Mask

At The Little Mother's Ball, one of the other orcs, Redhand Gezzar, used a wig cap to keep their hair out of their eyes and out of the eye holes of their mask.

I ordered some wig caps to try out. The more robust wig cap is a bit too tight, causing pressure headaches. The cheap (and fragile) hosiery style one was more comfortable and didn't cause pressure headaches.

I've tried balaclava style covers, and they slide off, because my skull has to go into the mask forehead-first, not crown-first, as my crown seems to be enormous and won't fit through the neckhole (or it might, but I also feel as if I'd end up tearing my mask, and I want to avoid that).

Imagine those illustrations of babies coming through the vagina and vulva, their foreheads are leading the way... yeah, I have to do that with the mask.

The one upside of the wig caps is that it fits over my ears, so I don't have to paint my ears.

The downside of the caps is that they make it a bit more challenging to get glasses on and in place. Though the hold on my glasses appears to be quite firm, once they are in place.

Warskirt

How often I find myself thinking 'yeah, this could work' and then discovering that it doesn't.

meh

I do need to take measurements of the rivets that I want to use for securing the 0.6mm steel plates onto the leather backing... once I've decided what sort of leather I want to use as backing.

I did spend a little bit of time, in between rain showers, cutting metal plates for Seppa's warskirt.

Gathering the tools...

I tried to use the Dremel, and had rubbish luck with it, but admittedly, my Dremel is a jewellery/small hobby version, rather than the giant, heavy-powered versions of the Dremel.

0.6mm gauge steel, and 3-in-1 oil for lubricant.

I'm impatient, though I did try cutting the steel with my Dremel for nearly an hour, I gave up and dug out my tin snips, which I'd never before used. I'm grateful I still have some grip strength.

Might not be visible, but it aches.

However, I did give myself a blister. Yes, I wore gloves, I didn't want to add lacerations and real blood to my costume, thanks.

Thanks, Father-in-law, for leaving us your tools.

To explain the above image, for those who don't automatically understand what it represents, is some of the process I gave the plates.

Left: warped plate cut from the sheet with tin snips. I used a fat-tipped marker to make the length lines, then eyeballed the sizes to give it that random effect when I cut them with the tin snips. This is why the three plates are varying lengths, but the widths are similar.

Middle: I snipped off the corners to make the plates LARP-safer. I then used my father-in-law's hammer to bash flat the metal plate where it rested on paving stones; I used both the hammer's flat and ball-peen heads to texture the surface a little bit. I might experiment more with the hammer, with striking harder or on other surfaces than paving stones. 

Right: almost, if not complete, metal plate. I used the coarsest wheel on the Dremel to blunt the sides and corners to help make the plates safer for LARP. I also used the Dremel to drill the holes. The Dremel struggled to make the holes, so I might turn to my big IKEA drill, assuming I can use such fine drill bits with it, to power through the steel plates to make the holes. Again, I eyeballed the placement of the holes.

I managed to cut about twenty plates before the weather interrupted and my hand blistered, so I have several days' worth of work before the plates are completed and ready for mounting. Weather and health permitting...

I'm intending to use the self-isolation.

I unfortunately couldn't make it to the Symposium, as my throat went sore on Thursday, and so I had to cancel my place. I felt sorta ok Saturday, but I don't want to accidentally harm others. Isolation it is.

I'm not so hardcore as to think it would be good to wear a full latex mask with a streaming nose and eyes.

Emotions

My father-in-law's hammer and tools; using them felt good, and made me think of him. He'd have known what to do, and how to do it, and probably would have had the right tools to do the job. I miss you; thank you for leaving us some of your tools.

Seppa's panel coat

The Panel Coat

Setting the fabrics side-by-side and feeling them can inform whether they'll work together or not.

