Cavatica

I'm experimenting with self-hardening Stonex clay -- it was the only thing the local art store (the one worth a damn) carried that was even close to the right kind of clay. Here's what I've got right now: Now, let me say that I COMPLETELY realize a lot of the fine detail will be lost in casting -- or, if not in casting, in the leather molding itself. I exaggerated a lot of the design for that reason; I cannot conceive of how I'm going to get 6 oz (or, hell, even 4 oz) leather into all the finer gaps. I imagine I'll have to go back and tool them myself. However, if I can get even a few of those details to impress, then maybe I'll have a good guide to work with for tooling? This whole thing is just one insane experiment. If anyone has any suggestions at this point, please share! I've been sculpting and carving for six hours (maybe seven) and I am very, very tired. Time for bed!

Hey kids! Just wanted to give a quick update on where I'm kind of planning to go with this, and ask a few more questions. The other day, one of my friends helped me make a duct tape dressform of my body. Well, let me amend that; I already HAVE a pretty good, standard dressform, but it wasn't EXACTLY to my dimensions, and it's a little wobbly and unsupported on its own. So we wrapped me up in duct tape, cut it off, and then put it over the existing dressform to make the whole thing more stable. I stuffed bits and pieces of it with batting to fill it out where appropriate. It's not perfect, but it's more solid than either duct tape or the dressform would have been on their own. My PLAN is to build a mold on top of this -- probably with air-drying clay (because I'm going to want to be able to build up like a half-inch-thick base and then carve down into it) -- and then cover that with those nifty plaster strips I keep reading about. After that, I'm not sure what I should do. If the plaster strips dry hard enough, can I mold my leather right over that, still on the form? I suppose the problem with that would be that it'd be a bit thicker than my natural dimensions are. Would it be better to pop the plaster strips off once they're dry, use them as a negative mold that I would fill up with the liquid stuff (or, I dunno, maybe expanding foam?), and THEN mold the leather on top of THAT?

Wow! These are all fantastic suggestions! I'm aware the original piece probably isn't leather -- my pal Jeremy and I couldn't figure out, just looking at it, what it's really made out of, but neoprene seems as good a guess as any. Unfortunately, my neoprene press is off at the shop, so... ;> The other thing to consider is that this is supposed to be in the world of Dragon Age, so I think natural materials would look more "authentic" than foam and such. It also seems like everyone's opinion is split as to whether the bodice (let's call it that, anyway) is either three pieces in front or one. It DOES look like a single piece to me as well, but as a few people have pointed out, that would be pretty damn uncomfortable. Three pieces (and possibly two in the back, depending on how I want to get IN to this thing) seem more manageable to me. Probably more visually interesting as well. I do have a few other low-res shots of various other bits of the costume. They are: Sideview, with a better view of the fastener used on the top pieces (I think this may be more to hold her daggers on her back than to hold the garment together) Back, with... well, cloak (really just a hood) and daggers Underarm, for a view of the spaulders and how they're attached (just a couple of straps under the arms) There's also a shot of the hood in use, but that's not very informative about the bodice. I did also notice that it appears the bodice is sewn together along the sides. I don't know how I want to achieve that, though I've seen some good suggestions here. Maybe just go old school and lace those bits together? If I DO go with three sections for the front part of the bodice, how would I attach them to one another in a nice, seamless way? Thank you all for all your help so far!

Thank you for the quick response! I'll definitely take a look at the corsetry posts. I'd been doing searches for "armor" and "breastplate" and a couple other bits that yielded results, but I hadn't thought about going the corset route -- primarily because I do have a few leather corsets (one I made and one I bought), but they were both sewn, not molded. And, well, they're underbusts, so those won't really help me with bewbage issues. I realize there's a pretty big difference between 6 and 10 oz -- that was just the range people seemed to recommend in general. What would you recommend? There's another shot of Felicia's getup that seems to suggest the corset/breastplate thingie is lined with fabric (you can tell by ogling her left boob; there's definitely some beige, cottony-looking fabric lining the top), and I'm guessing that was specifically done to mitigate issues of, um, chafing. I'll shoot Johanna a note! Thank you!

Hey all! So I am super-duper new to leatherwork. I have plenty of experience as your standard nerdgirl cosplay costumer, including a LITTLE bit of sewing work with leather -- Exhibit A -- but I've never tried wet-forming the stuff, or tooling it or any of that other fancy business. I have a friend in real life who's worked with leather a ton, and he's already proved a valuable resource in a lot of regards. But I'm also attempting to try some stuff he hasn't yet, which is where you all come in! About two weeks ago, I got it into my head that for this year's Dragon*Con, I'd like to try doing Felicia Day's Tallis costume from the upcoming Dragon Age: Redemption web series. It's important to note that the series hasn't actually AIRED yet, but a) I'm a new redhead, Felicia Day is awesome, and c) everyone's already done her Codex outfit from The Guild. Plus, this will involve learning new skills, which is important if I want to be any kind of costumer worth a damn, right? The costume looks like this. I realize I could do this with foam or cloth or any number of other materials, but it sure looks to me like it's made of leather, and that's how I'd like to do it. (Incidentally, I reached out to the costume designer, Shawna Trpcic, who was very nice but who wouldn't tell me what the material is before the web series' actual release. So I get to guess.) I've already figured out about how many pieces I'm going to need to make, and I've drafted a few sketchy preliminary patterns. I have a dressform that's pretty close to my dimensions, so I'll probably be working with that for most of this process. My PLAN is to do paper templates, use those to make air-drying earthenware clay molds, and then work the leather over the clay molds. My friend and the interwebs tell me this should work, provided I make the molds a little deeper than I want the actual design to be, but I'm open to advice if you guys have better suggestions! Here are some of my questions: 1. What is the best way to draft a pattern for the, ahh, curviest part of the breastplate? Breasts are curved, and paper is flat. With fabric, you solve this problem through darts and curved seams; obviously, leather is a little bit different. Should I draw the pattern out flat and expect it to stretch once I'm sculpting, or should I transfer it from the dressform to the paper while taking the curved surface into account? 2. Similarly: should my molds -- clay or otherwise -- be flat or curved to fit the contours of my body? I'm not really worried about this for the thigh pieces, bracers, and spaulders, or even the flat part of the breastplate, but I really don't know how I'm going to attack my boobs (TWSS). Should I do the design flat and then stretch it out over the dressform, or should I curve the armor FIRST and THEN mold the design? 3. That breastplate looks to be three pieces to me, but even with the screengrabs I've taken from an Xplay interview, it's really hard to tell. What do you all think? 4. I've read all kinds of stuff about the best weight to use for leather armor. I'm given to understand 6-10 oz. veg leather is the best. Is that right? 5. Should I be looking for green leather, or should I be looking for another, flatter color that I then paint or dye on my own? I tweeted Felicia to ask if there were any other shots of the costume available; she wrote back (!) to say she'd try to release a few over the next couple of weeks, but "the next couple of weeks" is a scary timeline when Dragon*Con is only about 40 days away -- and I have a full-time job! So if anyone wants to walk me through this, I would be super, super grateful. I realize this is a LOT of questions. Even a few tips or starting points would be immensely helpful to me. Thank you!