Re: Work In Progress--Deryni Action Figure Project (was Duncan Action Figure)

[Evie]

LOL at the sight of Luke getting his "Easter Blessing!"  And also at "Duncan's Dangly Bits!" (Me I'd have told that pesky Bishop to wait until morning.)

Ah, but see, my (admittedly self-imposed) goal was to make sure Duncan would be properly kitted to officiate in an early morning Easter Mass.  Never mind that I didn't actually have to wake up for church myself until close to 10:00 a.m.!   But I wasn't willing to wake up any sooner than that, and I figured the afternoon would be busy with family stuff, so staying up the extra little bit was actually more convenient.    (Keep in mind I'm a definite Night Owl, NOT a Morning Lark!)

Those vestments are beautiful though, and I'm in awe of your attention to detail and your ability to figure out how to make a mitre. And I'd say your eyes have more than earned a rest. after all those tiny stitches. 

If you ever have some pressing need to make a mitre (can't imagine why!), Googling "mitre construction" is pretty much useless.  Unless, of course, it's picture frames and crown moulding mitre joints you're after!     I ended up just having to look up as many photos of mitres as I could, especially any side views, and reading a bit about the history of that oddly shaped hat helped a bit also.  Turns out it started off as a regular dome-shaped sort of cap, but then it started taking on a faint two-peaked shape from being pressed down in the middle when putting it on the head, and then apparently folks actually liked that two-peaked look and decided it was all symbolic and stuff and moved the peaks around to front and back rather than the two sides, started exaggerating it and constructing the hat in that shape deliberately, and over the years it evolved to the present form.  Or something along those lines; that's the Evie's Greatly Condensed Version.   

So yeah.  The actual pieces look a bit like this:



You cut two of the pyramid type thingies for the front and back of the mitre, and the diamond shaped piece folds in half and goes between them.  The base of the straight-sided pyramids should each be just a little bit over half of the circumference of your bishop's head (the extra bit is for seam allowances), and the overall shapes need to be cut with that seam allowance as mind as well.  The diamond's sides should each be as long as the slanted sides of the mitre front and back, with the diagonal fold reaching just to the top of where the straight sides of the other pieces continue downward from there.  To make that piece, I basically folded a piece of paper in half, put the fold between the front and back pattern pieces until it was lined up evenly with the top of each straight side, traced the ^ portion of the front mitre piece onto the paper, pulled it back out, and trimmed it to shape, which left me exactly the right sized diamond to use as a middle piece.  To put it together, I just used iron-on interfacing to stiffen my three fabric pieces, then stitched the diamond shaped gusset to the top slanted edges of both the front and the back (inside out), then once they were fully stitched together, I ran a seam down the straight sides of the front and back and then hemmed the bottom edge and turned the entire thing right-side-out.  That gave me the basic "mitre" look, especially once I flattened the seams with an iron, but for it to look like a finished mitre you have to add the trim bits to it.  Stitch Witchery saved my sanity at that point, as my attempts to sew trim on ended up leaving me with shredded looking ribbon bits at first.  The beads are sewn on, but the gold ribbon is ironed on.  I suspect that's not how they did things in the Middle Ages, but then again, they weren't working in 1:6 scale and with tissue-thin ribbon either!   
 

You DO know you're obsessed, right? 

What, you mean everyone doesn't do this sort of thing?   The things I do for love! 

[tenworld]

so has this thread set the record for most replies:)?

[Evie]

LOL!  No, "The Casting Call" still has it beat by about 20 posts.   

[Alkari]

The things I do for love! 

Quoting Game of Thrones now, are we?!!   Though I assume you haven't taken to pushing small inquisitive children out of high tower windows just yet ...

Your household must be an "interesting" place at times, LOL. 

 

[Evie]

LOL!  Was that a GoT reference?  As I've not read the books or seen the series yet, I didn't realize, although now that you mention it, I think someone quoted it from there recently...in chat, maybe?

