Almost There!

This progress bar depicts how far I have come in the making of the costume for the cover of my book. It says that I am at least 70% complete. I’ve been working all weekend, which made this post late.

If you recall, the book takes place in ancient Nubia. The main character, Kandake, is a warrior. The model that represents Kandake will be clad in breastplate and sarong.

The breastplate is being made from calf-skin leather. Here are the stages: It started with my wrapping Makeda in duct tape. Whis resulted in this shell I it covered with a plaster wrap and filled it with plaster to add strength to the form You see it here wrapped in plastic, prepared for the leather.  Here is a picture of the entire calf skin.  In this next photo, it has been cut and stitched to it’s basic shape. It is now soaking in a tub of water, softening It will be stretched, molded, and dried over the form above.

The sarong began as a length of fabric. I altered the color slightly. As you can see, it’s been stitched, stamped, and painted. Here is a close up view of the detail All that’s left is to add a few beads.

See, I’ve not been slackin’, I’ve been very busy.

The Making of a Breastplate

 

A few posts ago, I introduced you to the model of my book cover, Makeda. You saw a picture of me wrapping her in duct tape. In a later post I told you I got an idea about making the breastplate in leather. Here is the picture of the raw leather.

     I put a pair of my reading glasses on it to give you a gauge  for the size. This is one full calf’s hide. I know, it sounds awful. Rest assured, I had nothing to do with taking the life of the animal unless you count the hamburger I ate.

Remember the picture of me wrapping Makeda in duct tape. Here is the shell it produced.

I taped that to the side of a bucket for two purposes 1) to hold it’s shape while I 2) lengthened it and covered it with plaster cloth wrap. As you can see, it was a very messy process. After it dried, I removed it from the bucket and this is what I got . The next step is to fill it with a slurry of plaster that I’ll make from the  powder in the container on the left. Once it dries and hardens, it will become the mold for the leather. But that’s different post.

Now you're caught up with where I am in the process. It’s work, but lots of fun.