12-4-2009

today, I wove 80 scales and scratched on 60. I'm thinking I'll need another batch or so to finish everything I want to on the scales. tomorrow, I'm going to start measuring for the leather. I spent the rest of the day finishing a paper, so I didn't have time to take any photos. tomorrow I'll make a point to!

g'night!

12-3-2009

once again, no pictures... I'm finishing up a paper that's due tomorrow, so I'm going to be boring and tell you I didn't do much more on the shirt besides rivet one of the zipper stops on (ended up taking a lot longer than I thought it would and some of the cloth slipped out from between the plates of bronze so I'm mad at it). just a teeny tab of fabric slipped out. I got the other two rivets to pierce the fabric just fine but this one, the outside corner, decided that I didn't give it enough room on the edge and slipped right out.

now how am I supposed to fix that?

12-2-2009

hey! today was full of homework. however, I got about 50 more scales woven into one more row on the front and sides (but not the back) of the shirt, gaining another quarter of an inch. ideally, I'd add another inch, but we'll see how much time I have. I'm not going to add too much more under the arms, and come Saturday, I'll begin measuring for the leather. joy!

12-1-2009

no work on the shirt today... I really had to take a break from yesterday @_@

however, I did do some stuff in Second Life. I've been creating several varieties of reef plants for the island-y ground level of my sim. so far I've made 4 different species of things.

here, a seadryke examines a colony of gill coral. prawnweed decorate the sandy floor.

11-30-2009

yeesh, November is over! well at least I've made very good progress.

today, I wove about 35 scales and I designed, cut, etched, and treated a zipper stopper for the main zipper down the back. it was a lot of work and I ruined a shirt doing it all!

first, after I sawed out my shapes (which was very noisy in my room, since the desk seemed to amplify the sound of the blade against the metal), I painted them with asphaltum:

second, I used my needle tool to scratch away the design I had in my notebook:

and then I put the pieces into the ferric chloride. I waited 3 hours, and the etch was barely biting. I went to a 3 hour class and came back, and there was no difference. my ferric is just plain spent! also, it looks pretty nasty and has the look of a broken sludge ice flow and some curious orange lumps.

yech.

so I moved the pieces over to the metals shop to use their ferric for an hour. after cleaning and treatment, this is how they came out:

as you can see, all that moving around got the asphaltum loose and some of the acid got underneath it. that's okay! looks kinda cool that way.

after this, I finally got to treating the rest of the main zipper. however, because it was attached (at the top) to the rest of the shirt, it was rather messy! this was where I got ferric all over everything and frantically attempted to clean it off. I thought all that was left on it was water, which muddied the designs a little, but I wasn't too upset about it. however, when it dried, much to my surprise, the watered down ferric turned large portions of the shirt green.

well I freaked out a little! and then I decided I liked it!

it's as if I pulled it out from some sea foam : )

11-29-2009

okay, camera batteries went dead last night.

I got the front and back done, although I may add another inch or so to the front later. next step: filling in the sides. this is going to be tricky!

well, not as tricky as I thought, actually. however, now the mannequin doesn't hold the shirt very well... the curvature of the back (or lack thereof) makes it buckle up all funny. thankfully, it looks fine on me.

I expect to be ready for the leather next weekend.

and someday, it will all be done.