Stone Belt Project

[Please Delete]

I have been asked for pictures of the items Abe-hime and I submitted for the Spring Coronet. I'll present mine, first, since a) I have the documentation on my laptop, and b) I think that her documentation came off much better than mine, as I had to travel during the last week or so before the event.

This first one is the leather belt that I did. It will definitely be getting a do-over. I need to figure out how to work the chunk of lapis we have sitting here, and much thinner leather. Still, I think the results are quite passable for SCA purposes, and would have been great for doing Heian period re-enactment.

Attachments:

[AJBryant]

Way frikkin cool.

I really like the way this puppy came out. You did a great job, man.

[Please Delete]

Okay, a confession: It was nice, but one of the stones kept popping off at the event. Part of that has to do with the wrong cut on the stones, and part of it was just not securing them well enough.

BTW this would be easy to fake with a single, thick piece of leather (belt weight), some black lacquer spray paint, and the appropriate fittings. I tried that, first, and it fit the 10' rule (it just didn't match the descriptions of what was actually done, and didn't get the "bumps" on either side). I'm suspecting I may want to set up some kind of apparatus where I string the cord between two sections and then wrap the leather around it, but I don't know if or how that will help.

-Ii

-Ii

[AJBryant]

Hm. Let me know how sekitai v. 2.0 works.

That thing really looks the part, though. I have to say that. It gives me warm, fuzzy feeling all in my naka.

[Deleted]

Here's my approximation of a sekitai:

I based mine almost entirely on this photo from Sengoku Daimyo:

The stones are 1" ceramic tiles from the Home Depot.
I used a 3/16" "tile and glass" drill bit to hole each one.
The tiles come in a 10x10 square, so you have 100 to choose from, and only need a ~10% success rate with the drilling. (They crack in half quite easily, and it's very easy for the bit to skate off of center.)
The belt blanks are the center portions of two 1.5" wide belts I got from the clearance section of a retail belt web site.
I used a leather punch to cut five holes for each stone. One hole goes under the center, as you might expect. The other four make stitching much easier, and you can hide them under the edges of the tile so they are not visible.
The cord holding the stones in place is called "S-Lon", and it is a synthetic string made for beading.
Each stone is tied separately. Once with a single ply of cord, and then again with a double ply.
The wide cord is just braid from the fabric store. It should be white, but this was what I had at home. Eventually I will probably replace it with white silk braid when I get a chance to do the braiding.
I don't have the metal fittings for the ends of each piece of leather, so that's another long-term goal.
Here's a close-up of the stones: