It has got to be the fumes.
As I mentioned in an earlier entry, the clasps and other metal items were quite difficult to come by. I went through three (count 'em - THREE!) artisans before I could find myself a decent set of Boromir clasps, Boromir cloak lacers and belt buckles and aglets.
The design of the clasps and the lacers was very accurately portrayed on the LOTR section of the Alleycatscratch costume research site. The first hard part was finding someone that would do them. I would find metalworkers or jewelers, but they didn't seem interested in only creating a single set.
The first place I contacted and got a response was the Wareham Forge in Canada. The owner (Daryl) and I discussed what I wanted, the materials to use, and I gave him the links to the sites where the designs were located and gave him a deposit.
Then he vanished for a couple of months. No email, no return phone calls. Arrrggghhhh!
When I finally got in touch with him, he was finishing up the pieces and was ready to send them out. When I received them, they were nice, but they just looked, well, ROUGH. They didn't have the elegance of the pictures and the clasping mechanism just looked primitive. We had originally agreed upon silver and gold for the metalwork. It turned out to be german silver and brass.
Hello eBay!
I seem to be quite fortunate in that what I find lacking for a costume, others think are superlative. The clasps and lacers sold for only a few dollars less than I paid for them.
While Googling for "Boromir cloak lacers" - an entry in a Council of Elrond web forum led me to the next artisan I found. It turned out she was married to an officer at an Air Force Base in Alaska. We corresponded back and forth a couple of times and I asked her if she could do the lacers and clasps since she already had done some very similar work. She was also taking some college classes in metallurgy and design, but unfortunately, she didn't get the workshop time to actually do the project. Oh well -- no harm, no foul.
Finally, I contacted Doug Strong (of Talbots Fine Accessories). Doug had done a white brass custom belt buckle on one of the Blades By Brown custom leather offerings. Doug was sometimes difficult to reach and didn't always respond quickly/at all to email/voicemail, but overall, he was excellent to work with. Even with him coming down with pneumonia, he let me know what was going on and I eventually got the lacers, clasps and everything I wanted. Here's the surcoat clasps:
What is it with people that work with leather or forge metal? I understand that this is a more "creative" choice of profession and lifestyle, but don't these people understand that without customers, they can't afford to BE creative? If these folks don't develop some common sense for running a business and maintaining a customer focus, they are going to wind up like this:
Or maybe this article explains it all.
It has GOT to be the fumes.
No comments:
Post a Comment