Han Solo Belt: research & materials

I finally borrowed someone's camera, and so it's here! The first Han Solo Belt entry, as promised!

As I think I mentioned before, Alex is helping me with this project. More than just a little, it's pretty much a joint project at this point.

The first step in the process was research. I stared at photos of Han Solo Belts for hours before I even called Alex up. He sat with me while I fast-forwarded through A New Hope, trying to get screenshots of Han facing away, so we could see the back of the belt. Yeah, it was pretty intense.

I finally found a few informative source photos that I decided to go with.

This is one of my favorites.

The strength of this photo is that you get to see the whole layout of the main belt section, and it's continuous. It's a replica, but I'm finding more and more that the replicas out there are very trustworthy. As it turns out, most crafters are as obsessed with accuracy as I am!

I also have some photos of the actual prop from the films:



I found these at the amazing Original Prop Blog, which is a phenomenal resource that I've barely begun to use yet. There's so much material to read, and I have so little time!

Okay so down to the materials. Alex had me drive way out to the leather-working shop where he gets all his supplies. It's called Russell Farms (it would appear they don't have a website). The hilarious thing about this place is that they're a farm. They process people's deer meat. They sell leather and leather-working supplies, but their usual clientele is hunters. Alex loves this place. But he is not their usual clientele. Observe:

You would be forgiven for thinking he only dresses this way SOME of the time. But you would also be wrong.

So, with the help of the very friendly lady who works there, we were able to buy the leather we need for the belt.

A strap for the main belt, a large piece of scrap leather for the holster, and some medium-brown leather dye.

Here is the scrap leather, with my foot for size reference.

There was some controversy as to whether the holster is one piece or two. If it's one continuous piece, this scrap leather - despite being the largest piece they had - wouldn't be big enough. But, Val brought a few photos of various replicas to my attention. Here's a good one:

(projecthro.com)

See the rivets across the top of the part where the blaster sits? It's a separate piece of leather. It's still large, though, so it's going to be a squeeze. I think we need to go back and get another piece of scrap for the pockets on the main belt, so that this large piece can be used entirely for the holster.

So, there you have it! Of course, all of my crafting is on hold over the holiday. I don't anticipate having anything new for you next week. I'll be far too busy this weekend catching up with family, and spending every spare moment getting my January applications together and ready to submit.

Everyone have a lovely holiday, and we'll be back late next week!

Gloves, gloves, gloves!

I've been on a glove-crafting spree lately.
To start with, I made two pairs of fingerless gloves, on slightly different designs:

Sorry about the weird image alignment.
Spiked fingerless gloves has a sort of timeless elegance, if you ask me. I got a bulk order of these gloves, so I've been playing around with different spike configurations (on the knuckles versus in between the knuckles). The gloves are available on etsy here and here.

I also made these, which were substantially more work:














I came into a set of cold weather motorcycle gloves, and I decided to modify each one on a slightly different design. I've nicknamed these "the Morningstars," due to the their resemblance to the sort of thing that would be bashing in the skulls of knights on a tenth century battlefield.
Pretty cool, right? Well, I felt that my own winter gloves were somewhat lacking in comparison by this point, so I made these:




























I've had the idea of doing scales on the outside, chain on the inside for a while, and I think it came together quite nicely.
At some point, I plan on adding no small amount of spikes to the backs of the hands, and maybe trying to forge some steel talons to go over the fingertips. It'll be no small amount of ridiculous, I assure you.

Metal pants

One thing that's troubled me for a while is how I can take what I do to most of my clothing and apply it to a pair of pants. Jackets are easy to modify. So are gloves and boots. But pants? That's tricky.
But I found a way. I got a pair of side-laced leather jeans (which were pretty sweet to begin with), and put a swatch of chainmail under the laces. The result? This:
Initially, I just removed the laces and replaced them with the chainmail, but that made it look too much like a bright silver racing stripe. Not exactly what I'm going for. Putting the laces back in broke it up a little bit more, with a most pleasing result.
I haven't weighed the pants yet, but I estimate they're somewhere about 6-7 pounds.
I don't plan on putting a stock of these up on the store, since I have to buy the pants myself first. However, if anyone wants a pair, I'd be willing to do a commission.

