Prince Report post Posted July 15, 2007 If everything loads up ok you should be able to see a lot of what I've made before and me, the big guy in the red/gold armor. The armor I'm wearing was made by my mentor. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MatthewD Report post Posted July 15, 2007 HOLY SMOKES awesome looking work... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Johanna Report post Posted July 15, 2007 Ditto to what MatthewD said! I love the creativity, attention to detail and the obvious thought that went into the pieces! Do you have a website? I would love to learn more about your work, and where you draw your inspiration from. Johanna Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
candyleather Report post Posted July 15, 2007 Fantasctic works! What kind of leather, dies, finished and colours do you use? How many days do you need for every armor? Do you have patterns or do you make custom with your own designs and wild imagination? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MatthewD Report post Posted July 15, 2007 Okay CL is asking all of the questions that I have in my mind also.. and the fact I want to see some more... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wolvenstien Report post Posted July 15, 2007 sweet Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
freak Report post Posted July 15, 2007 Anymore pictures of the chic ?? What all of you where think'n it. I seen a lot of armor stuff lately . I'm amazed. Nice work man, very nice. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Don101 Report post Posted July 15, 2007 you all speak my words aspecially freak wow nice stuff the leatherwork i mean. Don Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cowboy Crafts Online Report post Posted July 15, 2007 very nice work. is there a big market for armor? Ashley Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peter Ellis Report post Posted July 16, 2007 very nice work. is there a big market for armor?Ashley Not really. The kind of armour Samuel is making is pretty much a RenFair, LARP and maybe SciFi market. Although many people may attend Ren Fairs, a much smaller percentage are interested in dressing the part, and then of those, only a limited number are looking for armour. There's also an even smaller market that's interested in armour that's plausible reproduction of historic pieces, as opposed to fantasy stuff. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Beaverslayer Report post Posted July 16, 2007 Azmal, My hat is off to you....that is some AMAZING work you've done there, I can't imagine the time and effort that would be put into such work. More pictures PLEEEEEAAASE....... Ken Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Prince Report post Posted July 16, 2007 Thanks for the props, I actually was expecting a few arched eyebrows and sideways stares; ) Not really. The kind of armour Samuel is making is pretty much a RenFair, LARP and maybe SciFi market. Although many people may attend Ren Fairs, a much smaller percentage are interested in dressing the part, and then of those, only a limited number are looking for armour. There's also an even smaller market that's interested in armour that's plausible reproduction of historic pieces, as opposed to fantasy stuff. Exactly.... There is such a small market for this stuff its almost ludicrous to make a business out of it, yet thats what I aim to do lol. No easy task and I think I'm getting in over my head at the moment while I'm thinking about college and other ambitions too but I do need some cash inflow and need to test the market and better now than later. Another problem with the market is that of the people who do dress up, many are content wearing cheapo junk or poorly made stuff as long as it look cools... even if they cant sit down or tie their shoes. My mentor prided himself on functionality and being the best, as shall I. The armor I make is historically based in that I learned the function of armor from my mentor and make fantasy designs. Some of the designs were made as "standard edition" and he would make a pattern, and we would make variants of that pattern with different color bands and overlays and wet molded designs and tooling patterns, etc. Leather used can be , latigo sometimes, but 8-10oz tooling leather usually because it can be tooled, dyed, and wet molded to be really custom. Of course one could get creative with stitching together latigo into cool shapes or corseted designs too. My mentor (William AKA "The Goblin King") is by far the best craftsman, artisan, artist, I've ever seen for just about anything you can think of. One of those people who's really tried to do it all. he's got is own quirks and he abused my generosity terribly which is why I'm not with that business any more. Things may still work out and all but I needed a break. (what I said here doesn't leave here, yeah? - There is a big fan club and forum/album site that I built for us and I don't need the people there asking me lots of questions, in fact I haven't been back except to fix it. But I'm sure you'll like to see the billion pictures there. www.GoblinNation.com Then click 'albums' up at the top and you will be busy for days if you try to see them all. there are waaay more pictures in the user's personal albums There is a commercial site that I started on many months back before I left (which was just a few months back) and thats www.GoblinKingForge.com but its not finished but it has some products and a pretty good start. Also, my myspace for those of you into that sort of thing is www.myspace.com/goblinnation Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Prince Report post Posted July 16, 2007 (edited) Here are a couple pics I'll point out so those of you without much time to sort through the album Lord and Lady Dahlberg - this armor is already several years old and still holding up My Dagger my GK (Goblin King) GK Strapping someone into armor he made for them at the Texas Ren Fest. Big Mace Rapier William in his armor at Dragon Con 06 (Atlanta Ga) Another pic of Dahlberg the Corinthian Suit also note most of the fabric costume design you see with the armors are made by GK too Edited July 16, 2007 by Azmal Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
candyleather Report post Posted July 16, 2007 Another links for ancient armors The perfect armor The perfect armour 2 Leather helmet instructions A 13th Century Leg Harness and more patterns Medieval french shoes Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
