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Thursday, July 23, 2009

15th century girdlepurse

At Voergaard I also made a girdlepurse.

The most interesting feature on this purse is the decoration on the flap. I have never made a purse with a decorated flap before, so this was something to try out.

The decorarions are made using an awl, but later I will try using a wooden board with some carved lines, and press the leather into those. Hopefully this will result in deeper lines.

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10 comments:

  1. Beautiful work, Mikkel! If I understand correctly, to make the decoration (which adds a great deal of interest to the piece) you laid the needle of the awl across the leather and pressed down? I never would have thought of that.

    Bob

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  2. I use a curved awl and press the side of the tip onto the leather along a ruler.

    Like this: http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t306/MikkelF84/MF243156.jpg

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  3. Beautiful work! I particularly love the pocket inside the main flap. Is your purse an original design in period fashion, or is it a recreation of a particular historic find?

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  4. It is not a copy or recreation of an original. Rather a purse inspired by several late medieval findings.
    Have a look at the book "purses in Pieces", thats where I get my inspiration from.

    The purse is made up of different features, from different originals, put togeather.

    I think that there is a preview of the chapter on girdlepurses somewhere on the net, but I can't seem to find it :-/

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  5. ... and here it is! The link to the chaprter in "Purses in Pieces" conserning girdle purses:

    http://www.oxbowbooks.com/pdfs/books/purses%20amerika.pdf

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  6. I would be grateful if you could contact me at thomas.hayman (at) gmail.com please. I wish to commission a similar purse but cannot find your contact info.

    Thanks

    Thomas

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  7. Wonderful! Really wonderful. Is the leather folded on the inside of the flap? How did you manage that? The leather must be pretty thin I guess, but that still seems like it would take a lot of skill.

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  8. The flap is sewn from two seperate pieces, and then turned inside out.
    The leather is just about 0,8-1 mm thick.

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  9. I have made a similar purse. I notice your pouchettes don't accordion very much. Was that on purpose?

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  10. Yes it is. I try not to make the too bulky. Too many folds at te top will just take up space without being of much use.

    You just need enough room to allow your fingers to get to the bottom of the pouchlet.

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