Men, Women and Communication

I love steak. Especially when it's all nice and seasoned and bloody in the middle. I also loathe the current notion of Valentine's Day, the way it is marketed today, with this twisted idea that it's all about pleasing the Woman. So, why then, do I have a problem with Steak & Blowjob Day, when obviously it was made to give the pendulum of the feminized Valentine's Day celebration a shove in the opposite direction? Because two wrongs don't make a right and because whilst Valentine's Day in itself holds no indication of neither gender, sexual preferences or dietary concerns, Steak & Blowjob Day is just one big carnivorous display of misogyny, which also manages to exclude more than just one gender.

It is also really, really cowardly and infantile. It is, quite blatantly made up by men, unhappy with the demands that their female partners have set on them for Valentine's Day, and feel the need to "get back at them" by creating a day that for them represents what they would have wanted for Valentine's Day, had they been in charge. Herein lies the problem. If this is what you would have wanted for Valentine's Day, then grow the vagina to actually communicate this to your partner, instead of grumbling discontentedly to your mates about it.

You might find that your significant other think it's amazing that you too want to celebrate Valentine's Day, and maybe even that nothing has been done for you earlier because you have not communicated your desires. Partners are rarely mind readers.

You might find that your significant other has this idea that it's all about you doing the work, in which case, and I hate to break it to you, your significant other sucks (and there are all manner of ways that you can deal with that, but I think there are books written about this which you can check out if you fall into this category).

Now, some of you might say: but what about and Cupcakes & Cunnilingus Day? Well, I have a problem with that too. Again, it's another cowardly and infantile way of trying to "get back at " the men who created Steak and Blowjob Day. And personally, I think it's just as bad for all the same reasons.

My point, I suppose, is that all relationships depend on a healthy amount of dialog and communication. And if everyone kept the following in mind every time the second month of the year approaches, then we would probably never have heard of either Steak & Blowjob Day or Cupcake & Cunnilingus Day:

Remember, if you expect your significant other to dish up lots of aesthetic, gastronomical and sexual preasure for you on Valentine's Day, it is only fair that you provide the very same thing for your significant other.

Kíli Costume - Over Coat

I've started the process of making the over coat. To do so, I had to make the suede leather look more shiny, but more importantly, giving it the right colouring for the over coat. This entailed rubbing it in with petroleum jelly and polishing it with a smooth metal surface (I simply used a shampoo tin from Lush), leaving it to dry and then repeating the process. 

 

After I achieved a smooth(er) result, I started with the paint. Applying a thin layer of petroleum jelly first to make it easier to blend the colour and rub it out, I began with the first colour (a light brown) carefully dabbing some spots of colour onto the leather and then rubbing and blending it out. 

Once I'd finished the whole piece, I rubbed it in with another layer of petroleum jelly and left it to dry over night before starting with the next colour (a light tan) the morning after. 

 

 

 

Rubbing it in with yet another layer of petroleum jelly, I left the finished product to dry.

  

So, that's one piece ready, six to go. o_O

Kíli Project - Tunic

So, I've started on the tunic, thinking it wise to begin with the innermost layer and work myself outwards. I'm not at all happy with the material I've got for this (greyish blue cotton with a hint of lavender), so I might actually redo the whole thing on a later occasion, however, I can't really move on to the next layers without it, so for now, it'll have to make do.

First off, here's my work sketch for the tunic:

And here's the progress so far:

Measuring everything up and drawing guidelines with chalk before cutting. (lousy photo, I know)

Cutting out the second layer.

Attatching the third (and padded) layer.

 

Sewing everything together, securing the padding in the third layer with diagonal seams.

 

The two front pieces with all three layers.

Front pieces attached to back piece and sleeves.



Almost there! Just the hood, hems and front lacing left! :)

Kíli Costume - materials

So, realizing that the leather coats I got really won't make me happy in regards to making the over coat, there has been some change of plans. The over coat only has three vertical seams on the torso, and the colour is rather different than the leather coats I bought, so I started looking around for alternatives. I checked out a local leather shop, which, unsurprisingly sported very steep prices, and it didn't seem any better with other physical shops, so I went on to looking online. I found a few shops with relatively reasonable prices (approx. £6-£7 per square foot) but because of the colour being rather essential, I was reluctant to buy anything without having the opportunity to see the actual goods before paying up. I thus stumbled across this amazing guy on finn.no (which is like a Norwegian version of Craigslist) who was selling huge packages of ten whole hides for the ridiculous price of 500 NOK per package (that's about £60). It turns out he runs this fabulous shop in Oslo called La Luna which sells leather bags, belts and gorgeous masks! Take a look at the website here:

www.lalunaleather.no/

Here are some photo documentation of the awesomeness I (with the invaluable help of Rik) managed to get home with me!

