News and Views from Scotland
Anyone For A Kind of Sporran
Copper Fronted Sporran
Jen Cantwell from Forres had been making sporrans out of recycled materials for friends when she saw the work of a Howie Nicholsby, contemporary kilt maker, and thought ´I could do that.´
Now she produces a range of upmarket sporrans and accessories, using a range of unconventional materials. She particularly favours Lorica - a hardwearing leather substitute form Italy.
In her time, Jen has used recycled motorbike jackets and inner tubes from bikes supplied by her mountain cycling partner.
Her business - Sporran Nation - is attracting more attention thanks to the showbiz stars who are fans of Jen's wares. Alan Cumming, the Scottish actor, and Sir Chris Hoy the cyclist are proud owners of the Forres product. The sporrans have been seen at Hollywood's Academy Awards, courtesy of Oscar winner Mark Andrews.
The innovation continues with Jen using a newly acquired tattoo machine to personalise her sporrans. Jen says: "Tattooing on leather is almost the same as tattooing on skin, the same inks are used, the same tattoo machines, the same needles and it takes the same time to tattoo on leather as it does on skin. After a lot of experimenting I´ve adapted some of the processes so that they work better on leather. "
All graphics of sporrans on this page are © Sporran Nation.
Please give me whatever feedback comes to mind via david@rampantscotland.com.
David
June 2016Return to News and Views Index
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