Leather Armor series - Shoulder Spaulder

So one of the projects I’ve previously mentioned has finally been completed.  Or completed enough that I can post a blog about it and add the finishing touches.  Of my blog posts one of the most popular posts was about making a gauntlet.  This is another chapter on leather work and in this post we’re covering how to make a Spaulder.

 If this makes you go “A what now???” fret not, I’ve done the same thing and have come to simply saying, “shoulder armor.”  You can check out the wiki page here to get a little more detail and the difference between a spaulder and a pauldron.

The first step was pretty straight forward I had to get a measurement of the person shoulders that this was going to fit.  I measure from about the collarbone over the shoulder to about the top of the shoulder blade to give me the general idea of the width.  Then I measure from the base of the neck to where it is to end.  Think of a trapezoid covering your shoulder and a portion of your bicep.

Once you have the width measurement it’s a matter of making enough pieces to cover the length you need.  There is a general patter out there that was brought to my attention a couple months back that can be used and found here.

My pattern is a free hand pattern inspired from actual leaves.  The first step is laying out the pattern onto the leather.  For this project I used a 8 / 9 oz. leather which is almost a ¼ inch thick.  I chose this weight of leather because it will look and feel more realistic than the thinner options.

Once the pattern was laid out I added a few lines for details and proceeded to cut out the leaves.  This particular spaulder called for a 3, 2, 1, meaning the top layer had 3 leaves, the middle layer had two leaves and the final layer had one leaf.

With them cut out I began to tool the leather which is making a design into the leather with various tools and/or stamps.

With the leather tooled it was wet down and formed to the individuals shoulders to allow me to mark where to punch the holes to connect the three pieces together.  This is also the time where I measure out the strap that is going to attach the armor to the body via across the chest and around the arm and mark those holes as well.

Once all three pieces were marked, and holes punched and rivets put through the holes, but not capped, to ensure it would fit how it was supposed to it was disassembled and dyed.

Once the dye had dried and re-applied as needed it was sealed and reassembled.  The rivets were now capped and cut off and pounded down to ensure the caps stayed in place and the sharp edges were removed. The buckles were placed onto the body strap and arm straps and then attached to the armor.

From the heart

The running theme for the year thus far seems to be to teach me to ask for help.  I’ve never been the type of person to ask for help, it’s always been a challenge for me to do so.  I’d always plan on doing something and tell people that if they wanted to join in they were free but it wouldn’t evolve to the point of asking anyone for anything.  I can’t really point a finger on when this change occurred or started to develop but the past six months now has been a lesson in asking. 

First off I started an undertaking in getting healthier, there have been good days, and some not so good days along the journey and I’m slowly learning things that I knew but never accepted before and am still working on bettering myself and overcoming obstacles along the way.

Part of that journey led to me to participate in the Tour de Cure bike ride for the American Diabetes Association.  Not having ever done anything of the sort I found that money needed to be raised in order for you to participate in the ride.  So thus began the task of asking for help from others to support me in the ride, which I did and some amazing folks took up the cause and helped me raise the funds to ride in an unbelievable experience.

There have been numerous other things along the way, such as asking for time from others to watch the kids while I work on costume pieces for people.

Now the next adventure has begun.  I’ve loved theatre and performing from the moment I stepped in front of a classroom and did a monologue.  I still remember being in 6^th grade and we got to do Tom Sawyer for our yearly production.  After that production sports took a greater hold and focus in my life and it wasn’t until I hurt my knee and decided to quit football shortly afterwards that I took theatre seriously.  Learning about acting and stage craft has opened many doors and taken me to some amazing places and I’ll forever be in debt to some of those amazing people I’ve learned from along the way.  When I started out doing seriously doing theatre I said there were three roles that I would want to do before I would say I’ve had enough.  Those three roles are: 1) Captain Hook in Peter Pan, 2) Lennie Smalls in Of Mice and Men, 3) Little John in Robin Hood.  Thus far I've had the honor of doing two out of those three.

A little over 4 years ago a man I had worked on a film with named Luis Rosa took a chance against what many people had expected and asked me to be Little John for the Robin Hood show he was planning on bringing back to the Renaissance Festival.  I, of course, said yes.  The first year there were three of us; Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, and myself.  We had a good year with a few learning bumps along the way.  The second year our Friar Tuck left and we re-did the show for just Robin Hood and Little John and we officially welcomed a new member in Will Scarlet. Last year we added two additional members in Much the Millers Son and Winter Scarlet and gently incorporated them into the show.  This 4^th year has found me taking more responsibility with the group and we’re working on two different shows.  One show with Will, Winter and Much and some tweaks to the Robin Hood and Little John show.  There are greater plans that lie in our future and hopefully those plans will be built upon as they have the previous years into something new and exciting in the upcoming years. 

Part of the process of getting a new show up and running is our show props, what you could call weapons.  While yes, these are weapons in a sense, they are what makes the show be the show that you see.  To me, there is something magnificent and almost romantic about the ring of steel on steel and that distinctive twang you hear that just isn’t duplicated with wood or other objects.  It resonates and grabs your attention and draws you into the sound.  With that being said, we’re all at the mercy of our lives, be it children, wedding planning, job searching, school, and life in general it’s difficult to find the means to fund those things we need. 

