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labricoleuseHere's the second half of the pile of pictures from the hall of arms and armor at the Metropolitan.
The photo quality on some of these isn't the best--shooting with a hand-held camera through display glass with whatever light you've got in the room isn't ideal. A lot of these are meant as potential references for topics we discuss in armor class, though--photo examples of real suits of armor to illustrate various concepts like the padded leather fencing doublet you saw in the previous post, or examples of attachment methods in this one. This one is largely all partial or complete suits of various kinds of plate, for the most part.
Again, all photos are courtesy of Kaitlin Fara.
Ornamental padded armor.
Ceremonial armor for a child.
A good combo of chain and plate, and an example of
the style of plate made with fabric attached on the outside.
Features the much-reviled single-layer straps though.
Can't remember if this was also for a child, or just a really little dude.
Every man needs a steel codpiece.
Profile view of the same suit.
I love this guy's modest trunk hose, and his matching chamfron.
I tried explaining helmet plumage without a visual once, hence this image.
This guy clearly is the alpha-knight, or perhaps overcompensating [1].
More massive plumage back there in the rear.
Again with the cute trunk hose. Also, this was a great set of
mix-&-match armor for multiple purposes. You can see some of the
switch-out plates for jousting on the wall behind him.
Unusually large armor!
Not my favorite period and style, but there's something worth noting here...
..the great adjustable strap configuration!
Hooks again along the bottom as well.
This guy's also got something worth zooming in on...
...triple-layer straps!
One of the things we discuss in armor class is making durable straps that will support the weight of the armor, be potentially adjustable to fit different performers. Since theatrical costumes go into stock and are reused many more times in other performances by many different actors in the course of their lives, i always have my students take the long view--you're making this now for this one person in this one context, but it's a better item if it can be easily reused in future.
As such, single-layer straps are the least-desirable choice for armor straps--one layer of leather is only as strong as that single hide. I teach stitch-and-glue methods for making double- and triple-layer straps using either all leather, or leather and fabric, because a double- or triple-layer strap will withstand much more buckling and unbuckling and adjustment than a single-layer strap will, and the less you have to replace straps, the better. The strongest strap is a triple-layer strap with both adhesive and stitching (none of my multi-layer methods have just adhesive, all are stitch-and-glue), which is what we're seeing up there in the image.
I do this whole lecture on strap methods because even when you buy premade armor, like the stuff form Windlass Steelcraft, 9 times out of 10 it comes with single-layer straps and given the nature of theatre, those usually break or fail before a show finishes its run. If i have time, i'll drill out the rivets and replace single-layer straps on purchased armor with a double- or triple-layer strap before we even go into tech.
This is also a great project for a novice crafter, if you have some folks on your crafts team who maybe don't have a lot of skilled experience with things that need a finer touch, like millinery--you can show them how to make the stronger straps (simple cutting, glueing, and stitching), and how to remove and replace rivets, and it's a fairly straightforward process you don't have to "babysit" anyone on. It helps build their confidence as a worker and gives them something really constructive and useful to help out with, rather than some crappy busywork or something super-monotonous like putting in labels or whatever. And they really get a lot of job satisfaction out of the work--it's a tangible thing they can point to in the show and say "I made all the straps holding that guy's armor on."
So yeah, there's my little soapbox speech on armor straps for you. And, that's the end of the collection of pix!
[1] There's a great little exhibit in the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum's gift shop, about the little feather sprays you see on fedoras and other mens' hats. Those are called a gamsbart, and the gist is, they say that whoever has the biggest, most ostentatious gamsbart has the biggest...er, manhood. Now, the feathers on pimp hats, Musketeer hats, and these knights all make a lot more sense, eh? And, it brings a whole new level of humor to that scene in the first Pirates of the Caribbean flick, where Jack Sparrow slices the feather off of Captain Barbossa's hat.
The photo quality on some of these isn't the best--shooting with a hand-held camera through display glass with whatever light you've got in the room isn't ideal. A lot of these are meant as potential references for topics we discuss in armor class, though--photo examples of real suits of armor to illustrate various concepts like the padded leather fencing doublet you saw in the previous post, or examples of attachment methods in this one. This one is largely all partial or complete suits of various kinds of plate, for the most part.
Again, all photos are courtesy of Kaitlin Fara.
Ornamental padded armor.
Ceremonial armor for a child.
A good combo of chain and plate, and an example of
the style of plate made with fabric attached on the outside.
Features the much-reviled single-layer straps though.
Can't remember if this was also for a child, or just a really little dude.
Every man needs a steel codpiece.
Profile view of the same suit.
I love this guy's modest trunk hose, and his matching chamfron.
I tried explaining helmet plumage without a visual once, hence this image.
This guy clearly is the alpha-knight, or perhaps overcompensating [1].
More massive plumage back there in the rear.
Again with the cute trunk hose. Also, this was a great set of
mix-&-match armor for multiple purposes. You can see some of the
switch-out plates for jousting on the wall behind him.
Unusually large armor!
Not my favorite period and style, but there's something worth noting here...
..the great adjustable strap configuration!
Hooks again along the bottom as well.
This guy's also got something worth zooming in on...
...triple-layer straps!
One of the things we discuss in armor class is making durable straps that will support the weight of the armor, be potentially adjustable to fit different performers. Since theatrical costumes go into stock and are reused many more times in other performances by many different actors in the course of their lives, i always have my students take the long view--you're making this now for this one person in this one context, but it's a better item if it can be easily reused in future.
As such, single-layer straps are the least-desirable choice for armor straps--one layer of leather is only as strong as that single hide. I teach stitch-and-glue methods for making double- and triple-layer straps using either all leather, or leather and fabric, because a double- or triple-layer strap will withstand much more buckling and unbuckling and adjustment than a single-layer strap will, and the less you have to replace straps, the better. The strongest strap is a triple-layer strap with both adhesive and stitching (none of my multi-layer methods have just adhesive, all are stitch-and-glue), which is what we're seeing up there in the image.
I do this whole lecture on strap methods because even when you buy premade armor, like the stuff form Windlass Steelcraft, 9 times out of 10 it comes with single-layer straps and given the nature of theatre, those usually break or fail before a show finishes its run. If i have time, i'll drill out the rivets and replace single-layer straps on purchased armor with a double- or triple-layer strap before we even go into tech.
This is also a great project for a novice crafter, if you have some folks on your crafts team who maybe don't have a lot of skilled experience with things that need a finer touch, like millinery--you can show them how to make the stronger straps (simple cutting, glueing, and stitching), and how to remove and replace rivets, and it's a fairly straightforward process you don't have to "babysit" anyone on. It helps build their confidence as a worker and gives them something really constructive and useful to help out with, rather than some crappy busywork or something super-monotonous like putting in labels or whatever. And they really get a lot of job satisfaction out of the work--it's a tangible thing they can point to in the show and say "I made all the straps holding that guy's armor on."
So yeah, there's my little soapbox speech on armor straps for you. And, that's the end of the collection of pix!
[1] There's a great little exhibit in the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum's gift shop, about the little feather sprays you see on fedoras and other mens' hats. Those are called a gamsbart, and the gist is, they say that whoever has the biggest, most ostentatious gamsbart has the biggest...er, manhood. Now, the feathers on pimp hats, Musketeer hats, and these knights all make a lot more sense, eh? And, it brings a whole new level of humor to that scene in the first Pirates of the Caribbean flick, where Jack Sparrow slices the feather off of Captain Barbossa's hat.
