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.