Molded Leather Bottle, Take II - Part 1

A while ago I found an intriguing leather bottle on Pinterest. The problem, as is usually the case with Pinterest, was trying to track down where the bottle came from. The caption said that it was a 10th century Irish bog find near a Norse settlement. Not a lot to go on, really, but with a bit of effort - and the help of well-connected friends - I managed to find someone who had gone to the National Museum of Ireland and taken a number of pictures of the bottle. Hooray! And yep, the caption on Pinterest was correct. The bottle was, indeed, a 10th Century bog find in Ireland, and most likely Norse based on where it was found.

Here are some of the pictures that Matt Bunker, the good gentle who visited the museum, kindly let me borrow:

 

 





Based on this model, I wanted to try my hand at making a molded bottle of a similar bent to this. I commissioned a mold from another friend, and molded the bottle. I made two major changes from the bog find and the first bottle that I made: 1) I chose not to triple the seam as it was awkward enough trying to punch and sew two layers that I couldn't imagine trying three, and 2) I chose to make the mouth smaller without folding the leather over.

                   

I found problems with both of what I thought were stylistic changes that turned out to be done for a reason. The bottle leaked considerably, even after a multitude of wax applications, so the tripled seam appears to have been as much to prevent that as for wear and tear. In addition, the bottle's neck and mouth were a nightmare to sew, even with my small hands. My best guess is that the larger mouth and neck were done that way in order to facilitate sewing, and then made wet again and folded over in order to make the mouth smaller.

Someone saw the bottle and asked if I would make one for him in exchange for a box that he would make for me. This seemed reasonable to me, so I pulled out the leather, soaked it, and put it in the mold.

 

In the middle picture, you can see that I folded the leather over on itself. That's the bottom of the bottle, and the folded over part will wrap around the bottle of the top, which is shown on the left and right. The neck is a similar size as my first bottle, but I plan to re-wet that prior to sewing and widening it out a bit.

The leather has to dry overnight, and once it's completely dry, I'll take it out of the mold to make sure that it's the shape that I want before dampening it to impress the decoration into it.

Molded Leather Bottle, Take II - Part 2
Molded Leather Bottle, Take II - Part 3