armor and helmet

[Prince]

Well, looks like I'm finished but I'm afraid the helmet doesn't match the armor at all... its just... different. I may end up making a different helmet that fits the armor better if the client requests it. Which, I may add, will suit me just fine and I'll probably hang onto it. But anyway, here it is.

Edited August 1, 2007 by Azmal

[Tangent Creations]

Absolutely Beautiful! I showed the previous pics of it to my Hubby and he was really impressed (his personal symbol is the griffin (sp diff :biggrin: )...too many ways to spell it

Anyways, that is really good work! I like the airbrushing!

[Prince]

Thanks, and yeah, way too many spellings

[Luke Hatley]

ASWUM.....YOU ARE A VERY ARTISTIC CRAFTSMAN...

[Prince]

Thanks, I forgot to mention the helmet face plate swings up as a visor.

[MatthewD]

Looks great... Azmal, you are a very artistic person and I am truly amazed..

[nomi]

Absolutely stunning work!

- Noel

[ETW Grumpy]

Dude, that is truly amazing. Have you thought about sending some pics to some movie production companies to make your services available? Just a thought. You have a truly God given talent. Wow.

[Clay]

Well, looks like I'm finished but I'm afraid the helmet doesn't match the armor at all... its just... different. I may end up making a different helmet that fits the armor better if the client requests it. Which, I may add, will suit me just fine and I'll probably hang onto it. But anyway, here it is.

WOW that is amazing. How much time do you have invested in this? I agree with you that the helm doesnt quite fit the armour. In my opinion if it has been colored alot darker it would work better, I mean no disrespect but it almost has a humorous quality to it, like a ticked off big bird. Still the craftmanship and detail is remarkable..

Clay M.

[Beaverslayer]

Azmal,

Move to Hollywood!!!!!

Again...simply AMAZING.

Ken

[Prince]

WOW that is amazing. How much time do you have invested in this? I agree with you that the helm doesnt quite fit the armour. In my opinion if it has been colored alot darker it would work better, I mean no disrespect but it almost has a humorous quality to it, like a ticked off big bird. Still the craftmanship and detail is remarkable..

Clay M.

I agree, I'm thinking strongly about darkening the helmet top feathers and I think it will make the important parts pop out better and not have the ruffled 'ticked off' look up top. The helmet seems to detract from the frontal section a little just a bit. And as for time, I'm not sure really sure. I kept pretty steady postings along the way with the armor cuz I found this site just before I started it I believe.

Thanks again.

Here are a couple pics with the visor in the opened state.

Edited August 2, 2007 by Azmal

[CitizenKate]

Holy shnikes!!! Just WOW!

Kate

Edited August 4, 2007 by CitizenKate

[ClayB]

Holy shnikes!!! Just WOW!

Kate

I have been trying to figure out the right words to use to comment on your works and keep coming up short, so I think I'll just agree with what Kate said.

Clay

[Prince]

I have been trying to figure out the right words to use to comment on your works and keep coming up short, so I think I'll just agree with what Kate said.

Clay

heh, thanks again. Have I ever mentioned how cool that eagle in your avatar is? the eye is -perfect-I'd love to try pictorial (that the right word) carving&painting sometime

Beaver, you make those really sweet vests right? Is that something a novice in that field could pull off with careful attention to detail and some TLC? I'd love to try making myself one someday. I mean, I understand patterns and shaping. Braiding is still something I've never tried though, and that looks like the biggest part huh? That and the cool tooled panels. Are you willing to discuss your work?

[Beaverslayer]

Azmal,

Of course I will discuss my work. The biggest thing with making a vest like I do is that you have to do some engineering of sorts. As it is all hand laced together, you have to be careful where you put your seams, and be sure to strengthen the seam area.

I do this by glueing the two pieces of leather together..edge to edge..then glue a strip of pigskin to the backside, that overlaps both pieces. This lets say is a type of gusset. The pigskin strip is a bit more than 1/2" an inch wide, and this allows me to incorporate the pigskin into the holes I punch for the lacing, thus adding that extra strength to the seam.

I once made a deerskin hat that got rained on the first time I wore it. It got soaked..soaked..soaked. Once it dried, I applied kneatsfoot oil to it, hoping to make it water proof. Well all that did was change the color. I then tried to wash the oil out of it, this made the hat feel like a slime worm in your hands.

Wringing it out like you would a washcloth, I thought I was going to tear the hat apart, but to my amazement I found that even if I pulled with all my strenght, I could not pull the seams apart. Once I started building vests, I would use that hat as a demo to show people the strenght of the seams I used.

