The Kingdom of the Emerald Hills

Anyone have an illustration how to make a braided belt?

I have a copy that Tanara gave me last year. I can bring it to park Sunday if you would like. I can also show you how to make one.

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Trianna Allensworth

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Hello I was curious if someone could point me in the direction that I need to be in to get an example or idea on how to make a braided belt. I have not been able to find one on the net and was hoping someone might be able to help :) Thanks

There are multiple patterns, some far more complex than others.

http://thisyearsdozen.wordpress.com/200 ... me-a-belt/

This shows a knot pattern. I have always used a simple threading pattern

i.e. If you have 8 strands, you pull 1,3,5, and 7 up and 2,4,6,8 down. The thread 1 through and bring 3,5,7,and 1 down and 2,4,6,8 up. Then thread 2 thorugh and repeat. Makes a simple stripped pattern.

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Forest Evergreen

Puppet Master of the EH

"Of course you are Forest. You're like the Mr. Burns of EH." - Finn

(insert titles and awards here)

Torgier...you have a professional belt braider in our park...Ram and Rebels mom...she makes hand spun wool finger weave belts...

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Duke, Squire Docsi HardAnvil
aka the Mad Dwarf
GMR of Dreadmoor
Squire to Sir Logan T. Black
Clan Chieftain of the Turtle Clan
Ship's Surgeon, HMS "Turtle's Revenge"
Gaslight Sky Pirate

"Dwarves and mountains have one thing in common: It takes an almighty hammer and a tremendous amount of persistence to overcome them."

This site gives a really good example of the traditional braiding technique that is common in amtgard.

http://www.rabbitgeek.com/file/diagonal ... torial.pdf

I use 1/2 inch thick steel rings (you can normally find them at any hardware store) and 8mm macrame. Hobby lobby has some colors, but I've normally found them to have a limited selection of colors. My suggestion would be to go to www.macramesuperstore.com to get a larger selection of colors. You can use either 6mm or 8mm for a belt, it just depends on how thick you want the belt to be. You also can use 6 to 8 strands depending on how wide you want the belt. (:

I'm available if you need someone to help walk you through it; picture texting is a great way of doing a tutorial just let me know and I'll give ya my number. If you're going to Midreign or WBW (yes I know a ways out) I'll be happy to host a workshop if anyone is interested. (:

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Trianna Allensworth

That's awesome. Thank you so much for that.

I would love to see a workshop on belt-making at WBW. Gryndll came home with one that she started at a workshop at Clan and what she's shown me so far has me thinking I can make one of these with a bit of help. I would love to see some more basic weaves in action as she only knows one basic pattern.

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Lord Malran Singollo
Duke of Dreadmoor
Patriarch, House Singollo
Lettusio-Rex, Dreadmoor Fey Jackalope
Member of the House of H.O.P.S.

I know 3 weaves, with 2 of them being pretty basic. I would be more than happy to host something if the autocrats can work it into the schedule.

Forest, can you add something to the schedule?

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Trianna Allensworth

On a random side note, I was thinking about a 16 gauge wire belt I made, however I didn't really do much weaving, since it was mostly a single strand made to keep my tunic up due to lack of other belt options. It did have a loop twisted into one end, and a clasp formed / woven into the other, although it wasn't very pretty, it did stay in place and was easy to put on and take off. The clasp was basically a hook, with the wire folded back so the hook was 3 wires thick, with the third braided/wrapped through the first two for strength. I think most of the weaves presented here could be done in metal, for a braided metal belt, although if the wire is too stiff it may be necessary to use a thinner wire, which may or may not add a lot of work, although 22 gauge wire is very yarn/thread-like in usage, while 26 gauge wire is basically heavy duty thread, while also being very thin and almost a little sharp. I think I got 300 feet of 16 gauge high purity nice off-steel wire for around $11 or $16 after shipping on google shopping. Most of the price was shipping.

I think with a little tweaking you could make a very nice belt, especially if you broke it into segments (just a thought), that definitely does sounds like a neat idea though!!!

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Trianna Allensworth

I hope someone can help me pull one of these off, they look really good and I want something other than my nice leather belt. I also could use help on all aspects of garb making and weapon making and well everything lol, so far I've just been winging it.

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The dead do not fall, they merely lie in wait for those strong enough to stand them back up. The living are nothing more than the dead waiting to figure it out.

I may fall but I will arise again and again, eyes blue alight to fight for the cause that is embedded in my stilled, frozen heart.

~Dreadlord Stripe Frostsorrow~
~Dreadlord Stripe Frostsorrow~

Are ya'll local? If so, then what park do ya play at and I'll come see ya and hold a workshop for anyone's who's interested? I can also help ya on making garb in addition to things like applique (although I'm not GREAT at the applique just yet) =)

Just let me know!!! =)

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Trianna Allensworth

Torgier, Stripe and myself are all okies. They are from riverstone and I'm Five Banners so unless we can make arrangements to travel it would be difficult to do a demo before banner wars. We "might" make it down for dragonmaster early next month but I haven't heard any specifics on that trip yet. Thanks for the offer though.

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Lord Malran Singollo
Duke of Dreadmoor
Patriarch, House Singollo
Lettusio-Rex, Dreadmoor Fey Jackalope
Member of the House of H.O.P.S.

I noticed it's hard to get people together to craft at the same time, and I think one of the biggest problems is personal tools, materials, and the value of both along with their potential fragility. One random solution I had that could potentially be really awesome would be for interested crafters to all buy webcams (or already have them) along with microphones, and have a video meeting where everybody can see everybody else's makings in real time, at which point they can talk about what they're making, make stuff, discuss each other's stuff, etc. Then after the remote A&S meeting is over, it would probably be extra cool to upload saved video files of the entire meeting to amtgard sites and/or youtube (with everybody's prior permission, of course. Also with the option to censor things as needed after the event but prior to uploading.) as a mix of "meeting amtgarders" videos and also "how to do A&S stuff" videos, along with real commentary from real people in real time in a discussion or however format about the stuff being made, hopefully with a variety of good and novice crafters in the meeting (or whoever can make stuff at a certain simultaneous time in front of a webcam + mic), and so people can comment on each other's techniques and what they like, do not like, and understand, do not understand, and agree, do not agree with. These would then be posted, and it would in some ways be like a TV show, maybe of random length, where each "episode" can be viewed as N simultaneous streams in one video image, or audio/video crafting stream can be watched individually, and also since amtgard is non-profit it would be neat to allow people to free remix the videos in a copyright free format to develop both crafting howto videos that are condensed and edited, maybe with some text thrown in with mixes of original footage possibly from multiple people and/or meetings, and also to encourage people to use the footage in non-amtgard ways as well, to encourage more people to view amtgard related videos as a form of advertising.