I thought I'd write down some of my thoughts.

First off, I am somewhat proud of few personal life achievements:
-Armored furries panel at NFC 2016 had the small audience of about 10 people, of whom at least 4 were females. Plus one of them turned out to be against the use of leather and materials that require you to kill any animals. That's perfectly acceptable, we'll just craft you a chain shirt my dear ^^ Shieldmaidens
- I helped escort a wee bit too drunk furry to their room during a convention and thus avoided a helped to disarm a potentially volatile or troublesome affair. No names will be written Peacemaker
- Provide something of a social absolution for a troubled furry. Turns out soul-counseling studies were not in vain... Comfort for the weary
- Win a bidding war during furry auction in a furry convention (Done thrice) My will be done!

So I guess this old bastard heart of mine is not entirely without redeeming qualities.

Second, as fits the theme of NFC 2017, I was planning on constructing an oriental style lamellar cuirass for myself. If any leatherworkers are currently reading this, please share your thoughts as my specialty is with chainmail, not leather.
I am also contemplating on making wooden armor and another shield. If you have any suggestions for the colours or decorations, please write down what you have in mind.

Third, I am currently contemplating on building myself a personal banner to be carried with me where I may go. Any thoughts?

Fourth, If any of you have any experiences on working with wax and signet rings to make seals, I would welcome tips on how to make those and what type of materials to choose for such a task.
Also, if you have experience on how to make paper look old and worn, please write down a few guidelines for that as well.

Fifth: I have been thinking about crafters, the group of people present here who produce various crafts, such as clothes, plushies, fursuits, accessories and the likes. I was also thinking about trades between craftsmen and how to measure values of such trades.

For example: One of the most difficult trades I have been thinking would be to trade armor for a fursuit.
Now this is a particulary interesting thing due to high amount of work and materials needed on both items. For example: Head and full bodysuit are the most expensive and demanding pieces of fursuit as are body pieces of any armor and helmets.
But the values differ....
A leather chestpiece would cost around 80-120€ on materials, a chain shirt would cost me around 75-150€ and a simple chainmail coif would be something like 55-75€. Add to that a pair of chainmail and leather gauntlets for 100€ and if I can find suitable metal bits, a Splint leg protectors for another 100€. In total that's around 425-545€ for materials....but how much should I charge for work then?

Meanwhile a proper full-grade fursuit's pricetag should start with 1000......But the question I'd like to know is how much work there is in one and how much do materials usually cost......

But the question is also about how much value we give to each other's work and how much we are willing to give them money for the time they put into their works, right?

Also, if any fursuit makers are currently reading this, just out of curiosity, would you be willing to trade a fursuit for a set of medium piecemeal armor consisting of cloth, leather, chainmail and splintmail?


And finally, TMI time, but please, write those questions last.

that is all
Keep the flag flying brothers and sister.