Islamic Embroidery

While searching for examples on medieval Islamic embroidery, I stumbled on this wonderful website!

http://home.comcast.net/~mathilde/embroidery/gallery/islgall.htm

Gonna teach myself how to do this for the Tir Righ A&S championship. Why? Look at it! How awesome is that!?

New Book

Well, I'm over the moon. My Laurel (who's brain I so dearly love to pick), Æringunnr picked up a copy of 'Arab Dress From the Dawn of Islam to Modern Times' at Crown Tournament this last weekend. I've only just begun looking through it, but right now I can tell you this is the book I've been looking to find for years now. There is a staggering amount of information, well documented and laid out for someone like me. I was particularly interested in the section on Ayyubid/Mamluk era clothing as it gives a concise and detailed essay on the Turkification of Arab dress at this time.

Oh boy, I'm already planning new garb!

Archery Bracer #4 for Artemis

This next bracer is for my lovely girlfriend who goes by Artemis in the SCA. The lovely lass cooked up an entire set of Turkish garb for her second event. Her first event she wore medieval garb that she just happened to have 'laying around'. You can see why I'm so fond of her.

So first things first: To find out if she even likes archery! Luckily, Tournament of Armies was just around the corner and Artemis was coming with me. Well, she was sorta the wheels of the operation, so I guess I was going with her. Anyway the night before I wanted to cook her up a bracer for shooting 'cause, ya know, that's what I do.

De Ja Vu: The feeling that all of this has happened before...

I should mention this bracer actually started before Thorun's, but I finished it after. You'll see in a little while. Anyway I cut out a quicky bracer from some leather, not really even sized for her but it came out pretty good. I added a little beveled border around it, just for some flash.

This is the part that keeps it on her arm!

So this is what she took with her to TOA. Basic, but personal. She shot quite well on my old green-stringed bow (named Petunia), after some practice she was hitting the paper with all six arrows at 20 yards. She's a natural, and I aint just saying that 'cause I know she'll read this later.

Ok so TOA is finished. We head home, and I crash for 48 hours. I had been to an event every weekend for a month. Remind me never to become Royalty, because that gig must suck for wanting time to yourself. Anyway I get home, I decide to get back into the leatherworking again. So I tool up Thorun's bracer (as seen in the previous post), then set to work on my lady's.

I talked with her a bit, and she is really into the idea of falconry. I must take her to an event where they have some demonstrations of these birds. But in the meantime we talked about heraldry and things to put on the bracer. Her name, a badge or device she might want to register or even just a heraldric charge. I suggested (like an idiot) that a falcon would look really cool. She agreed.

Birds... why did it have to be birds...

As you may recall after Isabella's bracer, I swore no more birds. But then again I swear a helluva lot, don't I? The feathers are tricky, a lot of sharp points that I'm not used to doing with leather. Give me rounded edges any day! But this heraldric falcon was a LOT easier. Far more straight, clean lines. Also, I suggested maybe adding something in Arabic at the bottom, again because I am a chump. She thought that would be awesome so I went looking online for something Arabic to do with archery and found this from the Hadith of Sahih Muslim, Book 20, number 4711:

It has been narrated on the authority of Ibn Amir who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) say - and he was delivering a sermon from the pulpit: Prepare to meet them with as much strength as you can afford. Strength is in archery, strength is in archery, strength is in archery.

So I decided to put "Strength is in archery" through a Google translator and it spat out a reasonable looking piece of Arabic script. I copy/pasted it into Photoshop, arranged the heraldric falcon and the script then sized it using measurements I took from the bracer. My friend Alex was kind enough to print it off for me, then it was time for tracing!

De Ja Vu: The feeling that... OH GOD! THE AGENTS ARE HERE!

Wetting the leather and taking a (nearly) empty ballpoint pen left quite an impression. It looked gorgeous when transfered onto the leather! I really shoulda grabbed a picture of that, but by then my lady had showed up at my house and insisted on watching me work.

She even took the camera from me!

I traced over the edges with the swivel knife and carved out the eye with my stitching groover. The arabic script was a pain, but I eventually settled on the idea of using the grooving tool again to carve off the leather of the script. It was difficult work, and probably not the best tool for it but it gave the lines some definition that they wouldn't otherwise have.

