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

[Jerusha]

It must be a good Fianna wine - Alaric's coronet looks slightly askew in the last picture.   

Lovely work, Evie.  The dashing pair are as handsome as ever.  *Sighs*

[Evie]

Alaric, speaking very carefully and with a slightly slurred voice:  "It was Verai...Vezairi port, and we both had empty stomachs.  It was good, though."  *suppressed hiccup*  "Now, if you'll please excuse me, my lady, I've got a raging headache, and now that I've poured my cousin into bed, I'm off to seek my own...."

[Evie]

Three Deryni went into town for lunch with me today:



Helena volunteered to come along to help me keep the cousins out of trouble.  Here, Alaric and Duncan converse quietly while Helena works on hemming her veil.  Helena says it's little wonder I hate to sew, if I have to do it with a needle the size of His Grace of Corwyn's stiletto!  (Well, it's huge compared to her, anyway.)



Helena was hard at work helping me accessorize her Servant of Saint Camber outfit.  We replaced the ratty pink and baby blue temporary cincture with a nice new one that has the proper red and blue cords, not to mention Franciscan knots.  As a female Servant of Saint Camber, Helena needs to wear a veil (with or without wimple) secured with a circlet of braided red and blue cords as well, so I made her one at the same time I made the cincture.  However, I left the veil pins at home, so without those, the circlet is useless at holding on the veil, unless I tie it on so tight that Helena develops a bad case of "muffin head."



Here is the finished veil.  Since, as I mentioned earlier, I forgot the veil pins, Duke Alaric was kind enough to lend Helena his coronet so she could try the veil on with a circlet that had sufficient weight to hold it on.   My current "veil pins" are small-headed sewing pins with plain flat steel heads, but I am thinking of giving the tops of the heads a coat or two of pearly white paint and clear sealer, both so they blend in better with the white veiling and also so they'll look a little fancier when viewed at close range.  Since Richenda is a duchess, she may get some fancier veil pins for Court fashions as well, perhaps with tiny jewels glued on top or a seed bead in gold, sapphire, or emerald green.  But Helena is quite content with simpler pins for her everyday wear.



"Why is the Host pink?!"     For dessert we had Necco wafers.  Duncan was a bit shocked when I handed him one, until I explained that a Necco wafer is a confection and not at all the same sort of thing as a Communion wafer, and that no one had tampered with the altar bread.

And now the purple cassock will need to be hand washed to get the Necco powdered sugar off the cuffs.  *sigh*

The wimple was finished later this afternoon, but I've got no pictures of it yet, so I'll take some once I've had time to find and perhaps decorate some veil pins.  Now I remember why I put off making these for a few months; the fabric wouldn't roll properly like fine silk does, and so I ended up having to make teeny tiny hems, folding down a bit of the edge about half an inch at a time and tacking it down with tiny stitches before folding under the next half inch of fabric.  Richenda might have to wait a little longer to get veils of her own; either that or she can share with Helena!

[derynifanatic64]

All you need to do now is make a Camber figure.

[Jerusha]

I cannot picture how the veil pins will look, so I'm looking forward to that photo.  ( I almost said that I couldn't picture the veil pins in my head, then realized what that brought to mind!)

You realize that if you make a Camber figure you can't leave him all by himself in his time period, so you'll have to make a Joram and Evaine, too.   

[Evie]

If I make a Camber, I have to make all the others as well?  Are you trying to motivate me or demotivate me?   

The veil pins are just the very simple sort with small, round, flat heads.  I just plan to paint those heads pearly white rather than leaving them steel gray.  If I fancy up Richenda's pins, I'll probably just paint the heads pearl white or gold and slip a little seed bead on the pin shaft before I stick the pin into the veil.  And yes, probably into her head as well, but better hers than yours, since hers has no nerve endings!

Got more stuff in the mail yesterday and also tried my hand at pulling the original hair out of the male test head so I can try my hand at rerooting hair, but now my fingers are sore from 1.5 hours of tugging out tiny clumps of hair with tweezers and a tiny crochet hook, so I'm saving my energies for chat.  I may upload another update later tonight or sometime tomorrow.

