Some recent projects

[Derian le Breton]

We need MORE brag posts!

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I've been doing a bunch of stuff lately. Some metal work, some coin stuff, lots of brewing.

Last month I made some fancy brass washers for a shield project (by Rasper77). The ones with the simple triangle decoration in the upper left are based on jewelry finds in the Cuerdale Hoard and the Vale of York Hoard. The others are inspired by them, but I was mostly just playing around. These were done without any magnification, which is why some of my punchwork is a bit wonky. These are 0.5" in diameter.

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More photos of the process live <A HREF="http://www.flickr.com/photos/derianlebreton/sets/72157603242207418/">here</A> (scroll down to the bottom).

I also made a "Best of Show" medallion for the Brewer's Guild of Caid for GWW. Sterling silver, I first cast a slug in a cuttlefish bone, then polished one side and cut the design with a combination of engraving and punchwork. The text reads "BEST OF SHOW GWW:XII". The three objects in the center are a bee, a bunch of grapes, and a couple stalks of wheat. Unfortunately I'm not a very good photographer, especially with shiny surfaces. This is 1.25" in diameter.

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And I've also been doing some coin stuff; trying to get a moneyers' guild started up down here. I made coins for the recently crowned king & queen of Caid (Patrick and Kara). They're doing a Hiberno-Norse reign, so I made some coins based off of coins minted by Norse settlers in Limerick around 1055-1065. These are 0.75" in diameter (the size of a US cent). The text reads (obverse): "+PATRICK: REX: CAID" (reverse): "DERIAN ON HY" for "Derian from heatherwyne (my sca branch)":

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I call them my "pear-headed Viking" coins. We did the usual 240 pewter + 2 fine silver presentation pieces:

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And just for fun, here's a pic of the obverse die in progress:

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Since moving down here in August I've started 25 gallons of beer (10 of which has been bottled so far), made hippocras a few times, and started about a gallon of cordials. Brewing photos live <A HREF="http://www.flickr.com/photos/derianlebreton/tags/homebrewing/">here</A>. Today I'll be making two bottles of hippocras, both using the same recipe except for the type of sugar (I want to test the suitability of piloncillo - Mexican cone sugar, which is about as unrefined as you can get). I'm thinking about doing some flavored vinegars too.

I post photos of most of my projects on <A HREF="http://www.flickr.com/photos/derianlebreton">my flickr page</A>.

-Derian.

[Greenshield]

That's some excellent coining! well done.

G

[Derian le Breton]

Thank you!

These were also somewhat of an experiment in speed. The cross side took 5 hours to cut, and the head side took 8 hours. The designs are mostly punchwork (the thin lines on the viking head are engraved). Some of the lettering is a bit messy, but well, so are the originals.

-Derian.

[Roibeard MacNeill]

Very sweet, Derian...phenomenal. Very crisp outlines on the designs.

I love piloncillo! I used it on a final ferment of an Imperial IPA I brewed last year...the taste really complimented the hops quite nicely.

[Derian le Breton]

Thanks!

That Imperial IPA with piloncillo sounds <I>very</I> interesting. Would you mind sharing the recipe? What sort of notes did you get from the piloncillo in the final product?

-Derian.

[Roibeard MacNeill]

Thanks!

That Imperial IPA with piloncillo sounds <I>very</I> interesting. Would you mind sharing the recipe? What sort of notes did you get from the piloncillo in the final product?

-Derian.

Would not mind a bit...once I finish the move to the new house I will find the notebook with the recipe and PM it to you.

The sweet, sugar caney undertones cut the final bitterness of the hops quite a bit but did not change the nose...totally unexpected since I mainly used it to feed the final fermentation (The final ABV was around 15.5%). It was tasty...the end product had a mild, I-just-licked-a-sugar-cane-stalk bit to it.

[Effingham]

Seriously sweet.

I used to have a pile of SCA-folk–minted historical coin repros. Have no idea what happened to them.

[Derian le Breton]

Effingham: Thanks. If you find those coins, I'd be happy to try and identify them for you (good photos or scans).

Roibeard: Thanks in advance for the recipe. It's not entirely surprising that the aroma of the piloncillo was not present in the final brew. Delicate aromas will be "scrubbed out" somewhat by CO2 coming out of solution during fermentation (this is a big problem with vanilla, in my experience).

I started some hard cider with piloncillo recently, we'll see how it turns out in a few weeks!

-Derian.