Coloring the Bronze of ISLAND SONG - From October 2012

This video was made in October 12th 2012. I thought it would be good to re-edit it and put it up on YouTube.

Unconquered Attaching the Shield to the Arm and Working on Straps

Attaching the Shield today. Once attached I then start to finalize the hand holding it, and the straps that come off of it.

Two Types of Calipers Golden Mean Calipers and AMCreatures Calipers

I bought a while back the deluxe Calipers from Golden Mean Calipers, and just received them today. A friend of mine in Texas, who took the workshop I put on in Grapevine Texas in January. I saw her using a very well made pair of Calipers in the workshop.. I mentioned I'd love to get a pair of those. Well she sent me a pair and I got them in the mail today..

Unconquered - Discussing the Straps on the Back of the Shield

Unconquered - Redoing the Shield for the Third Time

Using the drawing sent to me by Michael Badhand, as well as photographs of Shields sent to me by a fellow artist, Patricia Dobson, I started redoing the shield front and back. Michael's books are available on Amazon. There he's listed as "Michael Bad Hand".

Unconquered - Drawing What the Back of the Shield Should Look Like From ...

Waited for a drawing to be sent me through Facebook of what the back of a Plains Indian War Shield would look like. Very little is ever shown of the back of shields for reference. Micheal Badhand said he'd draw up a fast sketch of what I needed.. I got it late this evening. It was everything I needed to do the shield right. Micheal's books are available on Amazon. There he's listed as "Micheal Bad Hand"

Unconquered - Creating a Feather Out of Wax

I decided to add two more feathers to the head of Unconquered. I show how to make the feather out of wire, and wax.

Unconquered - Attaching the War Shield and a New Idea

Today I attach the war shield to the left hand of the warrior.

Unconquered - Making a War Shield

Today I re-worked the war shield for Unconquered. There were four types of shields which were used on the Plains: the dance shield which was a lightweight version of the war shield; the medicine or holy man's shield, the miniature shield, which was a small copy of a warrior's war shield , and which he sometimes carried on long journeys in place of the war shield; and the war shield itself. The war shield was made in three varieties. The least-used variety, was made by stitching four or five layers of flat rawhide together, cutting these in a traditional round shape, and then decorating the front side of the hide with feathers and strips of cloth. A second variety was made by forming the hide around a wooden hoop. Many kinds of hoop shields were constructed, but these called for a thinner and weaker hide than those made by the third means, which was the heat shrinking process. Most war shields by far were fashioned this way, for the shrinking produced a thick hide and it was easier to press into a concave or convex shape which aided in deflection of weapons hitting it. Prior to the arrival of the horse, Plains war shields were quite large-often being three feet or more in diameter. These were much to cumbersome for mounted men, though, and so the size was reduced until the average war shield measured only eighteen inches in diameter.

Unconquered - Time to Work on the Back of the War Shirt

Tackling the back of the War Shirt. Brain Tanned Leather has a peculiar look because of the way it's prepared. Trying to give that particular look, is the hard part.

Unconquered - Working on the Right Sleeve and Making it Look Like Leather

I reworked the right arm and hand in the last video.. So in this one I try making the leather over the arm look like leather, with it's, unique wrinkles and how they would look.