[Alkari]

Oh yes - it's THE line from Jaime Lannister to end Episode 1, Series 1.    Go check it out

[tenworld]

GofT seems to have a lot of catch phrases.  Each house has their own (Stark's is "winter is coming") as part of their heraldry.  Martin is a clever writer which is good because he kills off people (including children) left and right.  But I would recommend reading it - if you can take King Javan's year you can deal with the Lanisters.

Maybe we can come up with some slogans for Deryni families.

[Shiral]

GofT seems to have a lot of catch phrases.  Each house has their own (Stark's is "winter is coming") as part of their heraldry.  Martin is a clever writer which is good because he kills off people (including children) left and right.  But I would recommend reading it - if you can take King Javan's year you can deal with the Lanisters.

Maybe we can come up with some slogans for Deryni families.

For the Furstans it might be:  "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."
Or "Beware of Ambitious Uncles."

Melissa

[Evie]

For Duncan, this morning's slogan might be "Beware the Sharpie Sunburn!"  *sigh*

To explain that cryptic comment, I noticed this morning that where the mitre has pressed Duncan's hair against his forehead, he's now got reddish-brown staining on his vinyl skin from the Sharpie ink rubbing off on it.     I used a dab of an alcohol-based hand sanitizer on a tissue to wipe off what I could, and it seems to have helped somewhat, but I'm afraid anything that would do a better job at removing the ink stain would also remove his facial paint, and I don't want to end up with Eyebrowless (or worse, Eyeless) Duncan!  So now I'm hesitant of trying to change Helena's hair color for fear it will do the same thing on her even fairer skin (not to mention the nice veil or two I have planned for her in future).  The inside surface of the mitre also has some staining, but it doesn't show through to the outside, so I can live with that.

Maybe I should try wrapping the test head in some white linen for a day or two and see if the Sharpie ink rubs off that one?  She got a shampoo right after her Sharpie marker hair dyeing, so maybe that washed all the excess ink off and she's less prone to having it rub on on other surfaces?  If her hair is better at resisting ink rub-off, then maybe it's time to get Duncan all lathered up.  His hair, anyway.   

[Evie]

Look what arrived in today's mail!



Duncan's new and fully articulated body is here!  The head tilts (well, this one does...not sure what a Ken doll's head will do on this neck joint yet), and the body has skinned "musculature" on the torso and etched arm and chest hair that might be accented with a thin wash of paint.  Though I rather like the Jake Gyllenhaal head it came with (and I'm not even particularly a Jake fan, but I love this head sculpt!), and I sort of hate to pop it off to replace it with a less realistic Ken head.  Do I just keep it and make this figure "Duncan, Incarnation Two," or do I pop it off anyway, put the original Duncan head on this body, and then keep this head for later use?  He could also make a good Arilan, if I darken the hair a bit and add a blue-violet tinge to the irises of his eyes.



The magnified photos of this head that I saw online look fairly grim and "scowly," but in regular size he looks more intense than angry.  Bear in mind this head is only about 1.75" high from very top of his hair to the bottom of his chin, and just a little over an inch wide (slightly more than that at the ears).



I don't know how visible his eyes are in this photo, even though I cropped it in hopes of getting a closer view.  Each iris is only the size of a pin head in actual size, but such a deep glossy blue, with itty bitty black pupils!  I'll definitely use this head for someone, just not sure who yet.

Also started a gown for Helena today.  And lest you worry that Visionaries is being neglected, I'm about 1000 words into the next chapter as of lunchtime today....   

[Jerusha]

If he was blond, I could almost see him as an intense Alaric - somewhere on the battlefield in HD or TKJ.  But lacking that endearing raised eyebrow in lighter moments. 

Still, I love the detail - he almost looks like a real person.

[Alkari]

You just know that you NEED a row of favourite bishops, don't you      So Denis Arilan, definitely

[Evie]

Funny, I was just wondering earlier today if that sculpt would work for an Alaric if repainted, especially considering the absolute lack of handsome blond head sculpts on the market.  The few I've seen have bright yellow hair and are dog-ugly!  

[Alkari]

No, he's not an Alaric, even an older Alaric.  Definitely an Arilan 

[Shiral]

Yup, that's Arilan.  So what's the next important feast day after Easter when we can expect another set of episcopal vestments?

Melissa.