Description
In 2012, I decided to initiate a collaborative project with another British knife maker, Guy Stainthorp. Guy produces very defferent work to me and seemed perfect to take his beaautiful practical daggers and turn them into something that neither of us would have made on our own.
The starting point for my inspiration was the elegant waist on the handles; they were just begging to be turned into corsets…and if you’ve got corsets then you have to have a female form!
As a craftsman, often materials come first; I can’t imagine ding a design and not knowing what I’ll make it out of, so material experimentation is vital during the early stages of a design. I have been playing with glove leather and it is a truly amazing material..strong, soft, sensual, flexible and beautiful to work with.
So with a basic design palette of corsets, daggers and leather, I started tracking down an old poem about Valkyries and Vikings that I had read as a child. The valkyries in this story are described in a more domestic setting, weaving the fate of men and it tells of the Vikings in Ireland.
This is the story of how ‘Walcyrie North’ and ‘Walcyrie South’ got made.
