Field Trip- Leathercrafts

After L-bug started her obsession with blacksmithing we went to the Maker's Faire and she met the Medieval Anachronism People, I'm sorry I forget the name of the group right now, but they were REALLY nice people and they answered all sorts of questions for L-bug and told her we were more than welcome to come to some of their meetings. Well, I forgot their name, so I got on facebook to look them up and ended up finding a site for a Viking Leathercrafts located right here in our city, so I emailed him about a possible field trip.  He was wonderful and set up a field trip for L-bug and some of her friends.  If you have any need for leather worked stuff go check out Mr. Frank. http://www.vikingleathercrafts.com/index.php

When we got to Mr. Frank's we were so excited to find that he's a blacksmith as well and had all sorts of armor out for the kids to touch, try on, and learn about.  L-bug was the only kid to try on everything, but the boys warmed up by the end. 

 This is my favorite picture of Miss bug from this field trip, with the snaggle tooth its just perfect.

 So, after Mr. Frank let them look and try on different pieces of the armor he led them over to a full suit of armor he had laying out. He told them about all the different pieces and what they did and now they worked to protect the wearer.  He was such a wonderful teacher, he gauged the kids the whole way and if something wasn't catching their attention he shifted with them to something they liked better. Sometimes I wish I was better at that!!

From the suit of armor he asked if the kids could hold a weapon.  After going over the rules of no swinging, etc., he stood close and handed the kids a broadsword and a morning star.  The glint in L-bug's eye when he held out the broadsword was precious, but eluded the camera.

 He even gave them a demonstration on how the morning star was used. 

 

After holding the real weapons, he had some fake swords and armor for the kids to play with.  They had a blast!  At this point of the field trip we thought it was coming to an end, but L-bug asked to see his workshop and he let the kids explore the workshop for a little while.  He gave them little scraps of leather to run through different machines and see what they did. 

and Ro-bear quite liked the anvil and wanted to take it home with her.  She worked very hard trying to unscrew it, but we didn't let her of course.

All in all this was a very wonderful field trip and I think everyone had fun.  After this field trip L-bug bought a leathercrafting kit and is working on learning some leather crafting, so far she's not half bad.