Week 11 just finished. I'm panicking.

So yeah.

I guess I can cover basics of what's going on with assessment work, and where things are looking and going and I'm actually blogging at the moment because I'm supposed to be writing an essay and my head isn't ordered enough.

TT.TT

That's a crying face, if you're not aware of emoticons. Like, anime-looking style crying face or whatever.

ANYWAY.

Hmm.

Monday began later than it should have - that's what happens when you stay up until 1 the night before trying to finish a blog post (funnily enough). I started work on one of my other projects, because it's really not fair that I'm spending the classtime of one class for work on another project. So I heated up some beeswax and spent the morning writing scripture passages onto a giant piece of calico. Working on a batik was meditative to a degree, and to a degree annoying, because I'd never done it before and it was fairly chilly, so the wax would cool before I could write more than two or three words.

So that's about three hours worth of work.
And the flipping computer can't even orient it properly.

But, by the end of the class, I had a section from John 1 and one from Philippians 2 written with a degree of neatness. The idea at the moment is to make an artwork about Jesus, since the theme of the artwork is 'hardcore softly/softly threatening'

And I'm not trying to be ironic about anything. I am just aware that most of my art friends don't understand Jesus, and would probably find him threatening, since his call to drop everything and follow him is kind of treading on the cushy outlook of someone who has no immediate desire to know the Maker of the universe.

And, like, Jesus never wussed out of anything. Ever.

Suitable artwork subject matter located.

Um. Rest of the week.

Tuesday I finished the shoulders for the armour (dupion/pauldrons/whatever you call them). In a relatively short period of time. To my joy.

I mean, the things, when they're just worn over my clothes, look like something the eighties spit out but hey. I'm sure they'll make more sense when they're attached in conjunction with the rest of the armour. Something I've noticed (early on) is just how bulky Spartan armour is on the body. It's not something you realise until you see someone moving around in it, and get an idea of how smaller they are than the shell.

It's almost comical until the helmet goes on, and then you can't help but be in character. And then the theme music starts, and some part of comedy exists, because it's a guy dressed as Master Chief in someone's dining room and a small dog just ran past. It's like the moment that helm goes on, you cease to be you and the costume is complete. Fiction drawn into the real world. Fourth wall gone.

Bam.

My thoughts are more scattered than when you pick up a bag of rice from the wrong end. I've had a lot going on upstairs at the moment (figuratively speaking) really. None of which I will inflict on the world wide web, because this is not LiveJournal. Can we move on? Let's move on.

It feels like I'm getting a good pattern established with the armour in terms of...what? A repoire? A habit? There's something about the way I'm doing it now, that's just better than whatever I was doing before.

Plus, getting three pieces done in a week is pretty good for your headspace in terms of 'hey, I achieved something'. I finished the codpiece on the weekend.

No finished pictures as of yet.

...

I keep calling it a belt, because it does go around my waist, and that means I can name the armour with a straight face, because it's a piece of armour that's otherwise going to be called a buttplate or something. At the moment I'm tossing up whether or not to put a buckle on the inside of it so I can buckle it around my waist instead of wriggling the thing over my head and shoulders.

On Thursday, I met again with my supervisor, settled a date for assessment (19th June), talked about the possibility of borrowing an airbrush from the uni to paint the armour (because I'm not painting it until it's all done so everything is definitely the same colour), and the challenges involved with getting everything done when I'm still really hoping to get another costume done in time as well.

I haven't forgotten about you, Sheik.

I've just grossly underestimated the amount of time needed to get this flipping thing done. I've been working on it (conceptually) since semester started, and now I really just want it to be done so I don't have to worry about it any more.

I mean, having the thing done will be amazing. But it's just stressful at the moment. I am ready to have it finished, and when it is finished I will take it to every costume party ever, or at least until summer arrives, because even after vent panels go in to the wetsuit, I still think it'll be rather warm.

You know, after watching that video up there, I'm kind of wondering if maybe I should go about having the things attached a little differently. Initially, (and I'm still thinking like this) there is/was going to be velcro on the suit, and on the armour, and then the armour pieces would be directly attached to the suit.

Advantages: Segmented. Kind of simple. Armour would basically be rigid attached to the body.
Disadvatages: I need padding on the inside of some of the pieces to ensure a good surface...that thing...like, surface area! I need a lot of flush surface area for velcro. And it might be a little bit hard to make sure things are even.

The harness looking thing looks like it'd be a little bit more complex to set up, but might pay off. Oh, but you can see the straps that connect the pieces.

The other thing that worries me about the harness setup is that it would actually restrict your movement - like, if you were running or climbing, your stride length is immediately impeded by the straps holding up the thigh armour.

I know that either of those activities would be a lot harder in armour anyway, but I'm trying to think of things that would compound the problem.

So, harness-type for holding armour on:
Advantages: comprehensive. Doesn't require internal padding. Easier to have armour even on both sides.
Disadvantages: turns your gear into tangling nunchucks when not attached to the body. Complex. Probably okay for walking around and/or basic poses, but would impede more extreme movements. Possibility that armour would migrate during movement.

If my leg-hoster bag is anything to go by, migration of armour can be expected. This will actually get really annoying if I need to stop every twenty metres to straighten up leg armour because it moves when I walk.

You guys are great. You sit here and read, and I yabber, and all of the problems get fixed. Thanks :)
Velcro it is.

Okay. It's now week 12. Where am I up to?

I am going to die. Sooner or later.

In the meantime, I have two weeks after this where my studio is accessible. I have two Fibres projects to finish/polish, and the studio folder for that to get in order. I have the armour to finish (Thighs, Breastplate, Helm, undersuit, boot bases, gloves, paint), Sheik to finish (I'm fairly sure I can knock that over in two weeks), a seventy percent essay due next week that I haven't started, and the blog to make shiny and print up. There'll probably be supplementing documents for Directed Studies as well, because I don't include absolutely everything about DS on the blog (because it's all the kind of bonus material that is justified in leaving in the 'bonus content' part of the DVD, rather than being in the middle of the movie and then hearing the director butt in and give their spin on what's going on right now.)

But yeah. Bonus content is always good, because it's getting to explain to non-costumers why I'm doing what I'm doing, but at the same time, the blog is really following the narrative, so if I stop and tell you about every little detail, things will get boring really quickly.

Pictured: Boring.

So yeah. Hey week 12. Let's dance.