Glowstone Lantern

A bit of a cheat here as its not really a prop I made so much as a simple modification.

So for the last couple of events I've taken a rawhide candle lantern with me. It's gorgeous, but had two problems. The first is that it shines up and utterly ruins night vision if it's held anywhere in front of you or below your head, and carrying it high is a pain. The second is it requires being relit every time, a particular pain on the walk back from conclave with that pitch black ditch.

So, I picked up a cheap solar one from b&q which also I had two problems. The tacky looking black plastic top and the fact that it was a big empty space with a titchy led bulb at the top.

The first I solved by.... Painting it copper. simples.

The second, I was looking at various methods such as filling it with fairy lights (which would be a pain to turn off and on), sticking a real lump of quartz in it (fuss, also heavy), or diffusing it with tissue around the edges - which made it glow nicely but made it dim and useless.

Then I realised the solution was really simple and just a bit of scrunched up tissue paper gives a decent approximation of a big glowing crystal! The light still came out the sides but hit the 'rock' at the bottom and illuminated it nicely.

So here it is, with my rawhide lantern for comparison (and my burner I use for rituals)

Winter Staff

I also agreed to do a Winter Staff for another friend on commission, though these don't have a specific brief. But I figured a dead wood look would be good. So I wandered off into the local coppice and the first thing I found was this, lying in a ditch at the side. It had a nice crooked end but that made me think 'winter staff' but it shattered with a pull so it was clearly a bit rotten. The rest was strong, and nicely dry so I immediately nicked it and headed back.

The first thing I had to do was get rid of the dead bark. At first I tried whittling the old fashioned way. Then I decided that was a pain and I was on a time limit here so I used one of those rotary sandpaper things you stick in a drill. Which still took a couple of days to finish, and wore through the hole thing, but it revealed this interesting effect I'm told is called spalting, and a (harmless) result of fungus.

 Unfortunately the spalting all but disappeared with the first coat of dark oak wood stain. That did leave it a gorgeous golden brown but it wasn't the colour I wanted for a Winter Staff, so I gave it another three

Then I engraved the runes I was asked to put on it, polished it up and gave it the fabric wraps. The end result was gorgeous and I was really sad to let it go - especially at mate's rates! Hopefully I can find more sticks as good as this one.

Spring Staff

This Sanguine Staff (aligned to Spring) was made from an old stick I found years ago and I always intended to make into a staff. I say staff, I was quite small at the time. Its really more of a half-staff or a long cane maybe? Anyway, Sanguine staffs are "made of natural materials - the best sanguine staffs are created from living branches or even small saplings, kept alive and fruitful by the complex enchantments worked into them". So I went with the stick, some engraved Spring runes - which I coloured in Brass instead of Gold. Gives it a slightly greenish sheen that seemed more appropriate. I also have a hole load of this brown fabric that makes for very good hand wraps (and a truly horrible blanket, which for some reason it was intended as. The top wrap is useful when walking around, the lower one for waving dramatically while doing magic.

For the top I decided on a crystal ball - I found this in B&Q. Its a doorknob. I stuck it to the top of the stick and made sure it was incredibly secure, before wrapping the metal bit and in green thread to finish it off. I sold the staff to a friend and annoyingly the glass bit then fell off at the first knock - manufacturing flaw attatching it to the metal base (however I assume he's glued it back on). The whole thing is just under 50 inches.

Enigmatic Staff

This was the first of three staffs I made for the last Empire Larp. The first was for me, an 'Engimatic Staff' attuned to the realm of night. The description said 'These polished black staves often bear subtly scintillating runes of black upon black'. But black on black isn't especially interesting to look at (though I considered one of those slightly iridescent black paints) so I went with silver runes and silver vines going up it.

I did briefly attempt to give it a glow in the dark glaze over the runes but it was barely noticeable at night and dulled the silver during the day.

Its a simple bit of dowel that I engraved with a dremel. Which actually took ages, all the little ridges from the grain meant it took forever to get it smooth. After engraving I gave it a light sand, stained it ebony, and used some silver enamel paint for the vines and runes.

