I’ve always been a little bit fascinated with armour – maybe it’s all the sci-fi and fantasy that I read and have read since I was little, maybe it’s just a preoccupation with fashion, but I just think the stuff is terribly neat-o. As you may or may not know, Dear Will works at the Higgy as the conservator, and I worked there briefly, in education, a while back.  So I’ve managed to learn bits and pieces about the stuff over the years.

So in 2oo8 when Man Cub wanted to be a knight for Halloween, I dug in with gusto. He and I discussed the matter at hand (fashion!), and decided on some fanceh scale armour. I researched, asked a ton of questions, and then  I cut about a zillion pieces of black craft  foam into chevrons, pulled an old long-sleeved tee out of the closet, and fired up the glue gun.

I fashioned the shoulders by molding them around a small pumpkin, and scaled up the shirt from the bottom up, and when I got most of the way around, I ran out of foam chevrons. So, um, I made him a cape and called it a day. Will finagled a helmet and a wooden sword, and our man cub brought home much candy that Halloween. That costume actually made it through two Halloweens (the second year spray painted gold and, “blood” spattered) before it was too small. I believe he would have worn it a third year had it not gotten tight.*

I loved the process of building the costume – the shaping and molding, and even the cutting out of chevrons was kinda meditative. And ever since that costume, I’ve been wanting to build another armour.

This armour idea has fomented over the years, and become a full blown craving. I was thinking faerie armour, something a little fantastical and organic. Well, when we went to Michae’ls a couple weeks ago for some green yarn, I ended up walking out of the store with half the clearance aisle in my shopping tote – foam skulls, and velveteen leaves all over the place. I spent the weekend ironing leaves, and then began building.

I still have a bit more work to do – tonight I need to go back up to Michael’s and pick up some ribbon or cord to edge the skulls. I need to make little crowns for them too. But so far, so good. Rose was even kind enough to model for me last night =)

I’m terribly excited about this whole thing. Originally I was only going to do the shoulders, but now I want to build a breast plate and back plate, and maybe even bracers** to go with.

After this one, if it comes out well, I think that I’m going to do a series. I have ideas for feathers and for wheat so far. Which is to say, if you need to find me anytime soon, I’ll be in the living room with Torchwood  reruns playing in the background, working on turning an old bra into a stiff piece of business suitable for sword fighting fashion.

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*Man Cub grows like a weed, y’all. His favorite thing to do lately, is to threaten to lick the top of my head. He totally could, and without any more stress than just leaning in my direction >.<
**Apologies, Will, for mixing up arms and leg last night when I called them greaves. Now I understand why you looked confused while we were talking about this.