Greetings from the Land of Enchantment

[Accipiter]

Hello,

I joined today and thought I'd introduce myself. I live in New Mexico and make falconry hoods for raptors, mostly for trained falconry birds. I am hoping to expand my skills by including carvings and stamping in some of my future hoods. Here is an example of a hood that I recently finished for a customer:

Thanks,

Paul Domski

[sodapop]

welcome paul...i've always have been intrigued with falconry...your hood looks excellent...and what an awesome specialty to do!!...i look forward to seeing more of your hoods

darryl

[jbird]

hi Paul

Welcome this is a great site great people.

[Jordan]

Way cool.

[Hilly]

That is very cool! Why do they keep their birds "in the dark" though?

[Accipiter]

That is very cool! Why do they keep their birds "in the dark" though?

Thanks for all of the welcomes. Keeping them in the dark makes it possible to transport them and avoid situations which could cause trauma for the bird.

Take care,

Paul

[TomSwede]

Absolutely stunning and what a beautiful bird too. The braiding top piece is to die for.

Tom

[Beaverslayer]

Paul, welcome to the forum, a very friendly bunch here always willing to help out where they can.

Are you wet molding the hood to get the shape around the eyes? It's a really cool looking jood.

Ken

[Accipiter]

Paul, welcome to the forum, a very friendly bunch here always willing to help out where they can.

Are you wet molding the hood to get the shape around the eyes? It's a really cool looking jood.

Ken

Hi Ken,

Thanks, I look forward to learning a lot here.

Yes, the hoods are stitched inside out, there are 3 seams, two to join the eye panels to the center panel, and a third for the collar along the bottom. So the first two seams are stitched and secured and then the hood is soaked under the facet until wet all the way through and then turned right side out. Once it's right side out then it goes on a mold called a "hood block" and the seams are flattened out with a burnishing rod and the hood is shaped on the block. As the leather dries it reaches a critcal moisture content when it's nearly dry and that's when you burnish the living crap out of the hood. This step gives it it's deep lusture and really nails the shape of the block onto the hood. After it's totally dry I remove it from the block and trim the bottom so that the hood sits flat and then stitch the collar on. There are a lot of little prep steps that go into making one these things, all said and done it takes me about 8 hours to make a hood. They are a labor of love really.....like all good things.

Paul