House of Omaña family crest shield, 1212 a.d.
WIP mosaic of how I did my very own Medieval kite shield as used in the year 1212. Done to conmemorate the 800th anniversary of the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, where my 22nd great grandfather Lord Ares Perez (Gonzalez) de Omaña fought to stop the Muslim Almohade Empire from advancing towards the rest of Spain and Europe.
The shields were made of wood, with cloth or hide, surrounded by hide (though I preferred metal in my shield) and hand painted. A put my family crest on it, that of the House of Omaña. Its sketchy when my family started using it (if before or after the creation of the Order of the Sash). But I decided to use it, because Castillians tried to use it at certain centuries - wrongfully - for it is from Kingdom of Leon. And because of its obvious medieval and Celtic influence, like the dragons, which in the Kingdom of Asturias they were called Cuelebres.
Ares de Omaña, Lord of Omaña and Babia, served to the Kingdom of Leon, or Reino Lliones. But Leon refused to enter to the gigantic battle (due to quarrels with the King of Castilla). Still the King gave permission to Lords and Knights of his realm to freely go and aid at such crusade. One of them was my ancestor. The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa was of epic proportions, where the one side unified a unified army from Castilla, Aragon, Navarra, Leonese knights, French knights, some English knights, and even Vatican-sponsored soldiers and bishops... against the unified army of the Almohad Empire, Berber tribesmen, some Sirian knights, and the fierce sub-saharan African warriors. Victory was for the European side, and indeed worried many of its outcome, like King John of England. If at the Battle of Navas de Tolosa the Almohad Empire would have won, Europe would fall for the Muslim alliance.
So...
I cutted the wood as a kite, hence the name. In Spain, it's called a "tear" shield.
I brushed glue over the front-to-be of the shield.
I pasted white cloth onto the glued side.
I cutted the remnants of the cloth.
I bent a long metal to curve accordingly to the shield.
Since I had trouble with some parts of the curves, I drilled holes through the metal and the corresponding wood side.
With a screwdriver I simply put screws into strategic (problematic) places.
I kept bending, sometimes with my hands, sometimes I needed a hammer.
Once the metal was in place, I cutted the creases created by the metal bending.
I hammered the remnants of such cutting.
Then I did grinding, shaping, and debur of dangerous parts of cuts.
The girls helped, and barnished the back side.
Then I designed what the dragons were going to look like.
After analyzing several European snakes, I did the design based on them, with a dragon twist, and according to my family crest.
I painted many times over the cloth with white matte paint. Probably like 5 times, which gave it a rough feeling and helped me drew/paint over it, like a canvas.
I drew the dragons according to the angle of the "sash". This part was tricky due to the kite or tear shape. It all came up to artistic composition.
I painted the shield with matte red, green and gold colors (the final result not shown).
Afterwards, I put four "handles" in the back, bought at my local Home Depot.
These handles were firmly (very firmly) attached, and according to my height and arm lenghth.
Then I sew three faux leather-like straps, quite sturdy.
One small strap for the upper side (upper two "handles"), one medium for the lower side (bottom two "handles". One long strap to carry the shield on my back.
Straps are locked and can be taken easily. (Probably should post another pic for that).
Finally I grinded/polished the whole metal around the shield.
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Escudo medieval de la Familia Omaña, 1212 d.c.
Mosaico del Paso a Paso de como hice mi escudo de lagrima medieval del año 1212, por el 800º aniversario de la Batalla de las Navas de Tolosa, donde combatió mi 21º tatarabuelo Ares Perez (Gonzalez) de Omaña, para detener el contragolpe del Imperio musulman Almohade. Los escudos eran de madera, forrados por tela o piel, rodeados de piel (pero aqui yo use fierro pues es mas logico), y pintados. Y nada mas le puse el escudo de la Casa de Omaña, que nadie sabe cuando se usó, si antes o despues de los Caballeros de la Vanda, pero lo puse para darle la contra a los castellanos que en ciertos siglos se lo han adjudicado erroenamente, pues es un escudo del Reino Lliones. Y aunque dicho reino no quiso entrarle a la batalla, su rey dió permiso para que los caballeros fuesen a tan historico combate donde unificaron los ejercitos de Castilla, Aragon, Navarra, los caballeros leoneses, franceses, ingleses, e incluso del Vaticano contra el Imperio Almohade, Tribus Bereberes, caballeros sirios, y los mas fieros guerreros africanos subsaharicos. Si en la Batalla de las Navas hubieran triunfado los Almohades, hoy probablemente casi toda Europa y toda Latinoamerica hablarían arabe y serían musulmanes. Las niñas ayudaron a embarnizar el escudo de su 22º tatarabuelo.