[Alkari]

Oooooh!   Pretty pics!   And very Handome Alaric       (have been away for a few days and not logging onto things, so have omnlyjus caught up).

[Evie]

Thank you, Alkari!  I hope you had a fun trip.   

Here's the next set of photos:



I got mail in the mail on Saturday!  Well, make that a tiny hauberk, chausses, and coif of faux "mail" in addition to a pair of braies, a belt to help hold up the chausses, a gambeson, a fabric coif that goes under the mail one (see the "lining" for the chainmail coif...when I took this photo, I hadn't realized yet that those were two separate pieces), a white gambeson to go under the mail hauberk for padding, a fleece trimmed tunic and a buckled surcoat.  I was really excited about the new outfit, and figured since it came in Haldane red, it would be battle gear fit for a King.



So Kelson tried on his new clothes.  The chausses were a snug fit, but eventually he managed to wriggle into them and we got the belt buckled.  He was looking forward to trying on the rest of the armor, but then we hit a small snag....



We discovered the one thing that was less than historically accurate about this set of garb.  It wasn't designed with any sort of neck openings and closures that would allow the armor, gambeson, and tunics to be pulled on over the figure's head!  To dress him in his armor, I will either need to pop his head off (which is probably how the clothing went on the original Crusader figure in the first place--the body was dressed before he was fully assembled), or else I will need to cut a slit down the back of each neckline that can be laced closed once his head is through.  It can probably be done, it's just a bit of a pain.  But that would be safer than popping poor Kelson's head off every time he needs to dress for battle, because that can be wearing on the neck joints and there's too great a risk of breaking him.

The linen coif, by the way, is fairly unisex, so I might use it as a pattern for making a few for Helena and Richenda.  They'd make lovely nightcaps, and a veil could even be pinned over them more securely, since I've not made veil bands for them yet.

So that's a project for a different day, but in the meantime, today I decided to prepare the male test head for trying my hand at rerooting hair.  To prepare the test head, I first cut this test head's hair as short as I could manage with scissors:





After using tweezers and a tiny crochet hook to scrape and pluck at the inside of the head via the neck hole to pull out all of the hair from the inside, I finally managed to get the last of the tiny plugs of hair out of the scalp.  This took a lot longer than I thought it would, about an hour and a half, and my hands were pretty achy by the time I got done.  Crafter's gloves are your friends if you decide to try doing this.





I needed a break from doll heads and hair once that task was done, so after dinner I broke out a new tube of adhesive (the same sort I used to affix the jewels on Duncan's crosier) and glued the new bishop's ring to Duncan's hand.  Here's what it looks like fixed in place:



Now I just need to find out if there's a detailed description for Kelson's ring and for Alaric's so I can make those as well.  Kelson also needs his Eye of Rom.  I haven't forgotten; I've just not had the right adhesive on hand until today.  As I recall, Kelson also had a lion's head brooch, didn't he?  I have some idea for how to make that, if it's just a lion's head that faces directly towards the viewer.  But I don't recall the description off the top of my head, unfortunately.  If one of you has the books on hand in print rather than audio, references would be greatly appreciated.

I also picked up some jewelry findings today that might end up becoming parts of a chalice:



The top finding is half of a large magnetic clasp, and the bottom two are two dome shaped findings meant to fit on either side of a round bead.  Plan A is to remove the magnet from the top cup-shaped clasp, leaving the framework with its top and bottom rims and the four curved "ribs" framing each quarter of the cup, and then using the Friendly Plastic to create a cup-shaped "liner" that will fit inside that framework, and also to create a stem that will lead to one of the dome-shaped findings, which will be the chalice's base.  That particular plan is fully contingent on me being able to remove the magnetic disk that appears to be glued inside the "cup" of the clasp.  If I can't remove it, I've got a Plan B....



Plan B would be to connect the two dome shaped findings together in a configuration similar to this, only with the stem between them being a little thicker and fashioned out of Friendly Plastic, then creating the bowl of the chalice so it fits inside and extends upwards from that top inverted dome, creating the full chalice shape.  I had hoped to find these beads in gold with the little jewels set in, but Michaels only had them in silver, so Duncan will either have a silver jeweled chalice or else I can paint the silver bits with gold paint at the same time that I'm coloring in the jewels.  (Or I suppose I could leave them clear and he can have a diamond encrusted chalice.)