Much easier to read now, eh?

After that, I took the bevel stamp to around the edges of the falcon. It wasn't as hard as I thought, as I've had a bit more practice. I also took the bevel stamp to the outside of the wing, to make it seem raised against the body. Then I took a very small texture stamp and stamped some texture into the feathers, the talons and the beak. It worked very, very well.

Pretty darn spiffy, wouldn't you say?

I learned a lot on this project. One of the most important things was not to get the leather too wet. I wetted it down a few times, but I wanted to remove some of the tooling marks from it so I drenched it in water. Problem was, this also removed some of my tooling with (or made it kinda indistinct), so I had to go back over it again. Not a horrific mistake, but one I won't make again.

Another issue was with the Arabic script. I was really struggling with a way for it to stand out besides just a series of cuts in the leather. I tried a bit of bevel stamping, but it looked not so good. I like the effect the grooving tool made, though and I might do that again in the future.

After I was finished, I decided to do something really silly. I've been finding that the leather lace I use cuts into the bracer a tad over time, grinding away on it a little bit. Nothing too severe, but I think for my really nice work I'll use gromets. Low and behold, I happened to have some laying around.

That'll hold it!

So there it is, a new archery bracer for my lady Artemis. I am most proud of this one, not just because of the work or how it turned out. I'm most proud that I got to do something awesome and unique for the lady I care so much about.

Enjoy, Habbibi!

Archery Bracer #3 for Thorun

 Earlier this year I sold the first bow I ever owned to my friend, Thorun. I wasn't shooting with it anymore, she wanted something to shoot with... so it all worked out! I sold her the bow, the case and a stringer for a decent price. But as any true salesman will tell you, it's all about the add-ons. So I offered to make her a custom leather bracer as well. Five months later (never said salesmen were prompt), this is what I came up with!

This bracer was a bit different from the others, I used a thinner grade of leather for this one, and it had an interesting effect. The tooling required almost no effort at all, and it left some very nice impressions. It is a big more wiggly than the typical stiff bracers I'm used to, but I think this also means there is less chance, as time goes on, of the leather drying out and cracking. Plus it has a really nice texture.

I went through the usual steps for cutting out the bracer and rounded off the edges. After wetting the leather (as always), I cut the holes out for the lacing, beveled the edges, then took a stitching groover and created a line running about an inch and a half around the edge of the bracer.

Taking one of my stamps and a mallet (not a hammer, too heavy), I placed the leather on an anvil and gave the stamp two whacks just beside the groove I cut. This was more than enough to leave an impression. I traced the line with the stamp to create a very nice border effect. Then I grooved out another line along the edge of the stamping. Voila! Instant fancy border!

I wanted to try something a little new for this bracer. After speaking with Thorun, I decided to put her name in Norse runes on it. The website I used to translate her Norse name into runes can be found here.

I traced the runes onto a piece of paper, then traced it onto the bracer using the empty pen method. Taking the swivel knife to the smaller rune lines was a bit tricky, but the bevelled stamp I used really made it pop. I gave it a coating of water sealer and tied it up using leather lace.

For those keeping count, the TH is one letter.

Overall, I was happy with the result. In the future if I put script on a bracer, I'll use a larger font (I did use a pretty big font already) to give me some wiggle room with the knife and stamp, and some of the lines are a tad uneven. But I really like the border effect and I'm quite proud to give my friend something unique she can shoot with for years. The fact that she's giving me a little cash doesn't hurt either!

A Tournament of Armies

Ok so as some of you may know, last year I went to Tournament of Armies 1 in Lions Gate, An Tir. It was a bit rocky, some major delays and schedule changes. There was a lot of very cool ideas being implemented, such as a warband processional in which all the armies came into court and presented a bit of propaganda for their side. Nice idea, but it took quite a while and it was less than comfortable waiting around in that armour. The idea that A&S and service added to your Warlord's warchest was also great, but alas the economy became a bit inflated due to all the volunteering.

This year, none of those were issues.

