02-26-2010

I decided to cut off the little tabs on the knuckleplates. they didn't sit very well on the back of the hands.

this also allows for a better transition from convex curves to concave flutes on the back of the hand. 

I also finished treating the fingers on the left hand. here are the segments before I took steel wool to the finish:

they look so silky! don't worry, they shined up nice like the right hand : ) I'll be riveting the segments onto leather strips today with copper tube rivets. so far, all is well! I think these gauntlets are going to turn out rather nicely.

02-22-2010

that's a lot of 2s in the date today.

I've been working on the gauntlets. I mocked up the back of the hands and the knuckles with some  paper, and I'm finishing up the fingers. here's what it looks like all taped onto the glove:

for reference, I took that with the 50mm lens on my new Canon 450D. I also got a 60mm macro lens to get some nice close shots. here's some scales:

and finally, the closest macro I could get of the middle segment on the pointer finger:

these shots could have been sharper if I was shooting remotely and not having the pulse in my hands wiggle the camera just oh-so-slightly.

something I love about my new setup is that I don't have to colour-adjust in Photoshop anymore. all the shots on my old Rebel (think: the first ever Digital Rebel) had either a red or yellow overcast, depending on the glass. now it seems like those colour-adjusting days are over! woohoo!

02-17-2010

I've been working on getting the gauntlets done this week. so far, all 4 fingers on the right hand have been cut, shaped, sanded, and 3 of them are etched. I treated the pinky today, and this will be the final finish:

tomorrow, I'll finish the other fingers and rivet them onto strips of leather. hurrah!

02-13-2010

I started work on my gauntlets today. in only a few hours, I got 3 finger segments cut, shaped, and mostly sanded. daaaang!

and just for reference, here's where the plate sits on the scale shirt (which is worn by a mannequin that is too large for it). the lower part of the plate sticks up off the shirt about 3 inches.

here's the inside of the collar, because I think it looks neato:

pip pip! that's all for now!

02-12-2010

well I ended up mounting the back plates quite significantly too high (if I were to follow the curvature I gave them). they end up needing a mounting much lower than I wanted, but I'm going to try it anyway and see how it looks on. i could have shown you pictures a week ago, but I was upset. anyway, here they are now!

finished vertebrae-on-a-strip-of-bronze:

so you can see a little bit of really bad scrimshaw on these guys. I had to get them damp to be able to scratch lines in with an exacto knife. after that, I piled them all into a bowl full of hot, cheap puerh tea. I decided to add some spices too, and boy I'm glad I did! they don't smell like gross old bones anymore, but instead, smell of cinnamon with a touch of cardimom. the tea stained the bones to an orangy-brown, and illuminated the incised lines rather handsomely. 

the final treatment to the plates (I had to re-treat them on account of forgetting to solder on 6 hooks):

as soon as I figure out my curve and position on the shirt, the two will be married with copper rivets. how sweet!

02-04-2010

sawing bones is rather fun...

I had to saw off the bottoms of all the vertebrae so that they would rest flat when I join them to the strip of bronze with silver tube rivets. I also spent some time shaping the main plate and I think I'm going to leave the two peripheral scapula plates flat.

I'm experimenting with scrimshaw on the bones, hence the pencil marks on the smallest vert. it's actually proving more difficult than I expected, so I may just not do it. either way, I'm still going to dye the bones with tea tomorrow before I rivet them onto the bronze.

spiney!

02-02-2010

okay, so I found the remote for my camera, so I grabbed a few shots of the (99.9%) finished scale shirt. enjoy!

muahahahahahahaha!