All right, that's it for now.  Have a happy Memorial Day!

[Shiral]

I cannot picture how the veil pins will look, so I'm looking forward to that photo.  ( I almost said that I couldn't picture the veil pins in my head, then realized what that brought to mind!)

You realize that if you make a Camber figure you can't leave him all by himself in his time period, so you'll have to make a Joram and Evaine, too.   

Oh Definitely. And Rhys, And an Anscom an Alister and Jebediah and Cinhil.... And then Alroy Javan and Rhys Michael and Tavis O'Neill...
And then a half/Alister Half Camber figure in mid-shape-changing transition....



Melissa

[Evie]

Riiiight!  When I can find a nice part time job with a six figure income that doesn't involve illegal or immoral activity, I'll get right on that! 

[Jerusha]

Nice armor for Kelson but unfortunate about the lack of head openings.  I agree that modifications should be considered; somehow I don't see Kelson's squires readying him for battle with a cry of "off with his head!" first.

And why do I have the feeling that the smile on the face of the test head may have been a little forced by the time you finished?    He looks ready for veil pins!

[Evie]

I didn't have any white thread with me tonight so I wasn't able to alter the gambeson, but the surcoat and hauberk both have expanded neck openings now, so Kelson is able to get them on and off.  I tried splitting the back seam of the mail coif to see if there was some way to open it up enough to get it on over his head and then close it back up using black elastic thread that would be fairly unobtrusive, but unfortunately it is cut entirely too snugly to do even that if the hood is up, so the best I could do was get it around his neck with the hood portion of the coif hanging down on his back as if he's taking a break from the fighting and has pushed it back.  He'll just have to get another mail coif sometime if I can ever find some silver and black knit fabric with the right "chain mail" look.  Or I can just forget about a mail coif altogether and make a helmet like I'd originally planned, and use some faux leather to make a gorget for greater neck protection.

I took a picture of Kelson wearing the altered articles of clothing, but my phone battery is too low for me to upload it right now, so I'll try to remember to post it tomorrow.

[Elkhound]

Helena volunteered to come along to help me keep the cousins out of trouble. 

Helena should know by now that this is impossible.  The best you can hope for it to pick up the pieces afterwards.

[Evie]

Helena volunteered to come along to help me keep the cousins out of trouble.  

Helena should know by now that this is impossible.  The best you can hope for it to pick up the pieces afterwards.

Yeah, you're probably right.  

And here is Kelson wearing most of his new finery:



I still need to alter the white gambeson (the quilted garment that fits under the chainmail hauberk) to fit over his head, and the mail coif can't be altered to fit over his head without a gaping hole in back, so he'll need a new helmet instead.  I rather like the idea of him having a little 12th Century helmet with a nose guard, and he can get a leather gorget to wear with it to safeguard the neck and collarbones area unprotected by his hauberk.  (Or, if I can ever find some matching silver-and-black mesh fabric, I can just make him a larger coif.  Oh well, the original one was rather small for his shoulders anyway.  I'd prefer one a bit wider and more drapey.)  I may iron one of the new Haldane Lion appliques to the front of the surcoat, if I have one that fits, since that would be an obvious choice of garment that he'd want some heraldic display on.  If I do, it would go on his chest above that buckled waistband area.

[Evie]

Interesting. I just looked up the original Ignite Outremer I figure that wore this outfit, and apparently the buckled red garment was worn underneath the armor, just above the gambeson, rather than as the top layer.  In which case I have no idea what it's meant to be, and neither did my husband when I asked him this weekend, despite him being the seasoned SCA warrior of over 25 years.  The best we could imagine was that it was some form of surcoat.  Maybe it's a jupon, but if it is, wearing that and a gambeson and chainmail seems a bit redundant if it's meant to be an additional layer of armor padding, not to mention I think jupons are normally worn over the armor instead.  

But then again, Kelson is the King, and far from expendable, so maybe that's why he's bundled up in everything but his feather mattress!   No wonder he was nearly falling out from heat exhaustion during the Mearan War, though.  I'd pass out too, wearing all of those layers on a hot day!