Explorer Armour

To start off, an announcement.

I finally have an etsy shop!

The current stock is a little lacking, but I'll be adding to it when I collect up my patterns and manage to take some decent photos.


So, I have delved back into the world of LARP. I've been wanting to make some 'proper armour' for a while now and, under orders of a friend who has a car, I went to the leather shop armed with a jar full of money. I left the shop with over £200 of nice, thick leather, so here we are. Armour time!


First off was a gorget. I've made simple pauldrons like this before and, thusly, used the same patterns. There are a couple of differences with these, though, in that they attach with buckles rather than being tied on, and the edges are curved up a little. The gorget itself was complete guesswork. I did look at some patterns beforehand, but then thought 'no,' and did it my way anyway.

As well as a mass of leather, I got some new tools, so now I can do edges properly, as well as things to engrave and... tool, really

The arm guard here is completely detatchable, so it can be put on the opposite pauldron, which can also be on either the left or the right. I'm going modular with all of this.

I have some vambraces to match the design on the bigger pauldron, and might make some greaves, too. A breastplate? Perhaps not, but we shall see!

Dragon Helm II

So, back to Mister Dragon!

I coloured the pieces with Antique Stain rather than dye, because I just love the colour you can get from it on the straw kip leather. As well as that,  I like the uneven browns on it. The whole thing just looks more loved. 

There weren't many rivets in there at the end, which was nice. After all of the sewing, it was a godsend for my shoulders! The headband part has some eyelets so it can be tied to fit whatever size head it comes across.

After it was all fixed together, I did a final shaping on a stand-in head (or 'Nogg', as I have taken to calling them.). The string was there to keep the little flaps at the side sitting nicely, which seemed to like to... well... flap around instead of being where they were supposed to.

And soon after finishing, Mister Dragon was off to be sold. Made me a bit sad since I only just made him, but he'll have family soon enough! There was a lot of interest in him before he left, so it seems like the wise thing to do. Next thing will be giving the thing a proper name instead of just 'dragon helm'.

Dragon Helm

I'll be trading at Nerd East at the weekend, and I'm quite determined to make something Big And Fancy to take with me. I've got a few pauldrons/spaulders on the go (anyone fancy telling me which?), and a few post-apoc bracers, and some of my usual masks... but I don't see any of those as Big And Fancy. Maybe the Scavengers are, but I'm just too used to them now.

Anyway! I decided to have a go at an actual helm. I've toyed with the idea in the past and had a look at a few patterns, but I've never actually gave it a go. This is my chance, right? And what goes nicely with LARP? Dragons, of course!

I went with my usual straw kip rather than something sturdier, because it's nice and cheap for when I end up doing it wrong, and I can stiffen it up later. So, here we are, bits of the dragon so far.

So, that's pretty much obviously the face-part up top. Not sure about any more shaping to it yet. Might add some more bits. We shall see! Next are little fin things which will go to the side like so. Can't have a dragon helm without wingy bits, right? The face-part is the first thing I've properly hand sewed with the appropriate tools and thread, so it's a little messy, but it does its job.

The other bit it supposed to be like a little tail, which will hang somewhere on the back. It has a little bit of movement in it, which is nice, as long as it doesn't get stuck or fall apart. 

More updates as I do stuff. Possibly. I am ridiculously bad at blogging.

AFWVG - Plague Rat II

This post has been saved in my drafts for far too long, considering that it has been a year since my final deadline. I figured I should just post it.

So, the Plague Rat. Just a generic plague rat here, not Basil, not Sir Edward.

It does have a hint of Captain Maggot in here, with the striped bustle. Must have done that right - people kept asking me if it was a pirate rat. Not quite, but it could have been!

The thing with this design was do give it twists of military and mechanical. The military came in the shape of the top and its high collar (which is very similar to the Knife Thrower jacket I did for my minor project).

The mechanical, however, was much more fun. 'Why mechanical?' I hear you ask.

Why? Because the rats were experimented upon and, if you're throwing a bit of steampunk into something, what says 'experimented upon' more than a mechanical limb?

AFWVG - Update

On Monday,  I got my Asylum costumes back from college, and they were only slightly damaged. With the help of my Dad (oh, who am I kidding, he did all the work!), the rivets that held the pressure gauge onto Stockill's airtank were replaced with screws, as two of them had managed to pull through.

But d'you know what that means? It means that I'll finally get to do that photoshoot! I gave up on the idea of having it on location, so it's just going to be a studio job, on the same day as I'm modelling a costume for a friend (Elphaba from Wicked, but ballet.). The other two of her models were my Stockill and Emily-with-a-Y, so we figured we should just do them on the same day. So, photos of that should appear fairly soonish. We shall see.

AFWVG - Doctor Stockill III

It's been a long while since I've mentioned any of my Final Major Project work (in fact, I still have a half-written post on the Plague Rat costume....), but I remembered these this morning.

There is a story behind it, sort of.
I heard from a friend, while working as stage manager for The Ballad of Captain Cook in August, that Stockill had been taken to Newcastle, along with Frankenstein's Monster and a wizard's tower. These were things made by other people in my year at college. Now, I have nothing against the college thinking that my work is good enough to display somewhere, but it would have been nice to know about it at some point which wasn't weeks after the event. I have seen him since, and he is back at the college and mostly undamaged.

One good thing that came out of this, though, is that someone was wonderful enough to take photos, which I then came across on flickr.

And so, here they are!

The next step is to get my damn costumes back from the college and finally manage to do a proper photoshoot.

Anachronism

On Saturday, I had my first stall. Me and Gemma (The Little Blue Gem) collected up our stock and took a trip up to Gateshead for Anachronism Steampunk and Cyberpunk convention. It was the first of these, so the turn out wasn't massive, but that was fine by me! I wouldn't want to jump in with a big event like Whitby Goth Weekend or Leeds Steampunk Market. This was nice, just being able to relax. Nothing too hectic. Some people bought some things, a lot of people made 'ooh, interesting!' noises and my Scavenger mask got a LOT of compliments. 

A few people were interested in commissions, including a klingon. Yes. A klingon. It wasn't that unusual, considering that there were a few Storm Troopers milling around, and a Darth Vader at one point (plus some other characters I couldn't identify with my limited Star Wars knowledge). I am actually rather looking forward to having another stall somewhere, but I will have to take somebody to sit with me, or take a notebook of some kind. Or both. We shall see!