2015 is go!

I finished off 2014 with two vaguely Christmassy events within two weeks of each other. Now, that sounds pretty good, but my recurring illness woke up between the two events. There was a little less stock than I wanted, but things seemed to go pretty well regardless. The best thing about the mad rush at the start of December, though, was the acquisition of a new commission! I absolutely adore doing commissions because, quite frankly, I quickly get bored with making the same things over and over. Okay, this one is just a resized version of my ever popular Toothy Grin mask, but it's still something new, in a way. I decided, with permission, to wait until after Christmas to start on this, and that accidentally shifted to 'after this year'. I have pressed on with it, however, and it'll be finished before the end of the day.

Then we have commission #2. January 1st, I got a message through Facebook about something which sounds pretty damn fun to make - A variation on something I have a little bit of experience in, something I've never even attempted before and another bit that is pretty much straight forward. More on that if and when it gets going!


Also, there's this on the go:

http://jackerdemalion.tumblr.com/post/107509048929/what-should-i-make-today-i-asked-something

The plan for this year is to get back into LARP, both playing and making. This is the start of the making side. No real design for it, just seeing how it turns out! With any luck, I've got something good on my hands, here. We shall see.

Freelancer Armour

 A while ago, when I was still at college, I indulged a little in LARP. There's a branch of Fools and Heroes that runs a short walk away from where I live, so once a month I'd dress up like an elf, run around in the woods and hit people with things. It was pretty fun, but I stopped when I went into my final year. What's that got to do with 'now'? Well, a couple of weeks ago, I was helping someone out with some leatherwork for their degree, and we all got to talking about LARP. The girl made her leather thing, the guy insisted on trying on all of my armour and got rather excited. They made me want to LARP again.

That armour there, to the right, is my Freelancer Gorget. Out of all of the armour things I've made, it's my favourite. After far too long of trying to come up with a new LARP kit, I decided to make something like that, but something that would fit me.

So, the Freelancer Cuirass was set in motion. The pattern for it was draped on the stand, like how I learned at college for fabric costumes. I designed it to fit me, with the right kind of curves in the right places. With a bit of luck, it's going to be lovely to wear.

It has a bit of battle damage, like on the gorget. A scratch or two here, a couple of dents there... I think it just looks better than having perfect and pristine leather armour. It does the whole 'I have seen battle' thing a bit better, in my opinion. There's nothing wrong with shiny armour, of course, it's just personal preference.

The front and the back will be fastened with buckles at the sides, and the shoulders will be riveted together. Then there's just a couple of details, like adding O-rings for attaching a cloak.

Armour is my favourite thing to make. I just gotta get people to get me to commission things.

Any takers?

Whitby Goth Weekend II

That time of year again - Whitby Goth Weekend! Well, I say again - This was my second WGW as a trader, my first with a stall to myself.

The stock, once again, was mostly steampunk, and it went down really well. By the time Sunday evening rolled around, the table was almost empty. A good thing, you'd think, but now I have to completely restock for my next event, Steampunk Doncaster.

The cincher in that photo (on the lady mannequin to the left) was a collaboration with Amy Randall, costume designer and embroidery superstar. Check out her Facebook page for some very pretty things, including photos of me painted green as the Wicked Witch of the West.

After WGW, I reopened the Etsy shop, starting with the bottle pendants that didn't go to good homes.

Check them out, they were quite popular at Whitby.


Next Event:
STEAMPUNK DONCASTER
21-22 JUNE 2014
Doncaster Deaf Trust

Obligatory "Whoops, I have a blog!" Post

So, a few little game-changing things have happened. My sister moved back home and back into my workshop her bedroom, so all work halted for a bit. Before then, however, I managed to get myself half a stall at Whitby Goth Weekend, sharing it with The Little Blue Gem. It went particularly well and we both rebooked for the April event, each with our own stall this time. My stock was mostly Steampunk, but I'm hoping to get a bit of Post-Apocalyptic stuff in there too. It's gonna be a long slog, making enough stuff for three days worth of a full stall, but I got a bit of an idea of what people liked from last time. Those belt pouches on the photo went down brilliantly, so more of them is going to be my first trick. 

What have I been doing since then, though? It has been a long time since November, after all. Not a lot, unfortunately. Christmas time is such a motivation-drain. Since then, though, I've started a few little things...

I got some more tooling tools, hurray! That means, of course, proper tooling is now a thing I can do. One of the first things that got the treatment was a Steampunk shoulder piece. Was it fun? Yes. Was it also frustrating? Yes.

Tooling-fun progressed fairly quickly to this gorget which ended up giving me a rather sizeable blister on my thumb. Remind me not to let that happen again, alright? It wasn't too bad, however, since the finished gorget (and pauldrons) is rather spectacular.







It's not all been armour, though. I've been working on some wristbands which ended up being a little Deco.



So, more stuff when I get some nice, non-WIP photos. 

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.