Bringing back the Celtic Art

A few people have known me long enough to know I used to draw all kinds of Celtic stuff, all the time. This was way back in the early 90's, when if you wanted something with Celtic art on it, you had to make it yourself. There were only a handful of good printed resources about the Celts and their varied art forms then.

Not so anymore, in these modern internet times. Right now, in five minutes, I can gather nearly as much imagery as it took me ten years to amass, prior to the digital sharing of data. You kids today, with your celtic vinyl stickers, celtic stick-on tattoos, knotwork jewelry and t-shirts have it soooo easy. I used to have to paint my own jackets and draw on myself with sharpies and order expensive art books from Europe to make good celtic art. I even went to celtic art classes, which helped me to understand the mathematics behind the designs, so that I could create new ones that no one had ever seen.

I took my new knowledge and volunteered many designs for the Institute for Celtic Studies in New England, created and showed paper celtic sculptures in an art gallery, designed many tattoos, a line of pewter jewelry, many scrolls in the SCA, and even some embossing stamps for a Renfair leather merchant. And none of them were copies of existing historical designs.

I had stopped drawing celtic art years ago, because it took oodles of brainpower to mathematically construct some of these designs, and frankly, I got lazy and found drawing work that paid the bills and was much easier to do.

Recently, the siren song of the spiral called me once again... but it was so hard to get my brain to to process the designs I wanted to draw! I may have eventually lost the ability to do this, if I hadn't been inspired by my man, who needed a set of armor in order to fight upon Outlands fields this summer. He'd gotten some blank leather bracers from a friend and wanted me to help design them. I looked around online for something cool to copy, but all of it was either the same stuff I've been seeing for 20 years, or tribalish modern celtic art. None were nice enough, so I got charged with creating a new design. So of course they had to look awesome. And you certainly can't buy awesome like this in a store.


He requested it include ravens and horses. After days of research into early period British pre-Roman Celtic Art, I had a plan for a design that was not too complicated, but dynamic, as I also had his very beginner knowledge of leatherworking to consider. So I drew it, he tooled it, and I antiqued the lines. They still need to be cuirboiled, and I have no idea what color they will turn...

If you want some thing done right, you really do have to just do it yourself. I guess I'll be exercising my celtic brain muscles a bunch more soon. There's a lot more armor to make.

I am in LOVE with this doublet...

So I saw a photo on one of the MySpace groups I belong to, in which two gentlemen are fencing in really nice leather doublets. I posted a message asking where he got them, and he directed me to RavensWood Leather.

Just take a second here, and select "Jerkins" from the left menu. See that Longsleeve Saberist? Oh, yesss. My preciousssss.

Seriously. I wouldn't have charged that little for the leather doublet I made for Marcos, and it doesn't even have sleeves.

Oh, and for the gentlemen out there, you should definitely click on "Bodices"...

Cursed Boots of Pain on EBay!

Cursed Boots of Pain - funny, this guy has my sense of humor! I had to paste this poor mans' description of the boots he is selling on Ebay. Here's a link to the auction in question, which will no doubt go away at some point in the future, so without further adieu....

The story:

After a soggy wet Lilies war last year. I decided that it would be good to have new pair of boots. I wanted boots I could fight in, and that would last a long time. So I bought some 9-10 oz natural tan leather, the same stuff you might make armor from, and set out to make myself a pair of boots. I got the boots done, and they fit too tight.

So my buddy Aidon and I went to the local leather shop to try to find some sort of leather lotion or softener. The guy sold me some stuff called “saddle butter”, he said it would make them all soft and comfy and they would break in well. “just use a heat gun to warm them up and paint this stuff on them.” Great! So I go home, I don’t have a heat gun so I fire up the kitchen oven and warm up the boots. I start taking glops of this saddle butter and rubbing it into the boots. The smell was very familiar but did not register with me right at first. All done! The boots are very soft and floppy. So I put them out on the counter to dry. I come back 30 minutes later and they are hard as a rock. I look at the label on the saddle butter. “Bee’s wax, Carnauba wax, Paraffin wax…” F#ckin great! I just Cuir Bouilli my boots. So now they are still too tight, and they are hard as a f#ckin rock. I try to force them on with a shoe horn. I try to grease my foot with vegetable oil. I can barely get them on, but they are so tight they hurt. I try walking around the block a few time to see if that helps but to no avail.

So I call my Dad. Dad says to take rubbing alcohol and water 1:1 and rub them inside the boots and put them on. That will stretch them out to fit. So I mix up the boot stretch cocktail and, being a little impatient, I rub it all over the boots inside and out. Then shoe horn them back on. I get about five steps before the sensation of a burning fiery agony reaches my lizard brain. Unknown to me at that time I had rubbed an open blister on the top of my fourth toe in the vegetable oil attempt to stretch them out. Now the alcohol was hitting open nerves. Screaming in agony, I drop to the floor, and try to pull the boots of pain off my feet. They wont give, they stretched just enough to get a good suction and weren’t going anywhere. My buddy Aidon was there for this entire ordeal, but can’t help me because he’s incapacitated with laughter. “get them off! Get them off!” I scream. He grabs my right foot and pulls on the boot. Pulls hard enough that he pulls me down the hall way of my house. My shirt rolls up and the carpet puts a long red burn across the small of my back. He still can’t get the boot off, so he tries to put his foot on something to lend leverage so he can pull harder. Unfortunately, the item he chooses to brace against was my groin. So now I’ve got a 300 pound dude standing on my nutz while my foot is on fire. Suddenly the boot comes free. Aidon is sent sprawling backward and I’m just glad he’s not standing on my junk anymore. Then I hear that tell-tale dull thud. The sort of dull thud that drywall make when a 300 pound dude knocks a hole in it the size of his back. I look up, Aidon is holding the boot still, and “sitting” in the hole he created in my wall.

O-Kay… Here’s the deal.

This auction is for this particular pair of cursed SCA boots of pain. I’m never making another pair of these again. I’m not in the business of selling boots. I just want these gone.

I wear a size 11 Wide (EEEE). And they fit really tight. Someone who is a size 10.5 could probably break them in.
9-10 oz natural tan leather.
Dyed Oxblood Red
Cuir Bouilli and distressed with alcohol
Crepe sole

I’ll ship them UPS, unless you live in Calontir and want to meet me at an event for handoff.


I'm pretty impressed. Too bad they aren't my size.