photo #879845

I'm a hand tooled leather worker by trade but I'm one of those folks who like trying to make things they've never done before. So last year's "new" project was making a full size (3 ft by 5 ft) canvas pirate flag.I didn't want to make the usual black cloth with the typical skull and cross bones, or a copy of one of the famous historical ones, so I did some research on symbols and came up with one and even thought up a little story line to accompany it (see photo).My ancestry is Irish (Varga is not my original last name - I'm adopted). So I took the project on as a flag from one of the ships in the fleet of Irish Pirate Queen Grace O'MalleyI started with a solid green canvas for Ireland. Then I took the infinity symbol and used Celtic knotwork for the symbol. Both the knotwork and the symbol signify never ending and continuous.Then I put two red Celtic wolves. Red signifies no quarter if resistance is given. The Latin phrase at the bottom of the flag is the actual phrase off O'Malley's original flag, which means "valiant by sea and land." Which ties it in to the ships of O'Malley's fleet.The flag is 100% hand painted on both sides and has a sleeve for a flag pole. At events where I'm a vendor, I'll fly the flag.It was a fun, interesting project and I can check it off my bucket list.