I ended up mixing some of the fibres and weights, but not too drastically. The cotton indigo wax and dye print is lightweight and airy, thin and fragile, compared to the sturdy, densely-woven beige flax linen. The light blue cotton chambray is a little denser than the indigo. The two cotton twill fabrics, the tawny yellow and the slate blue, are light-to-medium weight.

The fabrics I have settled on that're going into the panel coat.

Here are some photos of the sewing progress:

The walking foot helped.

I machined all panels from the top downwards; and for the indigo fabric, I needed the walking foot, as it wormed if I didn't use the foot. Where the twill was against twill, or the twill was atop the indigo, I didn't need the walking foot.

Three sides of the incomplete panel coat. L - Back, C - Front, R - left side.

I had to pause for my next class where I had the big tables and could cut the linings and facings.

It's not grey, it's the blue twill from the top image.

The lining pieces are less numerous and simpler to put together.

The inner or outer? armhole facings of blue chambray.

I confess, I still haven't made up my mind which fabric (the lightweight blue chambray, or the medium weight linen) that I want for the outside and inside of the armhole facings. The linen would give a sturdy support if it was inside. But if it was outside, it would help counter so much of the visible blue of the panel coat and return some of the neutral beige/stone colour which is primary to the Skywise brief.

Opinions?

The wrong-sides of the lining and outer layers.

I've currently got the coat hanging for a few days on the mannequin before I recommence working on the panel coat.

My next instructions are:

• Baste the lining to the outer at the neckline and the armholes.
• Secure and cut the side slits.
• Attach the sleeve facing to the inside and secure it.
• Attach the external, decorative, sleeve facing to the outside and secure it.
• Finish the side slits and their facings and then the bottom hem facings.
• Attach the neckline panels to the coat to finish.

Extra notes:

The slits' facings and bottom hem facings are in the blue chambray.

The neckline panels are in the yellow and blue twill.

Conclusions:

I kinda expect the indigo to fray sooner than the other fabrics; it will give me a place for doing boro-inspired repairs. It will be RP'd as a new coat made over the winter in the Brass Coast from some fabric acquired during Seppa's stay. I will probably wash it a few times to start the fading and colour bleeding.

The first Winds of War and a dig site in Segura... oh my, oh my, oh my! (As a Day mage, oh my, oh my, oh my!)

LARPCon 2020

What to say about LARPCon 2020?

Firstly, I arrived in a bit of a tizzy, but the old kit seemed to draw attention, and some of it sold, and on their way to new lives and purposes.

I found some leather skins that're ideal for the warskirt project, so whatever I made from selling off the old kit went to getting new bits.

I bought some of Steph's beautiful art and got to talk a bit with her and Alex, to smooth some of my anxieties.

Later, to quote Steph:

"...How cool is that to have something that you've gained actual worth on adventures."

I was writing about the brass chainmail rings that I acquired from Armchair Armoury and wanted to add said brass rings to an anchor wire chainmail collar an ex made for me about thirty years ago.

I thought at the time that she meant that I ought to wait on decorating Seppa and gain worthy things in play at Anvil.

Yet writing it now, I wonder if she meant that my thirty year old chainmail was an authentic relic of worth.

'Tis something to think about.

My haul

A black goatskin, some hairless sheepskins with felt very nice, even though they're greyish-brown/soil colour, and two brown remnants. They're destined for the warskirt, if I can figure it out.

Chainmail on old suede leather.

I found the photo I recently took of the chainmail collar. Perhaps once it's remounted onto something better, I can use it for the neck cover.

The brass rings, a Wintermark Rune, and a pin from Steph.

I have yet to try the brass rings with the galvanised anchor wire. I will need to remount the collar onto something a bit better, as the suede is a bit stiff and showing its age.

The Wintermark Rune is 'Sular' the rune of discovery and is affiliated with the Day realm.

Yes, that pin is inspired by Studio Ghibli and Princess Mononoke.

Other stuff

I'm continuing my sewing efforts with Seppa's panel coat. I'll discuss it in another post.