Rob MacLennan

I don't have a moment to go through your whole post yet, but might I present to you The Wayback Machine? https://web.archive.org/web/20160305015723/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/trevor.barker/farisles/guilds/armour/mail.htm

I had a similar issue a while back. The first thing that I had to do was stop thinking like I was making armour for a human shape. I ended up thinking more along the lines of making a sock to go along the body, rather than having the armour hang like it would on a human. No pattern; just straight out of my head. Getting the dimensions right would be important and the leg holes could hold the armour in place, so that it doesn't slide up the body. You would likely need to lace it closed along the belly if you went this way.

I tried it and wasn't really happy with the results. Under pressure the teeth start cutting the PlastiDip from the inside and it eventually splits. Removing and redoing it is a pain. If you want to go that way then getting pliers with replaceable plastic jaw covers is likely the better way to go, though it does work well to replace the handles on cheaper pliers. Dip 2 or 3 times to get the desired thickness of handle.

Using toothless pliers certainly helps.

Nope, looks like it's been toast for more than a year now. I didn't really go there for anything other than the odd weave instructions and haven't done that for a couple of years now, at least. The last post seems to explain their demise and there has been nothing posted since. The forum gives a "forbidden" error. I'd say that their database is well and truly pooched. MAIL is Back Online... Mostly (Posted: 2020-05-19) by Daemon_Lotos (PM) Hi Folks, After a ~12hr code and database dive, the site is back online. I've confined it to a read-only state as I slowly bring everything else back online. Articles, Weaves, Gallery Items, Downloads, the Glossary, and the FAQ are all up and running. Logins, the Forum, and Submissions are all currently being held offline. Please note that this is out of an abundance of caution, the remaining functions and features of the site will be returning in the coming days. There may be a few tiny broken things around, please don't fret if you notice a bug. They'll all get dealt with as I go through the entire codebase, line by line. Once the forums are back up, I'll be taking Bug Reports for any outstanding bugs I haven't caught.

It all depends on what sort of pattern you're using. If you're working with a pattern of 45 degree angle joins, then there may be some inherent flaring anyway. This would mean that you don't necessarily have to add any expansions along the breast line. Even using a straight hang pattern the rings will tend to open along the swell, so you would just need to contract to follow the curvature of the breast. I use both expansions and contractions, to try and make the piece better follow the body of the wearer in a closed hang.

Looks like you just missed a ring and are off by one ring all down that row.

Typical magazine shot editing, unfortunately. Take a truly beautiful woman and then treat her as if she's less so, by manipulating the image to accentuate some things, minimize others. Undoctored shots of Kunis show that she has come pretty far from the child actress who lied about her age to get on a wildly popular sitcom. There's an actress that I vaguely know, who is built literally like a comic book superhero (34DD, with a 23 inch waist, and far from a Kardashian style bottom), purely by genetics. No surgery. A couple of years ago I stumbled across some professional shots that were taken of her and could easily make out that the photographer had performed similar edits on her. It was shot in a bedroom and there was a bed behind her, with vertical lines on the quilt. The lines SHOULD have been straight, but made obvious curves around her obvious curves. it disgusted me that someone would do that. To her credit this actress now, on her Instagram, makes sure to post any and all edits that have been made to a picture.

This just reinforces my belief that the most beautiful women always seem to have what some people would call an "imperfection" that makes them unique. Takes them out of the realm of the plastic.

It can happen due to illness, as it did in Kunis's case, but some are born with it. Bilateral ("full") heterochromia, like she has, is pretty rare (like 1/2000). No idea about the more common version that we have. Odd thing is that my father has blue eyes, my mother has green eyes, and I'm their only child (of three) with heterochromia.

Could be, but I was putting that down to them using a not so sharp blade to cut them (like a press or the like). *EDIT* I didn't realize that Kunis has bilateral heterochromia (her left eye is brown and the right is green). I only noticed when I looked at the picture at 100% zoom. When I saw that, I did a quick search and confirmed it. I find it interesting because I have centre heterochromia (centres of both eyes are blue, while the surrounding iris is green).

Very interesting. I couldn't find an online link to the March issue of Allure Magazine, which this picture is apparently from, so no idea if they say what the dress is made of. Looking at it though, I would say that it's a thin flexible plastic, to match the clear "scales" that they used around the waist. Punching 5 hols in everything probably just made sense from a production point of view. Or they just screwed up and had to change the hole placement, because I can't seem to find a single instance in which the "top" hole was used. Or they're repurposed from something else entirely... *SIDE NOTE* - Some unscrupulous individual is already selling this picture on eBay.

For different projects you need to consider not only the weight of the leather you use, but also the type. Does it need to stand up on its own, or do you want it to give like cloth? And are you going to dye it yourself, "age" it with wax and friction or conditioners, or do you want to work with pre-dyed and finished leather? The hat that I pictured, above, was un-dyed 5 oz leather for the "crown", because it needs to be thick enough to hold its shape, with un-dyed 3 oz leather for the brim (stiffened around the outside edge with 16 gauge stainless steel wire). I have a "double shoulder" of 7 oz (3.5mm thick) veg tan leather that would likely be considered armour grade by the SCA because, well, it is. I struggle for an idea of what to do with it. So far I've made precisely one coaster out of it, a second in the works, that I burned a pattern into with a laser engraver. I want to make some pauldrons and greaves with it but, as you can imagine, even my sharpest utility knife and a great deal of sweat is required to make a dent in the stuff. Cutting, wetting, and heat forming it is going to be a major project for... someday. Maybe I need a band saw...? But then I made three "Indiana Jones" style hats using strictly 3 oz, oil tanned finished leather because I wanted something that had more give/was more cloth-like. I used the same leather to make several belt bags since I have two "sides" of it (basically a whole cow's worth). So in short I'd say consider first what you want to make, before you ask the question, "With what?"

Lorenzo will be a much better source of information for this but, as he hasn't responded yet, I'll pitch in from what little experience I have. I've only made two scale pieces for women (maybe a dozen chain pieces) and in my limited experience it's just being on your expansion/contraction game. The two pieces that I made were for use by..... let's just say petite, but almost comically endowed women, using large scales. From the neck down to the top of the chest was pretty much a straight scale piece. Don't think that I added more that a couple of expansions. Just past the transition point of the chest I started with contractions. Starting at the transition point didn't work for me, as it started a "gather" too early. Long the curvature of the back I added a couple of contractions, to follow. Obviously small scales will require more contractions, however, you can space them better, both horizontally and vertically, to make the curve appear more smooth.

Since Mithril, aka "True Silver", is supposed to pretty much look like silver but be lighter and stronger than steel, you could pretty much go for any silverish metal that you prefer. You could go with shiny anodized aluminum or, if you don't mind the weight, stainless steel. If you really wanted to break the bank, without going as far as selling your liver, you could use plain titanium when it's back in stock.