Armor Progress - with PHOTO'S

This is my carry box

Now that my hands have healed from the great rush job I am back to working on Galen's armor. 

 Tonight I pulled out the box of pauldron lames (individual pieces) and crafted the articulation, designed the attachment, tooled the axeblade pieces that will go on top, finalized the tassetts, and cut and placed the tassetts as well.

WOOT!

Boon wants the armor

The whole family likes to help - from the beloved daughter helping me by being a mobile armor stand, husband helping with design issues, and even the cat! The dog ignored us, there wasn't food involved.

Doesn't it look great?

After fiddling with the Axeblade piece for thirty minutes or so Ray and I were able to come to an agreement on how they would attach. I love how this is looking! It is actually coming together really nicely. 

Of course, once I got everything cut out, tooled, and pieced together I get to take everything back apart so that I can begin the dye tomorrow. If I am lucky I have enough black on hand to get this all done.  It will be black with green details on the tooling and the pauldron (shoulder) edges. 

The rear and left side

Of course, I was still working after 9 PM, which means my cute helper crashed out next to me. Here is the pic of her as I type up this blog :) 

Sleeping baby...and armor

High Gear

So, I am finally kicking it into High Gear. Mostly because my beloved husband wants me to start his armor, so I must finish my brothers.  Tonight I did all the interior articulation for the chest, did the front strapping and buckles and the side strap.  Sadly, I bought 1 inch buckles, and I need 2 inch ones for the size strapping.  That means back to Tandy's Leather I go. 

Hopefully tomorrow night I will get the side buckles on, the will do the pauldron articulation and figure out the axe-cover attachment method. 

So, In addition to everything else, my dear brother refuses to make a decision about color. I may leave it plain, or it may become black.  I am also thinking about tooling either a Tree of Life or a simple celtic knot onto the breast plate. What do you think? Leave it tan, or make it black with a green design?

Making Progress

Another photo-less post, but hopefully you will all cheer with me when I tell you I got him pinned (or duct taped) into it!!! YAY!

I was able to pin down my brother for his armor sizing and mark all the right sizes. Now its time for hole punches, and buckles and straps, and articulation, and then figuring out bracers and greaves and the darn war-skirt/tasset.  No matter that he still hasn't decided if he wants tooling, or color, or details.  Nor that I am not sure if I have enough leather left. (Please ignore the eye twitch, I swear it's normal).

And then, after all the sizing, marking, and hole starting...I left it all in Palmer Lake.  Sigh.  I should get it all on Thursday and then can try to hard-craft it through the weekend and have something substantial to show him when I see him again. My worst case scenario I will see him in two weeks. Imagine how cool it would be to have it all ready by then.  So...please, plague me, harass me, and ask me how it is coming! Your help would be greatly appreciated!

The Plague?

Well, it is blue spots - but its from doing the undercoat of blue for the soon to be completed Purple armor! YAY!

All the lames have the blue coat, tomorrow I will add the purple coat (Which ends up with a beautiful deep purple) and then the black edging. Once the edges are done the hole will be punched for the articulation and then it will be delivered off!

This project has taken me forever. Probably due to beginning the moving process right after getting this commission - I am really looking forward to getting this out of my project pile.

After I complete this, we are looking at at least one set of Spinal Armor and possible two. I can't wait to start a new challenge.

No pictures today - will post completed pics this weekend if all goes well!

Designs from the dark places

I am moved! That means it is time to get back out the tools and finish the armor so I can get started on Kasha's.

Tonight began with design finalization. He had picked out a design he liked online, and my job was to translate that into something that can be tooled. Let me tell you, 13 point star = NOT POSSIBLE! At least not on a small emblem sized breast piece. Now, on a back plate, I could do it, but not in less than three inches with hand tooling.

Here is the inspiration piece. I spent over an hour trying to make it work. It simply would NOT agree to being done. After a little discussion with the buyer we discussed an alternative design, it took about half an hour and we had a new design (I will try to get it uploaded tomorrow).

It works much better! So, art completed it was time to get back to work. I took all the lames (different pieces of the armor) and soaked them in water to make them simpler to tool. I am curious if any other leather workers do this, or if they all use a chemical softner and just spray it on like my other friend who does leather work? Well, began with the piece that would need the emblem tooled, I prefer to do the harder work first and ended up with a design that slipped :( *cries* which meant I had to recut the top lame and soak and retool.

Pity my hands guys, seriously. Painful to do that much detail twice. So, after failing to cut or slipping up with the razor twice I finally got the third try at the recut to go correctly, though I bet I will have messed the sizing a little, which will mean some more work when I am doing the articulation in a few days. Or it might mean it, I don't know yet.

I still need to decide how I am going to recut the second lame. He wants more range of motion with it, which simply means some additional articulation. But, I have to decide if I am going to straight-cut across the shaped lame, or if I am going to curve it and straighten the top of the other half (shortening the whole thing by 1-3 inches). I just have not decided yet. I think it might look strange to have a single straight lame amongst the curves, and it might hinder the effectiveness of motion. I truly don't know.

So, All the lames but the one still needing decisions made are tooled and are currently tied up to shape while they dry. It will be 1-2 days before they are ready for dye and articulation points, so it gives me a little time to figure out the final questions. Any thoughts? How do you as a crafter deal with questions when you don't have anyone else you know who does this craft?

Armor and a Move

I got another commission for a set of armor! This one is just for a biker jacket and has some fun tweaks. It will be a different size than the two I have already made, and is designed a little differently. I have both sides cut out of the leather already and am just waiting on the person to come by so I can confirm it will fit correctly before I begin tooling and dying the leather.

I love projects where I get to work a little harder :) This one will be a lot of fun when it's done.

Sadly/Happily - We are buying a house! :) So much of my stuff is finding its way into boxes. I had hoped to finish the armor before moving, but I don't think that will happen. No Matter, I will still aim to finish it soon.

After I finish this armor it's time to create some for Kasha! :) Can you wait?

More Armor for the Beloved

So, now that we have completed the Should Pauldrons we are moving on to Greaves (Shin Armor). Almost an identical leather cut to the Should pieces, but will require a more serious type of strap.

Last week I tooled all 8 lames into the same roughly 1-inch that the others were and tonight I dyed the outer edges black. Tomorrow I hope to go play at a park, which I will follow by doing the interior red.

I have pictures to share, but can't get them up tonight, so I will post a pic heavy one tomorrow!

YAY Blog! There will also be supply updates and garden updates (Which will consist of railing against the CO weather Gods and their hatred of growing things - Stupid snow!)

:)

Armor for the Beloved

Ray asked me to help him create shoulder Pauldrons that we can attached with snaps to his biker jacket or to a harness to wear at the Ren Fair. We made a draft one, to size the lames and then decided to drastically change the design by moving from corner articulation to floating articulation. We have them cut, attached the articulation, removed the articulation and did basic tooling and will be dying and determining the upper shoulder design on the big piece.

Here are the current photo's.


This is the floating articulation


This is Ray and Kasha both working on it with me





There have been a few errors already - I punched holes as if we were doing the other articulation and so Ray and I are thinking about adding spikes over the holes :) Cause that would look neat.