Despite the fact that the event venue had been changed at the last minute (flooding and mosquito infestation of the original site), the entire thing went over very smoothly. Well, less smoothly for me and my lady Artemis, since we got lost a time or two on the way and when we got there, we found that our tent had the wrong polls. No worries though, Johanna gave us the use of her tent for the weekend, to which we responded by gifting her with Turkish delight (the candy, not a swarthy man from Istambul) and Belgian and Insula Magna beer.

Court was very quick, lots of banners and pomp for all the warlords. Right after that we basicly jumped right into war mode. There were a lot of people there, easily twice as many as last year. A great deal of fighters as well were present, and a solid force of Rapier mercenaries. It was starting to feel like a big event.

I pledged my services to Baroness Margaret of Lions Gate as an archer to gain her army boons. I even submitted my bow quiver into the A&S competition to give her some more coins, and was drawn into judging a research paper as well. Despite not having any documentation (except what I gave for an oral presentation), I scored pretty decently. I'll put some of the feedback up in the blog when I get around to posting about the project in question.

After that it was archery. The set-up took quite a while, and it was damn hot on that field. Lady Jaqualine, who was MIC, did an amazing job of providing us with shade, water, and a lot of fun shoots. I shot myself a king-sized rabbit, shot two arrows through a cross-shaped loop hole and one arrow through an inch-wide 'Assasins Slot' in a castle wall. I was one of only 3 archers to make that shot (One was a Gray Goose, the other was just a really good archer!). We even had enough space for a Clout Shoot (the kind where you have to aim your bow 45 degrees up to hit a target 100 yards away). Our group of archers earned many boons and points for the Baroness' army, and it was an absolute pleasure to be on the line with the fantastic archers from Lions Gate.

The evenings were... well... The first night the Drakkar's invited me to drum with them. I only had my little thing that I picked up at San Fransisco (the store, not the city) and scraped off the painted pot leaf, but they were incredibly encouraging and gave me hope for my white-man rythem syndrome, AND my lady even got up and danced a little in her new Turkish garb. I also drank nearly all the wine and most of the beer we brought.

The second night I got to sit back and enjoy the sound of my favorite instrument in the world: The Saz, as played by Shareef Musiqi al-Rashid. If you haven't heard one, youtube it. There was also much dancing, coin tossing, singing of drinking songs, and one awkward moment when Tiampo was feeling me up.

The following Sunday was my favorite moment of the weekend. I got to teach my lady Artemis how to shoot a bow. I even made her up a bracer from some leather the night before. I don't mean to brag, but she got pretty darn good with that bow. By the end, she wasn't missing the target once at 20 yards. I was very proud and thrilled that she was enjoying it so much.

We packed up a little early and left site before 2pm on Sunday. After saying goodbye to all our new friends and old, we got lost on the highway back to the ferry. Not to worry, we made it out and caught the 5pm ferry with no difficulty. Artemis was lamenting that the weekend was over so soon, and I could definatly relate. I highly encourage everyone reading this to go next year to Tournament of Armies.

Archery Bracer #2 for Isabella

So this one I made for my friend Isabella de la Vega. I tried a few new things with this one, namely some very complicated shapes. Her device is a phoenix displayed, so that means lots of feathers and fire.

Oh yea, and a crescent on top

I traced the design she game me and used the ballpoint pen method mentioned previously to mark the design in the leather. This time, I tried using the bevel stamp as well as the swivel knife on the leather. The idea with the bevel stamp was you basicly crush the edges of the design down, leaving a raised area around the phoenix.

Brilliant!

Now, I'm not that practiced with the knife or the stamp, and all the little lines caused me no end of grief. But the end product I was quite happy with. It really seems to pop off the leather. Next step, the dying!

Oops...

I wanted to use the same technique I used on the previous bracer, which is waterproof the design and dye the rest darker. Seems I was too excited to remmeber and applied the first coat of dye all over the darn thing! But all is not lost! I painted on the waterproofing, waited for it to dry, then gave it two more coats of dye.

None too shabby!

I was quite happy with how it turned out. It was a tad darker than I intended, but the extra dye gave it enough of a contrast for the phoenix to really stand out. Just goes to show you gotta be paying attention, leather isn't that forgiving.

