all man-made sporran?

[Tim Little]

Some time ago I had a project in the works to make a Freelander-style sporran from a neat natural material called TreeTap. The project never really got off the ground, but I'm still enthusiastic about the material -- basically natural rubber that is cured onto a canvas base. It's most commonly used as an accent on fashion products like handbags, hats, etc.



It's pretty heavy stuff, and would be well-suited (as noted above) to a Freelander-style sporran. Part of my problem was that the material requires significant stiffening in order to form a suitable flap -- it's just too floppy. I never did find a workable solution and eventually put the project on indefinite hold. It's too bad -- I really like the concept of a truly animal-free sporran and I was going all-out using tagua nut slices in place of horn, and tracking down some Kontakt Kleber for the bits that needed adhesive.