It is now autumn 1914 and the war has been going a month or two. The Major is home on leave and has left his gloves and swagger stick on the hall table.

In this WW1 themed project we are going to make a pair of gloves from fine leather plus silver topped bamboo swagger stick. The stick is based on a real one I saw at an auction house recently. As an alternative, you can use a black Malacca style cane by painting the stick black instead of the bamboo version here. A silver bead would make a good alternative to the foil top too.

Swagger Stick

You will need:

• A wooden tooth pick (good quality one)
• Wooden clippers, small saw, or craft knife
• Yellow ochre and burnt umber acrylic paint
• Paint brushes
• Acrylic varnish – satin or matt
• Silver foil
• PVA Tacky Glue
• Gold marker pen

Step 1

Swagger sticks are usually around 27 – 28 inches long, so in 1/12th scale this equates to just over 2” long, about 2 ¼ inches would be ideal. They do not normally taper very much towards the end, but remain more or less the same diameter throughout.



Cut the pointed tip off the stick leaving a piece that is between 2 and 2 ¼” long.

Step 2



Paint the stick with yellow ochre to resemble the main colour of bamboo. Allow to dry.

Step 3



Take a very fine brush and paint in the bamboo rings around the shaft with burnt umber acrylic paint. Before the paint dries, gently smudge up and down the stick with your finger to resemble real bamboo.

Step 4



Coat with matt or satin acrylic varnish to protect the finish.

Step 5



Take a little square of silver foil and carefully wrap over a spare cocktail stick. Smooth down until it is nice and tight.

Step 6



Gently slip this off and cut away the excess foil before replacing the silver cap over the painted stick and gluing in place. Use the gold marker pen to create a ‘brass’ ferrule on the base of the stick.

Gloves

You will need:

• A scrap of fine dark brown or black leather
• PVA Tacky Glue
• Small very sharp scissors
• Piece of foam & Ball Stylus tool

Step 1



Take a piece of the fine leather, fold and glue in half lengthways.

Step 2



From this cut two identical mitten style gloves – these will be trimmed, so they can be fairly rough. They should be about ¾” long from wrist to finger tips and will give you a glove that is about right for a man with size 8 hands.

Step 3



Once you have your basic glove shape, next go in with very fine sharp scissors and cut out the 4 fingers individually on each glove.

Step 4



Next take the scissors and trim each finger. Leather is very forgiving, so just pulling and stretching should help to get them looking okay.

Step 5



Lay out the gloves palm side uppermost on a bit of foam (the underside of a mouse mat works well) and roll a ball stylus into the palm of each glove and up the fingers. This will make the gloves look worn.

Step 6



The gloves and stick are arranged on a hall table, this tells everyone in the household that the Major is home on leave!

Enjoy!

Ann

Need more inspiration - check out our WW1 Pinterest board.

Go to the project - Princess Mary's Christmas Gift Box

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Other projects in this series:

Poppies

Pip squeak 

DIY trench art 

Suffragette