Today and yesterday I have been on a sword fighting seminar (which was really great), this is why it took some time, but now Artemisia’s armour is finished. Last time I wrote about the breast armour and sword belt (made from fake leather) and about the golden spikes (made from mould powder and resin). Meanwhile I put everything together.

The biggest spikes are positioned along the spine. The smaller one made from resin are one the shoulder armour and sword belt. Additionally I scattered a lot of small bronze cone rivets (standard rivets to screw on). I am very satisfied. I’d just do the spikes differently the next time. I would not add a base and sew them into the armour, but make them sleek to the bottom and screw them on from the other side of the fabric. That would have been a lot easier and it would be easier to replace them. The long spikes are rather do break rather easily after all. This was the armour part.

In the movie Artemisia is wearing a very fine blackened chain mail underneath the breast armour made from leather. That I simulated with a black fishnet fabric. From further away it looks really good. Additionally I added some gold trimming on the sleeves. And the last piece is the skirt. It is has a long slit in the front and is slightly gathered. Very historically incorrect it closed it with a zipper. But somehow I think the ancient Greeks wouldn’t have accepted Artemisia’s armour anyway. 😉 The skirt looks a lot better when worn by a person. A person has some minor advantages to a mannequin. Like a real behind and legs.

I tried to create the armour so you can put it on alone. For that it got lacing underneath the arms and the rivets holding the gold bands can be openend. The backbone with the long golden spikes can also be removed. It is fastened with lacing around the waist and rivets in the neck.

Even the sword belt is functional. You can put a narrow sword through the loops. It shouldn’t be sharpened of course. Or you have to leave it in the scabbard.

There was only one thing a bit annoying. The gold fake leather. It looked like plastic in most places. This is why the shoulder armour and the sword belt loops are black now. But for the decoration on the neckline I used soft leather painted with the same colour as the spikes. I cut it out and glued it on. In the middle is a earring with an antique pattern. Such delicate patterns you can only get with metal.