I finally finished Jude's sword last week. He had been borrowing MacBeth's aluminum sword, but real needed his own. I started it back when I was working on all the horse accessories. Jan had shaped a blade out of some hardwood, and I'd applied a layer of Aves Apoxie to give the centre more definition. There was also a wire inserted in the top to support a handle....
I wanted to make a handle similar to MacBeth's sword, which was made by a doll artist friend many years ago.....
MacBeth is a OOAK doll art figure by my sister and me, and was made back in May of 1997. His costume was also inspired by Braveheart, and served as inspiration for Jude...
But I didn't have the right filagree or beads, and the craft stores didn't have what I was looking for either, so it just spent the next few weeks laying in my workspace. Until I decided to just do the best I could with what I had.
The blade was given several layers of varnish, and sanded in between, to make the wood as smooth as possible. Then it was sprayed with silver paint (chrome bumper lacquer from the automotive department). The hand guard was built up with Aves Apoxy, and painted bronze. I'm not a huge fan of actually working with the Apoxie, but it air cures, and sands and paints beautifully, so is worth the effort.
I needed four of the fancy filagree pieces, which were originally part of a metal filagree fan shape. There were only three sections left, and the middle one was ruined in the cutting process, so just one side ended up with them.
The handle wire was wrapped with florist tape, and four beads positioned, and the spaces in-between built up with Apoxie, and then wrapped with leather. After everything was finished, I 'antiqued' everything with brown paint, and gave it a coat of varnish for protection.
The blade was given several layers of varnish, and sanded in between, to make the wood as smooth as possible. Then it was sprayed with silver paint (chrome bumper lacquer from the automotive department). The hand guard was built up with Aves Apoxy, and painted bronze. I'm not a huge fan of actually working with the Apoxie, but it air cures, and sands and paints beautifully, so is worth the effort.
I needed four of the fancy filagree pieces, which were originally part of a metal filagree fan shape. There were only three sections left, and the middle one was ruined in the cutting process, so just one side ended up with them.
The handle wire was wrapped with florist tape, and four beads positioned, and the spaces in-between built up with Apoxie, and then wrapped with leather. After everything was finished, I 'antiqued' everything with brown paint, and gave it a coat of varnish for protection.
So Jude finally had his own sword...
It was too big and cumbersome a sword to be carrying in the hand while travelling, and it was too big to fit in a scabbard, so I did some research online to see how these huge swords were carried. Seems they would be strapped onto the back. So, inspired by one of the methods shown online, I made a leather, lace-up, support for the sword.....
....held in place with a belt across his chest. So his sword is nicely out of the way on his back, but still easy enough to access should he need it....
So now this outfit is finally complete.
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