Bard Guard Binders

Started: Apr 25, 2026
Completed: Apr 30, 2026
What do you do when you get asked a week before Coronation to make a series of binders for the upcoming Bard Guard investiture at said Coronation by the upcoming Bardic Champion?  You get cracking, that's what! 

I had already been asked, to my extreme honor, to be part of the Bard Guard for the upcoming reign of HRM Sadb II, Queen of War and Song!  I offered in the group chat to make a cloth bound binder for anyone who might need such for the reign.  I personally experience memory issues due to my neurodivergence, and rely on memory aides at times even for pieces that I had fully memorized the week before.  It doesn't help that bardic activities are often done at the end of the day, when my spoons are lowest.  But at the same time, it's good to be at least medieval-adjacent with this. So I developed a 3-ring binder bound in either cloth or leather to address both of these concerns!

This offer, to make what I thought would be 1-2 binders.....quickly experienced scope creep.  8 binders for the bards, to match the rest of our regalia.  6 working days.  Oh, did I mention that I also am working with pretty bad shoulder pain and a suspected rotator cuff issue right now?  (Go go gadget PT!)  My work each day was thereby limited in what I could do.  I received the design of the sashes, under strictest secrecy, and got to work. 

The binders have at their core a standard 1/2" 3-ring binder, on which the rest is attached.  I punched holes along the edge at (relatively) equal intervals with my trusty leather punch and then sewed on the cloth to the base binder.  Luckily I had already picked up a bunch of cotton handkerchiefs to test a wax resist dying thing for some mundane art, and was easily able to repurpose them without needing to prep the cloth too much!  A watered down glue was added to stiffen the cloth and help with the painting process next.  If I had had more time I would have preferred to do a wax resist dye on the cloth before attaching, but alas, timelines (and pain thresholds) brought me back to the tried-and-true acrylic painting post-attachment.  Sturdy, colorfast, and infinitely remixable to get the shades I wanted. My youngest cat, Agni, was particularly intrigued by the process and decided to 'help' in his own way throughout!