Hoody Hoo!

Turns out Isabella wanted a really strikingly dark bracer, so I'm glad I was able to oblidge her. I gave the thing another coat of waterproofing (so the dye wouldn't run in wet or sweaty weather), laced it up and gave it away. Hmmm I should get some pictures of her wearing it...

July Coronation in Review

The time is 1:14am, and I rolled in about an hour ago. I know that as soon as my head hits the pillow I'm gonna sleep for a week, so I thought I'd share a little bit about how my first An Tir Crown level event went.

First up, it looked like I was going to stay home that weekend. Couldn't find a ride to the event, even if I walked on the ferry and got scooped up on the other side. So I send a text to my Laurel, Mu'allama Æringunnr Yrsudóttir asking her if she can bring some of my things. She responds that yes, she can bring my things, including me! Seems she sharked a large van for the weekend from Owen (more on him at a later date) and could now transport me to the biggest event I've ever seen. After a ride on the Coho and a bit of driving, we showed up on site, pitched camp and enjoyed the ambiance.

I have a lot of mixed emotions, truth be told. I was excited to be going, and was super stoked to get there. It didn't really matter that the ground was very wet and swampy, it didn't even matter that the weather was pouring down rain the entire weekend. There were over 900 people there from all over the Kingdom, from Laurels to Pelicans and Knights as well as more Royal Peers than I've ever seen in my life. My Laurel even had us camped with the Crown Prince and Princess of An Tir, Thorin Njalsson and Dagmaer in Hvassa! This was both awesome and a little awkward, since I know next to nothing about them!

I was a real outsider this weekend, knowing five people out of the multitudes. I ran into a few lords and ladies who recognized me, but by and large I was spending the weekend with nearly a thousand strangers. This didn't really upset me though, since the previously mentioned Laurel introduced me around to some awesome people. I shook hands and bowed to more Peers than I had ever met on the first day, and relaxing around them wasn't a problem for long.

One thing I did find shocking was the merchanting. There were quite a few merchants set up in the market, but roaming around I couldn't find a single thing that I needed or wanted. Ok, that isn't true. I found a book on Islamic dress and costume from the time of the Prophet, through the Abassid dynasty and into modern times. Basicly, the perfect book for me. Trouble is it was $140 and clocking in at a meager 175 pages. Why so expensive you ask? Limited academic printing of 150 copies, to be sold off to libraries around the country. Balls.

But back to the problem at hand. I've grown a long way in the SCA and I no longer look at leatherworked pouches, pewter pendants with dragons on them, or knives and daggers that look like props from Legend. Which isn't to say there wasn't amazing stuff there. Handforged iron knives (I saw him forging them), lampwork beads, costume from all over the world. But I'm very narrow in what I need now. If it isn't Arabic, or would make a good gift, I don't really look twice.

I partied pretty hard on Friday night. Met some very cool people, drank some very cool rum (Pyrat strikes again!), and just generally had a good time. Saturday court lasted for over five hours. I'm sorry to report I was there for only a small part of it. I saw a knighting, I saw Barons and Baronesses swear fealty to the Crown, but that was it. I know, I know it's terrible. Go to a Coronation and don't even see the new King and Queen get crowned. But I was either busy exploring or napping (re: Friday night) and trying to keep warm and dry.

I stayed in my tent Saturday night (quitter, aint I?) because, frankly, I was peopled out. Talking to dozens of people whome you've never met before and trying to remember their names is not something I do easily.  I needed a break from all the hub-bub. And I got about 100 pages into Dance of the Dragons, which we all bought at Target for $24.99.

Sunday I finally got in a little bit of archery when the rain let up, hung out and talked shop with other archers for a bit (so many gorgeous period longbows!), then packed up and hit up the duty free on our way across the border (picked a little something up for the lady).

Pros for the weekend: Amazingly huge event! Was so impressed with all the period pavilions (especialy Viscountess Safiye's turkish set-up), the banners with all the devices of An Tir, and the festival atmosphere of vigils and knightings.