After some discussion and research we decided to start a kickstarter program in an attempt to gain some help in funding those items so that we can continue to bring forth our plans to entertain as many people as we can and see the new Robin Hoods Merry men show and future projects brought to life.  Working at the Renaissance Festival doesn’t pay for much beyond gas and what we can buy in materials to build our own costumes, when we ask for a hat pass that’s our true income.  I’ve done shows with cuts, concussions, and aches and pains that I haven’t had since football because I enjoy entertaining the audience and the children’s laughter and smiles we get from each show.  I truly love that and it brings me incredible joy to be able to be a part of something that I remember seeing as a child and can only hope to pass that passion onto someone else.

 

That being said, I ask you from the bottom of my heart to take a few moments and look at our kickstarter campaign and become one of our backers.  There are some truly, in my opinion, great offerings for those people who become a backer of our campaign. 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1057309805/robin-hood-stage-props-and-elemental-protection/dashboard?ref=email

Finally, and most importantly thank you from the bottom of my heart for each of you that have taken in one our shows for helping bring a dream of mine to life.

A mindset to change

Last night was a night of work and my client elected to walk.  We went for our walk and chalked up 4.37 miles before it was decided that we would be going to Snuffy’s for dinner.  Snuffy’s is one of those throwback burger joints that as soon as you walk in you realize the only thing that hasn’t changed since the building opened is the the staff and probably a few pieces of glass and dishwear. We took a spot at an open table and went through the ritual of what to order.  Being on the slow carb plan at a great burger joint is absolutely one of the worst things in the world.  So I decided to cheat, that’s right, I fully made the choice to cheat on my meal.  Last nights dinner was a salad and a turkey burger which I ate the bottom half of the bun.

<Insert gasp here>

 AND I ENJOYED IT

<Another gasp, followed by a few “Lord have Mercy”>

 I decided to eat the turkey burger first and follow up with the salad.  At about the end of my burger another couple sat at the table across the isle from us. This brings me to today's blog.

Without going into to much detail about any physical description beyond they were a larger couple.  Because lets face it I’m the last person who should be bringing up another persons appearance.  Being the building was rather packed I couldn’t hear what they ordered as I ate my salad.  As I finished quite a bit faster than my client it allowed me the chance to observe the restaurant and the couple.  They were brought their respective milkshakes and (I believe) cokes. The dinners were brought next, each a loaded bacon cheeseburger with the centerpiece of the meal, a family size order of onion rings.  The true horror lies in what happened next. 

The gentleman took the salt shaker and proceeded to cover every inch of the onion rings with a coating of salt.  I’m not talking a couple of quick dashes, but rather a vigorous shaking that had to have lasted a good 8 to 10 seconds until you could SEE the salt on the onion rings batter from my table away.  The gentleman then proceeded to take the top bun off his burger and do the same thing to his burger without so much as even tasting the burger to determine if it needed salt.

Part of me wanted to say something, kindly, to him.  Another part of me feared speaking up as, again, who am I to advise someone on what they eat.  A third and final part of me thought this might be a hidden camera thing which I quickly ruled out.  The lady then went to use the restroom and gave the gentleman the remainder of her shake which he finished and then took the last of the onion rings and finished them off save for one, which he picked up shook the basket to get the salt into a little pile and actually licked the onion ring and dipped it into the basket of salt before casually tossing it into his mouth.  She lady came back shortly after and they paid and left.  All of this happened within a half hour. 

I left there last night with multiple thoughts running through my head of that I should have said something, or what can I do and even to the thought of the recent news of Disney being the first major media to ban junk food.  To the Mayor of New York looking to ban large soft drink sales.  I know I made some bad food choices throughout my life.  There are those that use food like you would a cigarette or alcohol and countless other way.  I personally used it for comfort and got lulled into the appeal of food quickly while I was rushing from one thing to the next.  It’s been almost 5 months now since I’ve  made an effort to eat healthier and improve myself and as weird as it is to say, I get being healthier.  It saddens me that other people don’t and worries me on what it will take to change America itself from this mindset.



How to lose 10lbs and not die (just be slightly ill) in 5 days!!!

So I stumbled upon the newest and greatest weight loss gimmick, it's called exercise. I did a lot of it the past weekend.  As I mentioned in the last post I wasn't sure when I was going to start the new lifting plan.  I decided to put off new lifting plan until next week.  The past weekend was enough strain on my body that I need to take a few days off to recoup.  LETS RECAP!!!

Thursday: Walking with Client at the Zoo and one of the parks in the area - 4.5 miles

Friday: 3.5 hours helping a friend load a moving truck



all official like



Saturday: Tour de Cure bike ride - 45.5 miles (not including the 4 miles from car to park and back via bike) This was actually easier than I expected it to be, aside from missing the last water station and having a couple of leg cramps, okay 4 total, during the last 4 mile stretch due to lack of missing that last water station we did pretty well.