Jade Cthulhu Idol

Back again, various other things to show as soon as I get round to it. Here, however is my first attempt at an actual fimo sculpture, which worked out fairly well in my opinion.

It's a tin foil core, covered in a thin layer if emerald, followed by a thin layer of translucent green - the two layers were probably unnecessary but I didn't know how transparent that would be. Then I added the tentacles and tried to blend them in. The wings I was puzzled by how to do well before I settled on them being pulled in tight, though perhaps I should have added a little more thickness for the wing membranes.

After it was baked I added a black wash which dramatically improved it.

It's far from perfect, and there's a couple of annoying fingerprints on it, but I'm pretty happy with it. Works better as a static prop in my opinion as its so lightweight it instantly wrecks immersion when you pick it up. 

Bloodstone Jade Seal

So I got myself a blank Chinese seal from ebay a while back and decided to use it for my Larp character. Honestly I spent more time trying to decide on a design than I did working on it, but in the end I went for a simplified version of those (already fairly simple) drawings of mountains you get in various Asian cultures (the nation he's from is vaguely Tibetan in some ways and live on mountains), plus a star/moon/sun, plus the rune for 'A' (for Arcadius). It also represents thought and scholarly things, which fits well with the character (though it *is* associated with Day magic rather than Night or Winter, but we can't have everything)

Needs to be engraved a little deeper (and needs tidying up a bit) and I may add more little details to make it a little more interesting, but for a simple little prop I'm happy with it.

Need to see if it works as an ink stamp too, certainly less costly than sticking wax everywhere. May be just as messy though. Biggest issue is that the larger chinese style seals need a fair bit more wax than the european types.

Stone Cthulhu

My first proper carving - in that I actually shaped the stone rather than simply engraved it.  It's made from slate again, but this time it was a piece that had rather appropriately been worn by the sea.  I have a couple more pieces like that that a re light green and thus even more suited for our octopoid friend, but they're smaller.  The original stone (shown in the fourth picture) was also perfectly shaped to produce the effect I wanted with minimal work.

Minimal work being about three to four hours I think, maybe a little longer if you include finishing.

I started with the piece shown below, decided I'd use much the same design as before - half his head and one wing - and got to work with a file and my dremel, getting rid of the waste material (picture five is after an hour and a half or so, maybe?).  Then I had to smooth out the wing piece and shape the head, which took a surprising amount of time.

I was going to do it as a relief, with the 'bones' of the wing raised, and then cut away for the wing membrane. It's at that point I realised I'd accidentally manage to (in my mind), mimic Inuit soapstone sculptures (which actually is been looking at yesterday), so I decided to run with it and go with a few engraved lines instead.  Also it would take a lot less time and I figured I'd pick the simpler option for my first attempt.  Some of the wing lines are a little wobbly, unfortunately it was tricky getting a good angle with the dremel where it wouldn't wobble.

After doing the details I smoothed out as much as I could to get back to the sea stone look (though really there should be a little more removed on the wing for that but meh), and sand it down.  At which point I realised I had the wing section TOO smooth, rather than the smooth but dinged texture of the bits worn by the sea.  So I tossed it around in a bit of gravel to add a few scrapes - it didn't look perfect but it looked believable.

After washing off all the dust I polished it with beeswax which made it look great and really brought out the purple colour.  So I put another coat, but that just made it totally uniform and dull looking, so I scrubbed it off with soap and hit water, then scratched it a little more, then put a thin coat back on.  End result isn't quite as good as it was after that first coat - and in some light is a little dull - but I'm pretty proud of it.

The camera won't pick up the right colour though, in the right light it's got a good dark purple look (though in the wrong light it's a little brownish, I think that's the beeswax).

The final picture is the Elder Sign pebble after I coloured the engraving silver, you can tell because the engraving is now silver.  I couldn't find any solder to do a proper metal inlay, so I just used one of those metallic ink pens - I think it looks quite nice, albeit lacking the natural look it had before.  I think it's got the reflective look to it that silver paint doesn't have, so to my mind it does look like a very small amount of actual silver has been dribbled through to coat it.