Cons for the weekend: I could count on one hand the number of people I knew out of 950! It was immensly intimidating to walk around, literally lost in a sea of tents you've never seen before. Next time I go to an event of this scale, I have to convince more Seagirtians to come with me. They have to see just how big this game can get (sometimes right across the border), and with other friends around me I know I can get into far more trouble next time!


Plans for next Crown event: Bring something for the A&S display, bring more Seagirtians, sacrifice something to the sun gods to give us more summer weather!

Archery Bracer #1 for Finndabhair

People say it is possible to love archery too much, but I choose not to listen to those people. For they are villians.

One of the things I've been doing around my local group is constructing archery bracers for people! Now I'm not exactly an expert leatherworker, but I bought some tools, read a few books and began my journey into, as my friend Owen put it, crafting from the flesh of beasts!

Ok first step is to get some leather...

Maybe not that fresh...

Next step was cutting it into shape. I later realized measuring your subject's arm is a great place to start, but for this project I kinda winged it. The subject in question is a newer archer and friend of mine, Finndabhair. She's got one of those Pictish personas (if you couldn't guess by the name) and wanted something Celtic/Gaelic/Led Zeppelin-esque on her bracer. No problem, says I!

I decided not to go for the Icarus

I printed off the celtic symbol for infinity from the internet, after I sized it about how I wanted using Photoshop (set canvas size to 3 inches, for example). After wetting the leather a little under the tap, I took the picture and an empty ballpoint pen to the leather. Laying the paper on top and tracing over the lines with the pen left an impression into the soft, wet leather of the design I wanted! After the tracing was done, I took a swivel knife (dead handy tool) and traced over the indentations on the leather, being very mindful of the weaving pattern.

Next step was to take a stamp and give the inside of the design some texture. Keep in mind this was my first time to the rodeo, and I think I just used the most basic of stamps and didn't even bevel the edges of the knotting pattern. Ah well, live and learn. But I did do something that I thought would really make the device pop!

Jimmy Page could not autograph it

I took a bottle of leather waterproofing, a paintbrush and started very carefully painting the lines of the celtic knot. I gave it three coats, just to be safe, before getting the leather damp with a cloth and applying a dye. I was hoping that after I applied a layer of dark brown dye, the waterproofing would leave the knot an ordinary leather colour.

Would ya look at that! My floor is a mess...

I was very impressed with the how it turned out. I did have to wipe off some of the dye from the waterproofed section, but it beaded nicely off the knot. Just needed to dab it off with some paper towel and I was left with this nice golden celtic design on a leather bracer. The last thing I wanted to do was shape it, so I got the inside a bit damp and wrapped it around a wine bottle.

Protect your wrist or hooch from bowstrings!

I was very happy with the final product. The only complaint I had with it was it didn't fit my friend Finn perfectly, it was a little wide for her arm and the laces didn't keep it on that tight. She solved it by relacing it a different way and it seems to be performing quite well!

Since this was my first attempt, I gave it to her as a gift. There are a lot of other things I would have liked to go back and do to it, such as add some lines around the edges using a grooving tool, as well as rounding off the cut edges of the bracer using an edge beveler. But I look on this as my first real piece of leatherwork and a functional gift for a fellow archer.

Inaugural Posting

Well, laying the foundation for what is to come here, eh? Well for starters, a bit of an introduction.

My SCA name is Rashid al-Qasim. I live in the Barony of Seagirt, Principality of Tir Righ, in the Kingdom of An Tir. I am a Yeoman to the Baroness of Seagirt (a Baronial rank for archers of the Sergeantry. Don't know what a Sergeant is? Link at the bottom of the page!), my persona is 12th century Egyptian Arab, and spend most of my times at events either talking about archery or looking to do some archery.

When I'm not at events, I find myself looking for primary sources for my period. I think next post I'll list my source books, and update the list as I get more. Way of keeping track of what I have.

Another thing I spend my time on is the An Tir Culture Wiki. I spend a fair bit of time editing pages, categorizing them, and adding content. Speaking of which...

Here is a link to the wiki article on Sergeantry in An Tir.
http://wiki.antir.sca.org/index.php?title=Sergeant