abn Report post Posted July 16, 2007 I don't know a whole lot about what goes into making leather armor, but I can imagine it takes plenty of time, effort and creativity. Absolutely incredible work. This stuff could easily be in a Lord of the Rings movie -- it's as good as any costume designer in Hollywood is making IMO... -Alex Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peter Ellis Report post Posted July 16, 2007 Another links for ancient armorsThe perfect armor The perfect armour 2 Leather helmet instructions A 13th Century Leg Harness and more patterns Medieval french shoes chuckle. Please disregard both of "The perfect armour" articles. They're many years out of date and don't reflect current understanding of the process of hardening leather. Boiling is incredibly difficult to pull off consistently and on those occasions when one gets it just right, produces results no better than can be achieved through much more easily repeated procedures. Those two articles are reproduced and linked all over the internet, but for some time now they've been perpetuating an old experiment that has proven to be on the wrong course. No offense, the author is an old friend and mentor of mine who would readily acknowledge that he was exploring and that subsequent research has gone beyond his initial attempts. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MatthewD Report post Posted July 16, 2007 Peter, Could you give some insight on the better way of hardening leather armor? Please Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hoyden Report post Posted July 24, 2007 Thank you CandyLeather for those links. I need to get back to work and get done so I can go home and spend the rest of the night buried in these links. I'm re-doing my five year old daughter's armor for the ren faire, and BOY did this post give me some ideas to try out on her. Yes, I know, she will out grow it. But I like doing small test runs using her for a test dummy before I screw up something much larger. This was whipped together out of leather scraps in October last year. http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a261/hoy...nt=DSC05740.jpg http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a261/hoy...nt=PICT0018.jpg Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
candyleather Report post Posted July 24, 2007 Hoyden, thanks. I saw your pics. A beautiful Lady with a buccaneer!, tell her that is a bad choice for a son-in-law. I know that in the american market there are wood swords very realistic for training and for make and scabbard. Be careful, she knows more fencing than you! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hoyden Report post Posted July 24, 2007 Hoyden, thanks. I saw your pics. A beautiful Lady with a buccaneer!, tell her that is a bad choice for a son-in-law. I know that in the american market there are wood swords very realistic for training and for make and scabbard. Be careful, she knows more fencing than you! Thank you! This one is hell on feet, so I am sure she is going to give us a run for our money. I won't have to worry about Aiden (the buccaneer) too much, she is way tougher than he is and gets impatient with him when he can't keep up with her. The man she is sparring with is the head of the Academy of Knighly Arts, he completes in Western Martial Arts in the US, UK and Europe. We warned him to watch her head as she is known to cross swords, give a little then haul back and head butt her opponent. I've got a nice wooden waster from Hallow Earth put away for her, she forgets that her friends can't take the battering that she can, so until she learns, she has to make due with softer wooden weapons. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peter Ellis Report post Posted July 25, 2007 Peter,Could you give some insight on the better way of hardening leather armor? Please Sorry, I didn't see this question until tonight. I follow the controlled bake method for hardening leather. It involves soaking the piece, wet forming it, and baking at about 180 degrees until it starts to dry. It can be done with or without using glue, and you can use hide glue, as is believed they did in the 1300's, or you can use a modern glue (susch as Titebond III which I use due to its waterproof character when it has cured). If you use a modern glue like Titebond, I've found mixing it one part glue to ten parts water works well. The pieces can be nailed to wooden lasts to hold their shape while baking, or you can pay close attention and adjust the shape from time to time as the piece bakes. This approach results in leather that is quite hard, a bit springy, without being badly brittle and without much shrinkage. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MatthewD Report post Posted July 25, 2007 Thanks.. I will more than likely attempt to do that when I try to make my son some lorica segmenta armor Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mulefool Report post Posted July 27, 2007 This is really cool stuff. Last weekend we went to a Horse Fair and there was something called the "Warhorse challenge" with the riders wearing leather armor, although I don't think it was the same caliber as your work. Are there career opportunities with the movie industry? It looks like various pieces need to be shaped to the person. Do you make up molds for that? I guess I'm mostly looking at the bra part of the ladies outfit. It looks like a perfect fit, so it just got me thinking. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Prince Report post Posted July 27, 2007 Not sure about the movie industry... Would I like to? I'd love to... but how often does a movie like Lord of the Rings come out or any other top end movies that need armor? If I went into movies, I'd mostly be making various props and such, but even still I think I might like to try it some day. As for molds, it's not uncommon for a commission to demand a mold for a perfect fit. In most cases though the aim is to make an adjustable universal fit item. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pepin1948 Report post Posted July 27, 2007 Movies like LOTR ought to come out more often! (I wish!!!) I'm a nut for that genre, and was VERY disappointed to see that the Dragonlance movies are coming out as animation. There are lots of good movies in the fantasy genre (Narnia, LOTR, Dragonheart) and some with a more sci fi "tinge" (Reign of Fire) that show special effects and costuming can be combined with good acting to bring out an enjoyable movie experience for fans. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
