One of the my real joys in having artistic abilities at all, ( besides having reason to chat up the cute art chicks back in college) is to make toys! Let's face it, all our soldiers are just cool toys! Now, I am, alas, not the lost Perry Triplet, but It does make me happy to see others play with toys I have made.
Another passion of mine is sword fighting and martial arts- something I have been doing for over 30 years, and like art, has literally saved my life more than once. Combining two of my favorite things begat my sword and shield project, which I have been doing for about 5 years now.( see
http://skullandcrown.blogspot.com/2009/12/battle-tackle-elf-style.html for earlier pieces).
No child should be left unarmed!
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| Gifts for the soon to be born Sparkes Child. Shield Totally inspired by "How to Train Your Dragon" movie! |
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| Master Connor's war gear. He likes wolves. |
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| Young Logan's Battle tackle: he's fond of Dragons and the colors red and yellow. |
the shields are made of plywood, with a metal "ramekin" dish hammered a bit into a boss, which is J.B. cold welded on (it's like an awesome epoxy). the back handle is just 1x1inch pine.
The sword blades, in this case, are all made of poplar, with the first sword having red oak hilt, and the others walnut. most of the swords are made from reclaimed wood. the handles are wrapped in velvet ribbon, felted wool, or leather, depending on what I have at the time
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| Persephone field testing the gear. |
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| A proud papa moment- Nolan coaches Persephone on prpoer shield technique! |
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| Connor and Lizzie ready for action! |
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Forming shield wall. Logan was watching a dinosaur movie, and, like Achilles,
could not be persuaded to join in battle. |
I can promise you more wooden toys on the horizon.
Wow - lucky children! Those are so cool. Best, Dean
ReplyDeleteMan, wish i had had boys!
ReplyDeleteLove the Stark wolf head. I think need to hang out in your workshop more. Have got a couple of WMA projects on my radar now.
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