MOP Arrow Plate

Interesting day today, I walked up to the town about midday to the Gibberd Gallery where Andrew James was doing a demonstration of portrait paining in oils. I've never used oils and my colour vision isn't very good (like 40% of males I have slight red/green deficiency) It was very interesting and inspiring to watch him work. In about an hour and three quarters he'd done a 'sketch' which showed the technique and was V impressive. He was a great bloke to talk to... it must have been nerve wracking to paint in front of an audience.
I did a bit of a pencil sketch while the model (an oldish bloke with glasses and some character to his face) was sat there. It served to accentuate the contrast between painting and using a pencil. One using line, the other applying colour direct... I'd be lost with the colour.
In the afternoon (after a wee catnap) I got back to the bows.

I got a particularly nice piece of Mother of Pearl (MOP) for Second Chance's arrow plate.
Hard to take a pic that shows the figure...
A nice bit of bling and of course in medieval times there would have been MOP about, after all they enjoyed their oysters and I dare say people would use the shells for all sorts of decorative uses.

The repaired bow was collected too, I'd tidied the nocks and built up some leather under the grip for added comfort. If the back fails again I'll take it down leaving a thin Hickory core and put a bamboo back on, taking the opportunity to narrow the tips which will also take out some of the bend in the lower limb.
The pic shows the leather being glued on and the slight bend in the tip. You can also see how flat the back is. I rounded the edges somewhat and the leather, once glued, had UHU glue massaged into it and was then rasped to give a more rounded back at the grip. The devil is in the detail, hopefully the bow will be a little more comfortable to shoot now.
Three bottles of wine were a nice thank you for my efforts.