Spionnadh


Completely hand cut, carved, tooled and hand stitched leather Sporran, with beautiful authentic Highland Cattle fur supplied by Peter at Running River Ranch from his beautiful highland cattle. Detailed with steel studs.


Spionnadh means "Strength" in Scottish Gaelic.

Dyed black and suitable for dress wear.

Please contact Peter for inquiries of purchasing one of these unique and one of a kind sporrans.

Donna Graziosa


As always, hand tooled, sculpted and carved leather. Dyed and antiqued. Detailed with antique gold acrylic accents, and antiqued copper studs.


Gift for my mom on Mothers Day, her name is Donna.

"Donna Graziosa" means "Graceful Woman"

"Cluaran"


Cluaran is my second Highland Cattle Sporran created for Peter at Running River Ranch, made from the fur of the beautiful cattle he raises.

Unlike my first attempt at sporran making, I did a bit of talking and learning from other Sporran makers, learned some proper stitching, and made it a bit bigger.

It's also been dyed black for use as a dress Sporran.

Because I couldn't resist a blank piece of leather while it was drying after I formed it, I tooled a stylized Thistle, and it is after that which it is named.


The chain fasteners are removable, so it can be worn attached to a belt, or chain.

Hand cut, dyed, formed, tooled and stitched... you know the drill. ;) Finished with a waterproof seal.

Tir Na NOg

So here is the piece that has been responsible for eating up my entire past month.

I've never made a Sporran before, and it didn't take too long to realize any existing patterns I could find appeared horribly plain if not extremely primitive to me. So, I made up my mind to just wing it.


For my first Sporran, I don't think it turned out too bad. There are of course a few flaws and things that I've learned now and will only make the next that much better. Trial and error as they say.

As always, this is completely hand cut, tooled, and carved leather. Also, because of the lack of a machine, entirely hand stitched.

The fur is the inspiration for me to begin making these. As I mentioned a few posts back, I recently met a fantastic Highland Cattle rancher who for the most part raises these beautiful animals purely for their meat. He was at a loss for what to do with the beautiful fur, especially considering how expensive it is to have them tanned (and after having attempted tanning some myself now, I can understand why!)

But what he did mention, and after much researching on my part realized, there is absolutely no one out there making and selling Sporrans with Highland Cattle fur, despite that there is a demand for them. Well, we are rectifying this situation.


This particular sporran will be purchasable this weekend at the Tallahassee Highland Games and Celtic Festival, at the Running River Ranch booth, where Peter will be holding a raffle for it, as well as showing his lovely cattle and selling various cuts of meats as he usually is. :)

Lady of the Airship

A bit Steampunk inspired. I imagine some lady airship pirate might sport one of these.

As always, hand tooled, sculpted and carved leather. Dyed and antiqued. Detailed with antique gold acrylic accents, and antiqued copper studs.

UrRu & Other Adventures

So, I walked into the world of The Dark Crystal, and I came back out again with this.


I've taken up archery again, and needed a quiver. Of course any old store bought quiver was not going to do, so I challenged myself to make my own dream quiver.

For whatever reason, my old childhood favorite The Dark Crystal wouldnt leave my mind. Funny thing is there isn't even a single archer in the entire film... but if there were, this is definitely what a Gelfling would use. ;-)



Took me about a week in all... with a few mad sessions of Mass Effect 2 thrown into the mix. I really enjoyed making this, and really feel like a lot of "myself" is shining back out from it.

I named it "UrRu", after the mystics from the film.

This was also good practice for my upcoming massive project of many many sporrans. I recently met a Highland cattle rancher, and I will be using his hides to make sporrans using said beautiful Highland fur as embellishment.

finished hide

I also bought from him a few un-tanned hides for very cheap, and plan to tan them myself with the help of an incredible hunter/tanner/bowyer/fletcher I met at the archery shop. I'd like to see if it would be worth my while to tan the hides myself, or just continue to buy them already finished. If nothing else, it will be a great experience to learn the process of tanning and actually do it myself.

untanned hides

us making off with our loot

There will be some busy weeks ahead!

"Canals of Venice"






Hand tooled, carved and sculpted leather.

Dyed dark blue and hand painted in vibrant blues and turquoise. Embellished with metallic gold details. Real Swarovski crystals as the final touch.

Harlequin Romance






Hand tooled, carved and sculpted leather.

Hand painted in acrylics and sealed with a waterproof sheen.

I heavily textured these when tooling to mimic a paper mache look to them, and added gold "aging" around the edges and eyes.

They are meant to be sold as a pair, the "female" with an embellishment of dainty white feathers.

Aaaaand here's another. "Serpentia Pavone"

Hand tooled and sculpted leather.

Hand painted in deep purples and greens, finished with a pearlescent glow. Hand applied green and gold Swarovski crystals and peacock feathers. Metallic gold detail.

A couple of new ones finished today-

The Magus

..and the Wood Spriggan

Galateia

Hand tooled and sculpted leather.

She reminded me of the Sea, so I named her after a sea goddess.

Richly colored in pale blues, sea greens, and a light wash of purple. All finished with layer of translucent shimmering silver, that might make one think of sea foam.

Terik Naga