Artificer's General "Catalog" thread

**Downunder Kilt** · 20th February 11, 09:25 PM

That fur, the grain (if i can call it that) the colour and the evenness of the hair is fantastic. Another winner Scott. It is one of the few such sporrans that I like the shape of too. They usually look like a fluffy ball with a cantle stuck on. Cheers mate

**Santa Wally** · 21st February 11, 06:37 AM

Another gorgeous work of art.

**Ryan Ross** · 21st February 11, 10:13 AM

Fantastic work, as always, Scott! As some other folks have mentioned, you do a really nice job of shaping the actual bag, such that it's footprint on the kilt has some visual interest. One could pay huge ammounts for a mass produced sporran that is, in terms of configuration, quite simmilar to the one you've just made; however, said mass-produced sporran will invariably suffer from the "fluffy ball with a cantle stuck on" affliction. Awesome, awesome job, sir.

**ThistleDown** · 21st February 11, 10:49 AM

This arrived in today's post.

Where to start? With the fur, I suppose: adult male beaver trapped on my property in British Columbia about twenty years ago. A luxurious early-winter pelt that's been waiting for someone with great talent to come along and make it into the perfect sporran.

Scott (Artificer) enters the picture. He had posted a pic of a hammered leather cantle some months ago on XMarks and agreed to work with my pelt and produce a similar sporran for me. Similar but not the same, because it was a skunk he made previously and the two pelts are quite different in their demands. We had lots of discussion about how this one would look before he put knife to leather and several times during production; I liked that a lot because it has made this sporran a team effort from design right through to delivery.

But I must tell you what it is I like since it is now in front of me. It's the detail. I must say that I've not seen such obvious attention to even the most minor points in any other sporran I've had in hand: the stitching grooves are perfectly carved and each blow in the hammering resulted in the same impression as every other blow.

Beaver is not an even colour. It ranges from buff through deep brown with tips of rust. I suppose it would have been easy to simply dye the cantle to match the darkest shade in the fur and let it go at that, but Scott found the middle tone and let the shadows and lights of the hammering and thonging give depth.

I am going to wear this sporran with great pride and, no doubt, pass it on for other generations to enjoy, too. Thank you, Scott, for living up to your name.

Rex

**Bugbear** · 21st February 11, 12:09 PM

Congratulations, ThistleDown, glad it all turned out so well. Very interesting story behind the sporran.

**MacBean** · 21st February 11, 01:55 PM

I have a fox sporran a bit like that...only it has three silver fox tassles which really set it off. All the fox fur is wonderfully soft. I love it.

Exquisite work. Congratulations.

Oh! So Rex commissioned the beaver sporran! It really is very fine indeed. Congratulations Rex.

**Mike_Oettle** · 21st February 11, 02:01 PM

That fox sporran is magnificent!
Regards,
Mike

**artificer** · 21st February 11, 07:02 PM

Rex, thank you! The pelt was gorgeous and I really enjoyed working with you on the specifics of this piece.

Thanks to all for the comments on the fox sporran. The fur was quite a switch from the beaver

One is quite wiry and full, the other sleek and smooth.

Hopefully we'll hear from it's owner as well when he receives it.