10-2-2009

I just finished processing 210 new scales and they're ready for weaving. besides this, it's been a lazy Friday for me... I just played games and went grocery shopping. tomorrow though, I get to weave, so it'll be a solid day of work. it's late, I'm going to bed!

10-1-2009

wow, October already? goodness!

well, I've got another batch of 210 scales ready for the acid tomorrow... 2 days early : ) now that feels good! hopefully, I'll remember my cheesecake tin when I go in this time. I hope it got eaten and it's not just getting moldy in the fridge back at the metals shop.

my shirt is finally turning into a wearable object. there's enough weight in the back to keep it from tugging forward too heavily, though it still requires a safety pin to keep it on. pretty soon, I'll start adding contractions to the back and maybe by next week, the front and back will be long enough to add scales across the sides (depending on where I want the leather to end under the armpits). I have to really start thinking about that leather; it's really thin. I'm not sure if I want to risk it wearing out prematurely and getting holes in it. I may buy another thicker sheet of leather from eBay, just to be sure. will also be buying boning for the collar soon. whew, what an expensive project!

9-30-2009

still waiting on that camera, should be coming in the mail soon...

I have now officially done over 1000 scales in under a month. excellent. now I've just got to keep it up! all I did today was work on getting more scales coated and ready for acid, as well as a project in Second Life involving a giant bug stage. here I have it sitting out on one of my islands.

crikey!

9-29-2009

today was my heavy day for classes, so I didn't get too much done on the scale shirt. did my 30 scales for the day, my 9 or so hours of classes, all my homework, and I'm ready to go to bed. whew, I am tired! I bought a blender and some mangoes so tomorrow I'm going to try to make some mango lassi. the blender is super cute.

9-28-2009

so I sat down and calculated my rate of scale creation and weaving is. I lost a few days in the beginning of the month waiting for asphaltum to come in, but since today, I've incorporated 900 new scales into the shirt. I have 60 more to add to that, and by tomorrow I'll have 90, so that means I'll have done nearly 1000 scales in a month. whew! with just 2000 left to do, I'll be done in 2 months, which is early!

so cool : )

after this project, I want to make my own scales. it won't be during this or next semester, but during the summer, I want to build another scale shirt out of copper. instead of buying scales and rings I want to have the freedom to design my own shapes, sizes, and further complicate the design on the scales. to do this, I'm going to have another 6000 scales or so laser cut and etched in one pass (which will save me about 3/4 of my total work time). laser cutting means I can do some crazy things with the design of the scales, like serrate the edges (not that I will) or pierce the tiny little things into a latticework of holes. not only that, but I can make the etched design ridiculously complicated. this makes me very excited. I'm surely going to come up with some insane sketches for this one.

I did a set of 4 scales with my logo on them awhile back. this is what got me thinking about the laser cutting, as modifying existing scales was very time-consuming and awkward.

the etching wasn't any different, but cutting just those two little triangular shapes out of either side was just full of headaches.

9-27-2009

well the battery is finally dead on my camera and I can't find the bloody charger so no new images today. however, I do have some images of my paper mockup from a few months back so I'll put up one of those images for you. this is my mockup for the helmet and the mantle, which will be done in bronze after I finish the scales.

I got about half of my homework done today but that's okay because I only have two classes tomorrow. I went to Artprize this morning in Grand Rapids and the city was all abuzz! it was really exciting. most of the pieces I didn't care for but there was a giant foam Loch Ness monster in the river that I took a few photos of on my crappy cellphone camera that I may upload later if they came out halfway decent. when we got back, I worked more on my scales (of course) and I finally got the first sheet of scales I made to look like the rest of them. you see, after a lot of wear on it, the colour ended up much more brassy than any of the other batches of scales. I also believe I didn't understand the technique as well when I started off and didn't get much copper into the finish, but now that it's fixed, I added the sheet (in two halves) to both shoulders so now I have some scales running down the upper arms. woohoo!

I may have made the chest slightly too wide and the scales lining the front of the armpits have a tendancy to fold, but if I pat the scales down just right, it doesn't. I may have to remove some scales and add a contraction (shiver) but we'll see how it moves when I get some more scales added.

as a side note, the mocha frappuccino drink thing at McDonalds is surprisingly tasty!