Last weekend, as many of you know, I was at the Jackson Hole, Wy Highland games. One of the vendors, a very friendly old Highlander selling Martin Mills PV kilts and absolute garbage Packistani sporrans that he stated he would never wear himself, loved the sporrans that I had made for myself, and the belt bag that I had made for my wife, and he wanted a Welsh dragon sporran. He proposed a trade. He had a lovely lambs wool tartan shawl that my wife loved, so I offered to trade him a sporran for is. He said without hesitation "It's yours. Should I bag it?" I explained to him that there was no way I could reciprocate before the festivals end. He said he knew, and that through my affiliation with the Renaissance Scots, he trusted me and knew that I would deliver, and insisted that we take the shawl. He said that he had lots of Welsh shirts, but no Welsh sporrans, and no sporrans at all worth selling, and would like a craftsman to provide him with a custom line of higher-end sporrans, so with the backstory now in place, and without further rambling, here's the sporran that I'll be sending him for my part of the trade!

The front:



I used a pigskin lining leather for the inside:



Back:



For the gusset, I decided to use a hard leather instead of the usual softer chromium tanned leather that's commonly used. This makes it a standout piece- very unique. I stitched the face onto the gusset, and then gave the whole think a good burnish, which makes it look like one solid piece, instead of two pieced sewn and glued. To attach the back, the gentleman who wants the sporran asked for Spanish lacing, so that's what I used!



All in all, aside from a few minor flaws, I love this piece! I'm gonna cry just a little when I drop it in the mail... (By the way- my new signature is something that he said to me in Jackson. He doesn't seem to understand the "American view of the clan tartan." I told him I agreed, and things went downhill from there... )