Scale mail petal skirt!

I just got back from the renaissance faire this weekend, and I have a few photos of a scale mail petal skirt that I've been working on for the past 2-3 months.
Though I originally intended it to be a miniskirt, it ended up being pretty close to knee length.


As you can see, one of the scales came undone during the course of our adventures at the renaissance faire. The skirt ended up being a bit on the tight side, which was forcing links apart and causing such problems. I'm going to take it apart and expand it by a few scales in order to correct this. I also plan on extending the brass section along the bottom to make it more pronounced, just once I acquire some more brass scales.
The belt was originally intended to hold the skirt, but I found that a drawstring actually accomplished this much more effectively, and now the belt plays a principally decorative role.
Here's a shot from the back:


Altogether, there are about 1400 scales and 3400 rings in the skirt. The belt is an additionally 770 rings of jeweler's brass. The buckle came from Amazon. The total weight of the skirt is 11.4 pounds.
The skirt made quite a stir at the faire; my companion was dragged off at one point to have her picture taken by an official photographer, and I got a couple people who were interested in potentially commissioning one of their own from me. I'm thinking it'll end up being about 250-300 USD, depending on the size of the commissioner and how fancy of materials they want to use.

~Alex, the Metal Artisan

Custom belts!

I recently made this belt as a commission for a member of a forum I'm part of. It's 43" long, and features Baphomet encircled by tiny skulls on the buckle.
He had these words to say upon receiving it:
"The belt is here. The belt fits well. The belt is now controlling me. Seriously, the second I cinched the belt closed, I felt the eerie dark power emanate down my crotch into my nether regions, imbuing my junk with a mystical ability to totally kick ass. IT. IS. FUCKING. METAL."

Not bad, eh?

~Alex, The Metal Artisan

A mighty work!

A few weeks ago, I produced what I consider to be my journeyman project: A chainmail shirt. I had been working on it for about eight months, but the vast majority of the work was done between January and April. Altogether, I'd estimate it at about 40-50 man hours of labor.
The end result is naught but one thing: beauty.


This photo has a bit more glare than I'd like, but it gives a decent front overview of the shirt.



This back shot highlights what I consider to be the Pièce de résistance of the shirt: the scale mail shoulders. Each contains about two hundred scales, and is fastened to the shirt all along the edges to prevent them from flopping around.


Both the side laces and the belt serve the same dual function: firstly, they tighten the shirt around the body so as that less of the weight rests of the shoulders. Given the weight of chainmail, it makes for a tremendous difference in comfort depending on whether the belt is fasthened and the laces are tightened or not.
Secondly, it makes the shirt look more interesting and be something other than endless expanses of gray steel. My main inspiration for these additions were old-school motorycle jackets, and their plethora of fasteners and tighteners to keep wind out. I figured it should work for keeping weight off as well; and I was correct.



Well I couldn't very well not take a picture like this, could I?



After all that hard work, there's nothing quite like a refreshing bowl of cornflakes.

Introduction: Metal and Leather

Alex here, signing in.
I have two principle crafts: chainmail, and clothing modification. By clothing modification, I specifically mean via the addition of studs, spikes, and other accouterments a la the 1970's punk scene.
Both of these crafts stemmed from the same basic passion: I really, really like heavy metal. There's nothing quite like the melodious meedley-meedly of a good guitar solo to set the soul at ease. About a year and a half ago, I was inspired with the notion of not only metal as music, but metal as a full blown visual aesthetic.
It began with a jacket; I wanted to get a biker style jacket and spike it out until it looked absolutely Beyond Thunderdome. But then I thought to myself, "hey, I need a good belt to go with this. " A belt made of chainmail. And so it began. And so it continued, until I looked like this.


The gloves have since been covered in chainmail as well.
Anyways, this goal of looking like a heavy metal album cover designed by He-Man villains has developed into an ever-expanding pursuit of craftsmanship. I've recently taken up leatherworking, and plan on learning metalworking and blacksmithy at some point in the coming months.
I've got a Deviantart gallery up here.
Most of what I've made has been recorded there in varying degrees of agreeable lighting.