With this, I will be able to make a proper over coat in leather, without any superfluous seams. I will have a suede finish, yes, but the cut and design will be better for it! Tomorrow, I will make an attempt of acquiring the materials for the greyish blue linen over tunic, and from there, I think I have most of the materials I need to get properly started with this project of mild insanity! ^_^

Kíli - New costume project

After seeing the first installment of the three Hobbit movies, and realizing, with glee, that Aidan Turner's Kíli looks exceptionally similar to my own, dear Rik, I decided that a new costume project was in order. So, now starts the journey towards a Kíli costume which is to be ready for the premiere of the next film.

I don't have a count for how many images of Mr. Turner's Kíli I have studied now, but I do know I have over 20 of them saved up as bookmarks for closer study. It's taken some time, but I've finally managed to get a wholesome perspective of the approximate pattern construction of the different layers of clothing, and I'll tell you this for free, there's a few of them.

1. Under tunic - blue/gray linen, one layer
2. Over tunic with hood - blue/gray linen, two layers
3. Short under coat - dark brown leather, grey/black linnen (padded) sleeves with patterned trimming
4. Long over coat with short sleeves - brown leather with fur trimming
5. Trousers
6. Boots

I've started with the long overcoat, and this is my rough construction sketch so far:



































Because I'm not filthy rich I'm using some old leather coats which I got for a bargain price in a second hand shop, even though this means I'll have lots of seams where there are supposed to be none, but I guess I'll just have to live with it. At least it'll all be in real leather instead of filthy pvc.

The coat I'm using as a base looked like this before I started to flay it:

 

Then, after removing the lining, it looked like this:

 

 

This is where I'm up to a the moment, but rest assured, I will keep you posted a soon as I've got more to show! :)

Goggles!

As I wrote earlier, I've just made myself a brand new pair of goggles! Because it was ridiculously easy and cheap, I thought I'd share the process here, so that others may take inspiration from it! :)

Firstly, I equipped myself with two empty cans of Redbull, mainly because these are aproximately 5 cm in diameter, so if you find other cans of the same size, they will most likely do. Using a nail buff, I removed the colour from the can, before painting the bottom with a brassy colour. I used Citadel (GW) paints, which demands a few layers, but most hobby paints should work. I left them over night to be sure they had dried properly. Next, I cut the painted bottom of the can off, making sure it was approximately an inch high, and them moved on to cutting a hole in the bottom. I now had the frame of the goggles.

I dug out some old leather I had lying around and cut out what was to be the "cuffs", the nose bridge and the straps. I also found small buckle to use for the straps. Sewing the all together, I next fitted the frames into the cuffs and added the "lenses", basically two sircles cut out from a sheet of transparent acetate.

Using a sharp hobby scalpel, I cut four small slits along the ridge of the frame, and stuck a tiny vintage brass coloured paper brad, using it's "arms" to keep the lens in place. And that's it! Goggles done!

Delightful Distractions

Work has been half killing my social life these last few months, but with my first ever Collective Bargaining safely behind me (it's been quite the crash course in negotiations), I can finally take the time to appreciate that summer is indeed a-comin'! I see baby birds almost every day, still poofy and fluffy, watching their mum fetch food for them, and everywhere there's green. Suddenly having some spare time, I managed to go for a weekend trip to Copenhagen with Rik and some friends, as well as a one-day larp with ridiculous hats (at least mine was), men in tights and chivalrous behaviour! This weekend, I also managed to persuade Rik to venture out with me in the pouring rain to go to the annual Medieval Marked (Oslo Middelalderfestival), which proved to be a delightfully costly affair! I am now the proud owner of a new leather belt pouch, leather water bottle, to tiny wooden boxes (perfect for larp), and a pair of perfectly awesome pointy shoes!



After a sufficient amount of trudging, we went to the Dubliner for some food and drink, and were later joined by a bunch of delightful people, amongst them lovely Frøydis, Solgave, Branna and Tathariel. It ended in songs, laughter and merriment! ^_^

Now, however, with Desucon right around the corner and the larp Christianus Sextus in September only a few months away, Steampunk is constantly on my mind, and I can't stop myself from thinking "how could I steampunkify this" about almost everything. My basic outfit for the larp is more or less finished, having just made a pair of light blue canvas jodhpurs, and will be tested out at Desucon the coming weekend. I'm still collecting old looking tools (I haz a monkey wrench!) for my tool belt, and an aviators cap and new steampunkish boots are also on the list, but they're not top priority (yet). I have been making a pair of goggles, and I dare say, for the minimal amount of money I spent on the equipment, and never having made goggles before, I'm quite proud! Here they are: