Bryn Madoc Archery Champion Quiver

By Kazetani, March 24, 2014

When we first moved to Atlanta, we were closest to the Barony of South Downs and played with them for many years. During that time, we also started to plan our wedding and as that took over our free time, we participated less and less in the SCA.  We ended up taking a four year hiatus as we realized there had become a lot of stress associated with playing the game.

 

When we decided we wanted to return, we had moved farther north from our previous home, and the closest barony was the Barony of Bryn Madoc.  As most know, we are primarily archers, and when we came to Bryn Madoc, there was no regular archery practice nor any real archers or marshals.  We stepped up to organize a practice, and chased down the people we needed to to get our marshal authorization back up to date, and soon there was a semi-regular practice, and we even got to hold a few baronial championships for archery.  We enjoyed our time in Bryn Madoc immensely, still the most welcoming and encouraging group of people we’ve met as a group in the SCA,  Unfortunately layoffs left us looking for work, and work took us across the country to Las Vegas.

I had attended a leather working workshop about a month before we had to leave.  I wanted to leave the barony something for its budding archery program and so I promised to make them a quiver for the Baronial Archery Champion. I wanted to display the device of the barony, and use its colors of purple and yellow.

Using an archery quiver pattern from the 1950s, I cut and dyed a heavy 7 ounce leather a rich brown.  While the initial idea was to use leather dyes as the colors, I had never tried colored dyes before, and it didn’t turn out well.  To fix it, I tried my hand at stamping the leather.  This looked nice up close, but from a distance you could hardly tell there was a design.  So I resorted to the internet, which suggested cutting acrylic paints with water to make thin coats of color, and paint repeatedly, which would let the paint move with the flexing of the leather.  It turned out looking quite nice with the white and yellow.  The purple I used to paint the stamping lines however was not very visible.

I had already decided by the finish of the leather that I would have to line the top of the quiver at least.  Tarou suggested that since the opening was angled, why not line the quiver with purple fabric to bring out the purple paint.  So using various glues, I did, and then attached the shoulder straps. Tarou helpfully modeled the finished product, and we sent it off to the baronial seneschal.  He reported to us later that it was well recieved and being put to good use.  Hopefully it, and archery, last a long time in Bryn Madoc

— Kiyotora