Sunday: Grand Old days parade - 3.0 miles plus another almost 2 thanks to Sean (This one is fun) For the longer parades that I do we establish a pick up and drop off because most parades are a straight line, walking back to the start of a parade in fest gear isn’t the most pleasant thing in the world.  Sean and I have done this in the past seamlessly.  He picked me up at the end of the parade and drove to the start.  Well Sean was a good enough guy this year to not realize to look and see the parade had flipped its start and end.  So instead of starting at Fairview and running to Dale, it now ran from Dale to Fairview.  I knew this…..Sean didn’t.  So we talked before and agreed that I would pick him and everyone up at the end of the parade and drive to the start.  I got there early, for once, and let him know.  He called and explained where he was and I told him that I had found a nice parking spot north of Grand avenue and would start walking towards the start of the parade if he wanted to pick me up.  He agreed and hung up and I started walking.  I got about 1/3 of the way to the start and got another phone call explaining that he was 2 blocks south of Grand Avenue and parked.  (It was at this time that I realized he didn’t hear me correctly when I said I had found a parking spot and was going to walk and that he also didn’t realize the parade had been flipped.)  So I told him that’s fine, I’ll walk the 4 blocks to the street where he is south of Grand if he would come pick me up.  I hung up and started walking again to get south of Grand Avenue only to find that the street he was on didn’t run to where I was walking because McAllister College was in the way.  With about 10 minutes before the start of the parade and at this point sweating like a snitch having dinner with a mob boss I called and explained that I would be able to be picked up on Snelling if he could get there.   Now jogging to get to Snelling to get picked up so we could attempt to find parking (and sweating like that same snitch only now my wire was giving weird feedback during the dinner) before the parade started.  We found parking and got to the start, formerly the end of the parade, with a few minutes to spare before we started moving and an additional 2 miles walked on my part. 

Monday: walked a total of 6.75 miles with client around a couple of parks

Now let me state, I may not be in the most pristine fitness condition but since I’ve started focusing on getting healthier in January I’ve gotten into better “shape.” The past 5 days put a bit of a strain on my body that I had, but hadn’t expected.  Most of Monday night and yesterday was spent dealing with symptoms of exhaustion, heat and general.  Last night I got a great night of sleep and today I’ve gotten my appetite back and am on the mend.

Gotta love the Eastern Bloc

So I have the Tour de Cure bike ride tomorrow morning and the Grand Old Days Parade this Sunday for the Renaissance Festival promotion.  If you’re planning on being at Grand Old Days for the parade and read this give me and all the Merry Men a Shout as we walk by with the rest of the performers.

So with that note it’s been a busy yet rather bland past couple of weeks since I really blogged.  I’ve been using Sean’s blog as my own for lack of better idea on anything to blog about and I haven’t really finished any of the projects that I have started (but some are close so that gives me material for the future)

The purpose of this blog is going to be pretty basic.  It’s going back to the workout.  The past two weeks I haven’t been hitting the gym and following my lifting schedule but rather have been doing what I dub the “Merry Men Ren X” Workout or “RenX” for short.  While the RenX workout is great it’s not as focused as I’d like.  What I mean by that is that we can only see results in lifting by making it easier overall and we can’t really add weights to the exercises at this point. 

So while I’ve broken the golden rule of changing your workouts every 4-6 weeks, I had the regular gym lifting for almost 2 months without any real changes.  I decided it’s time to change things up.  I’m going to give myself a pretty big goal, this one is Six weeks’ worth of workouts, so it will be done by the time fest starts.  With this weekend’s activities planned I’m not sure if I’m going to start next week or the following week yet at this point.  We’ll have to see how I feel come Monday after ride and parade.

Regardless the breakdown for week one is going to go as follows, each exercise will be three sets of 8 reps with little rest (1 minute) between each set.  Each week will be something close to this but have different changes enough to keep the body guessing on what’s going on

Monday (chest, Triceps & Biceps)              Tuesday (legs and Calves)

Bench press                                                  squats

Revers grip –BP                                           leg press

Incline dumbbell fly                                      leg extension

Cable crossover                                            Roman Dead Lift

Close-grib BP (negative reps)                      lying leg Curl

Close grip – BP                                            standing calf raises

Seated dumbbell overhead tricep ext.           seated calf raises

Barbell curls (negative reps)

Barbell curls

Incline dumbbell curls

Preacher curls

Wednesday (Rest)

 

Thursday (Back and abs)                              Friday (Shoulders & Traps)

Bent-over barbell row                                  Barbell shoulder press

Wide grip pull down                                    Dumbbell upright row

Reverse grip pull down                                Dumbbell lateral raise

Straight arm pull down                                 Dumbbell bent over lateral raise

Seated cable row                                          Barbell shrug

Hanging leg raise

Standing cable crunch

Saturday (rest)

Sunday (rest)

 The point of the first week is to totally shred every single muscle fiber in the arms.  This goes along with one of my favorite styles of lifting which is supercompensation training which was used by the Easter Bloc athletes.  If you’re not familiar with what I’m talking about go look at the shot putters and weight lifters from the 70’s, 80’s and on from Russia.  The six week program is a progression that will ramp up the training frequency until week 6 when you back off the frequency.  I’ll explain the breakdown in the six weeks next post.