Tuesday, July 8, 2008, 04:44 PM
More planning!This is a huge project. To inspire me to finish, and to get something started, I decided to do a bit of work on the embellishments.
This guy's clothing is pretty simple. He's got some underwear, which is fabric and braided rope, and a bunch of wraps, which are fabric, braided rope, and... armadillo skin. I learned the identity of this material at PAX last year from Katy Hargrove.
So: the challenge. How do I get armadillo skin? I certainly wasn't going to use the real thing. Even then, the pieces the Charr use come in... interesting shapes, bordered by a texture that looks like the armadillo's rings. I suppose I could have started breeding armadillos for their skin shapes, but I don't really have that kind of time.
Something else, then. Fabric? Hard to find the right pattern, still border issues. Not very textured. As always, if I want it done right, I'm gonna have to do it myself.
Let's skip the time I spent researching mold making and making it out of silicone. It was a neat idea but not really viable unless you are already into is (or know someone who is) so you're familiar with the materials and already have a supply of them. Even then, this is a bunch of one-off pieces.
I needed a material that was flexible, easily molded, and paintable. I've used this Crayola Model Magic stuff before, and had some small chunks that I never got around to using, so I decided to try it and see if it would fit the bill. Note: this stuff is doomed as soon as you open the package. I had bought a six pack of half ounce packages that I bought on sale once, and decided to sacrifice one to use as a test.
I picked the yellow pack, and while I was at it I ripped off a piece, rolled it into a snake, split it in three and made his earrings. May as well, rather than wasting a whole new pack on them later. I hadn't been able to find earrings of the right size in my shoppings.
The rest of the material went between two pieces of plastic wrap. I rolled it out flat, then stamped circles into it using the end of a lip gloss container. I made the border lines with a wooden skewer. The plastic wrap was left on during this so that my stamping would make round bumps rather than just cutting into the material.
Removed the plastic, let it dry. Tomorrow we'll see how it turned out.
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