Hnefatafl final

As of my last update, pieces had been stained and I needed a bag and a board, which I had planned to combine.  It turned out that the goat hide I had for the bag was a bit too dark, so I took an evening to embroider a scrap of linen.

Pewter adventures: prelude

So, this last summer I was asked by the then-new Princess to make her some.... No, that's wrong. See, she'd already figured out that I can go a little bit mad with crafting at not much provocation.  So instead of giving me an assignment or request, she delineated a space about the size of a nickel and said to me, "sea goats".

Hnefatafl update 2

Not only did I get all 37 pieces carved in a weekend craft bender, but I also have a new craft table! My assistant helped with both putting it together and with modeling.

Vault baby

Fallout 4 came out yesterday! Also some friends of mine who like the franchise were considerate enough to have a tiny person join their family!  It's currently a bit too big, but she's growing like crazy so it shouldn't be long now!


front and

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Bone needle cases

 Needle cases seemed to be a pretty important piece of kit for Viking Age ladies.  There are finds in lots of mediums, from bone to precious metals.  I've got a link to one here but google and pinterest have loads more. While metal tubing is easily available and ships prime, I'm going to go with bone as it'll make for a more unique and definitely not mass produced gift.

The bones of large birds seems to be the material of choice as they're a good size and, conveniently, pre-hollowed.  Large birds in Scandinavia would have been geese, swans and maybe raptors.  I've no plans on being THAT authentic, so I'm going with clearance turkey drumsticks!

Hnefatafl update!

I settled on a design for the attacking team and at current count have seven and two defenders. Practice has me being more confident with my cuts, and thus faster.  So far I've stuck to design and haven't started adding any extras - a good thing, I still have a due date on these.

My goat hides showed up today, too! Part of one is earmarked for a circular drawstring pouch/game board and I'm quite happy with the color and texture.

Hnefatafl

So, hnefatafl is a viking age board game that is interesting for asymmetry. There look to be a lot of variations on number of pieces and size of the board, but basically a king + X defenders start in the center of the board and 2X attackers start on the edges. Attackers attack and defenders try to hustle the king to the edge and escape. Capture can only happen when surrounded, and pieces move orthogonally (up/down/right/left).

Have I played it? Nope. Am I gonna make a board and pieces anyways? Yup. I'm aiming for 12 defenders and 24 attackers out of 5/8" dowel and the king from probably 3/4".  I'm planning on the board being drawn on the drawstring bag the whole mess comes in, I should really order a goatskin soon for that.  Oh yeah, there's a due date. Judging for this A&S competition is Dec 5, so I'm going to have to do a few pieces a day (saving carving projects until the last minute is a great way to develop hand piercings).