Leather Armor, you know, for the kids!

When I made my leather bracer / arm guard pattern, I sized it up and down to make standard sizes. The smallest of these was the kids size. Well, after selling a number of these over the last 4 years or so, I finally sold a pair of kids sized bracers. I was beginning to think kids didn't need armor. Maybe they really should stay out of the battle... After not selling a pair of the kids size for almost 4 years, I sold two in one week. It's odd how that works, how things sell in bunches.

The process for making the bracers is simple. I start with an 8 oz veg tanned leather (4 oz veg tanned for the kids). I then cut the bracer out. This can be either an angular or curved version. I give it the base coat of whatever color the customer has chosen. I let it dry. I then come in with hints of black and maybe dark brown to dirty it up a bit. Then a finish coat and a bit of wax. The eyelets. Here I will give the eyelets a bit extra umph to bend the eyelets out of shape just slightly, making them look used. I try not to go overboard with the antiquing; it's mainly just the coloring to make it look old and dirty. I don't markup the leather, as that can go wrong quickly.