English Tournament Society members Payson Muller and Chris Tandy have been working on leather crests for this years event. Payson is a carver and mason at York Minster and Chris was one of propmakers for Jorvik so the modelling was no problem. They have adapted instructions from Cennino D' Andrea Cennini’s "Il Libro dell' Arte” a sort of 15th Century Readers Digest DIY book for renaissance artists.
The crest is first modelled in clay and a two part plaster mould is made from this, using tough dentil plaster. Two pieces of leather are soaked in water then then pressed into the two halves of the mould. Cennini suggests filling the leather with sand to hold the shape until the leather dries out.
The two halves are then sewn together and gessoed with rabbit skin glue and powdered chalk and then painted and oil gilded with 23ct gold leaf. The example shown was stuffed with plummers tow which caused some distortion of the leather, so we are looking at alternatives.
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| Two leather halves sewn together |
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| Finished version! |
Wow that's awesome! I want to see a boar's head next please...
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