no less than seven star knots. It was meant to be part of a 'series' of tools and cases/pouches, each thing wih a loop or gromet etc. on it so it could be clipped onto a ditty bag that I'm eventually going to make (SBOP), but unfortunately I lost it. So I've designed another one, which is a work in progress at the moment (SBOP).
The lid can be removed, and then reversed and replaced, with a pin cusion embedded inside it (so that the pins point 'up' when it's closed). This way, the pins don't rattle around when the case is moved.
My little sister gave me this tool for small work. Originally it was for putting dots of varnish on your nails, but it's a really great fid for tiny black line (which you may have noticed, I use a lot of!). Since taking this picture, I've lost this one, so splashed out on
theseFinally, here is a wooden fid which my grandmother gave me, with a herringbone knot around the groove. Really lovely tool, but sadly this one (and the nail-dotter fid, along with the stitiching cork tool) were lost on a train journey. But that just gioves me a good excuse to buy more tools...
And work to come...
I have a
huge list of projects to do, tools to buy (or make) things to plan. So to come soon:
- Ditty Bag I really like the idea of suing traditional styles and construction technques with modern materials, so I'm kthinking of making a dry-bag type thing with vertical pockets, out of XPAC, with dyneema and nylon ropework and some other yachtie hardware
- Pin Case Because I lost my old one, I'm making a better one...
- Needlecase My current needlecase is prety good, but a grafted one in tiny black line with some more complex turk's head details (and putting into practice everything I learned making the first one) would be even better. I'ts going to have a roll up fabric thing for holding needles inside it and a clever soft shackle thing to keep everyhing together
- Another stiching Cork Tool because I lost the old one...
- Survival Bracelet I've got lots of friends with paracord square knot survival bracelets, so I decided to make my own... with a nine strand O2U2 braid and some half round braids to make a thief knot. I've got a really clever clip lto hold it together, whenit opens there's a universal handcuff key hidden inside.
- Various fids, pliers, knives, spikes etc. (and a combination heaving/carving mallet) and chisels. I really like the stuff Mikko Snellman makes, and I have some interesting ideas for things I might try to commision from him. Of course, eveything then had to be decorated...
Blue skies everyone