Anyways, with your talent Azmal, you would have NO problems making a vest, or anyother type of clothing using just lace to assemble it. Lacing is quite easy to do, but VERY time consuming, but very relaxing as you do it.

Ken

[Prince]

Azmal,

Of course I will discuss my work. The biggest thing with making a vest like I do is that you have to do some engineering of sorts. As it is all hand laced together, you have to be careful where you put your seams, and be sure to strengthen the seam area.

I do this by glueing the two pieces of leather together..edge to edge..then glue a strip of pigskin to the backside, that overlaps both pieces. This lets say is a type of gusset. The pigskin strip is a bit more than 1/2" an inch wide, and this allows me to incorporate the pigskin into the holes I punch for the lacing, thus adding that extra strength to the seam.

I once made a deerskin hat that got rained on the first time I wore it. It got soaked..soaked..soaked. Once it dried, I applied kneatsfoot oil to it, hoping to make it water proof. Well all that did was change the color. I then tried to wash the oil out of it, this made the hat feel like a slime worm in your hands.

Wringing it out like you would a washcloth, I thought I was going to tear the hat apart, but to my amazement I found that even if I pulled with all my strenght, I could not pull the seams apart. Once I started building vests, I would use that hat as a demo to show people the strenght of the seams I used.

Anyways, with your talent Azmal, you would have NO problems making a vest, or anyother type of clothing using just lace to assemble it. Lacing is quite easy to do, but VERY time consuming, but very relaxing as you do it.

Ken

Good point, I imagine I could zone out with some nice educational or fictional audio books or some music while I worked on it. I love multitasking and efficiency. Any pointers on where to begin learning the cool lacing techniques? How much lace is needed usually? I've ordered a spool of calf skin lace but wonder how far that'd get me. Thanks for the input so far, I'm eager to try it out but I imagine I should make some more profit items before beginning a project for myself

[Beaverslayer]

Azmal,

Sorry to say, but the money you spent on the calfskin lace would have been better spent on a lace cutter from Tandy...$14.95 I do believe. If you check the post about making lace, you will find my tutorial on how to use it.

With one square foot of say garment hide leather cost of about $6.00, you can make about 75' of 1/4" or 150' of 1/8" lace...way cheaper than the premade lace from anybody.

As to the cool lacing techniques, you can purchase books from Tandy as well that show all the differnet types and styles, with complete instructions on how to do them.

I've thought about doing a tutorial on some of them, but I'm not sure if it would be a help or hinderance, as it is somewaht hard to explain without actually having the person learning looking over your shoulder at the same time.

I've tried to teach a few people in person, but have only had one person really learn. Not sure if it's my teaching ability or just the people nto grasping what I'm showing.

As to the amount of lace needed, that depends on what type of lacing you want to do. I made one vest with python skin flame inserts, and that took over 700 feet of lace. My basic "Rebel" style hat takes a bit over 70 feet of lace to complete.

Some styles of lace patterns take upto 10 times the length of the seam to be laced.

I am presently working on doing a "Mail Out" with patterns and instructions on how to make a leather hat. (bear with me people that have asked for it) as there are some very tricky things to do when it comes to attaching the brim to the hat itself...kinda hard to explain without being here to see what is done.

But, any questions...don't hesitate to ask, I will endeavor to help out as best i can.

Ken

[Suze]

My SCA group is the Barony of Flaming Gryphon (Yet another spelling)

I don't think that anyone would want to risk getting something that neat "injured" in a battle .....

but could you see a "wave" of those helms heading for you?

Wow ...Just .... wow....

How many zillion hours did that piece of art take?

[leathernut]

thats just plain badass!!!!some hands down talent you have.very cool!!!

[pella]

SUPERB!!!!! Congrulations

[Angster]

Saw your post of the visor portion. Glad to find the finished helm and armor. Awesome!!! I think the visor works with the armor, just maybe darken the edges of the feathers, introducing a bit more black. But other than that, I wouldn't change anything. Again, awesome!

[mwinters]

Well, looks like I'm finished but I'm afraid the helmet doesn't match the armor at all... its just... different. I may end up making a different helmet that fits the armor better if the client requests it. Which, I may add, will suit me just fine and I'll probably hang onto it. But anyway, here it is.

I know this is a really old thread, but this was some really fine work. I hope Azmal still frequents here and if you do can you (or can anyone else) tell me what tools were used for the knot work patterns on the armor? It looks like a large stamp or roller, but I haven't been able to find anything similar to it while searching the internet.