Larp

FANTASTIC! You’ve started LARPing! This is great news. But understandably, you’re feeling a *bit* wobbly about how to actually, y’know, put it all together. But hey, don’t worry! Your buddies at Darkblade are here with some tips. SORT YOUR BASE LAYER What the flip is a “base layer”? A base layer is the stuff that goes next to your skin. It’s the ... read more ›

Occasionally people ask what's involved in making things so I thought I'd quickly run through the process of stuff as it landed on the workbench and time allowed. First up is the fur mantle, it was originally designed when I read the brief for Wintermark at Empire but it fits well with quite a few briefs. Picture 1, The fur. All the fur I use is synthetic. The quality of this has... read more ›

We've had a laser in the corner of the workshop for the best part of 15 years now. In that time it's had two new laser tubes, new power supply, new motherboard and a replacement water pump, but it's still the same old laser. We use it to put images on various leather goods although by far the most populous of these is vambraces. Most of the images in the catalogue also date back about ... read more ›

I've found the various finishes and colourings you can get on leather a constant fascination. While as a general rule most of our stuff is produced in black and brown it's always fun to play with colours, either making the whole item out of a coloured leather or using colour to pick out details such as in the applique satchels.   There's also the fun of putting colour into t... read more ›

A few years ago there was a game called Odyssey, set in a mythical greco roman world. One of the races, the Cartheginians were described as being armoured in the skin of beasts. That set me thinking and I decided to make a cuirass with hair on it. Casting around the only hair on leather that could be had at a reasonable price was goat. Goat is a little thin to make decent armour so I stitched it o... read more ›