Three Norns Drinking Horn

In Norse mythology, the three Norns are the spinners of one's destiny.  See Wiki's definition

I posted an image of the horn on my Facebook page and one of my friends queried, "Three Norns?" and so I chose that as the name. In actual fact, the three faces are inspired by embroidery on the Mammen cloak as this hairy necked gentleman is displaying. The serpents are inspired by the rune stones of the Viking Period.

Although the carving stands out pretty well against the blackness of the horn I wanted to add some colour, so I painted in yellow to keep the contrast.

Brass Rimmed Drinking Horn

This one sold at Imaginarius.

Beautiful in its simplicity, shape. The rim is hammered design - no art but nice look to it. Beeswax lined.

Pardon the blurry pic.

Drinking Horns for Carving, etc.

My latest batch of drinking horns are in. I'm showing a sampling of each size and type so one can get an idea.

I've been getting requests for bigger horns as well as the usual ones I sell. These horns all are polished on the outside with a food-grade varnish (same as for salad bowls). Inside, I scrub with a bottle brush and warm, soapy water, rinse and then disinfect with denture cleaning tablets. The larger horns get an initial scrubbing inside with sand from the creek (sloshing it back and forth).

Once dry, I coat them inside with melted beeswax unless someone wants it for hot liquids, in which case I coat with the varnish or leave uncoated, according to customer wishes.

Then, I can carve runes, symbols, norse art, etc. At least one of the big ones will get a rim treatment. I'll also make stands, straps and belt holsters for them.

So, here are the sample pix before they get any art or accessories (click on them to make them big);

Starting with the small ones (6-8")...


viking 'shot' glasses

We move to the medium (13-15") drinking horns. The tan coloured one is actually translucent and would make a good lantern.

 

Now for the big ones (30-35")...thirsty?



 And I have some with brass finial and rim.



Tyri's Horns

Tyri (that's her norse name but I'm not sure if the spelling is correct), a Reik Felag member who is also a prominent member of the SCA, had these two drinking horns that needed some TLC. The rims coming off was the biggest problem. They were very nice matched horns as you can see from the pix so when she asked if I could do something with them, including adding some ornamentation, (also, she has given me lots of gifts in the past) I couldn't turn it down. There was no rush.

So they sat in my workshop for a few years.

Finally, I got tired of seeing them and was determined to scratch them and a bunch of other long-overdue projects, off my to-do list.

First, give them a light sanding and polish. Clean the glue residue that held the brass rim in place and reglue the brass rims. Give them a polish along the the finial tips. Normally, I would use a metal polish paste to bring out the shine but as the rim was to come into contact with someone's mouth I opted to polish with dried horsetail and it worked beautifully. Was that what the norsemen used to polish with?

So, now with the rims back on and everything shiny it was time to add the ornamentation artwork. Originally, I was going to carve the designs in but that would have taken much more time than I was prepared to give them, especially since I wanted to make a stand for displaying them. Tyri's symbol is the double swan motif she told me so the design I used is reminiscent of such I think you'll agree.

It is inked in, not painted. I was concerned the paint might flake off as I only have water-based paints to use and it would have required oil-based paint (or lots of sanding). Then I clear coated them with food grade varnish (the same stuff used for salad bowls). I didn't use the beeswax polish I normally use as that requires reapplying from time to time.

Next, I made the stand. The base is oak and the upright is a wood that I'm not sure what species it is but it has a peppery smell. Some have said they thought it was oak as well but I'm rather dubious about that. The grain isn't right for oak and it carves very nicely - unlike oak. OK, oak carves well also but just 'feels' different under the knife.

I went with a his and hers theme for the stand and, therefor, you see one side has a man with a beard while the other a woman with the turtle shell brooches and string of beads implied in the design.

To hold the horns onto the stand, leather loops were made with spot studs to accent the piece.

The bottom of the stand is covered with fabric and I made little feet out of leather. You don't see these details but they will help to keep the stand from scratching furniture.

I brought the whole thing to the midsummer festival to present it to her but she was unable to attend so I had someone make sure she got it.

I hope she likes them.