Ok
so, long story short, I had this really inspirational, epic
dream one night, maybe one day I'll write something about
it or turn it into a short story, but for now, I'll just
give you the basic gist of it. In this dream, my mission
was to travel to a distant forge, where the coals were
stoked by the focusing of your hatred for your enemy, and
in these flames of hate, I was to forge a blade to defeat
my nemesis. Pretty standard Hero's Tale kind of stuff.
I awoke with the image of this sword burning in my mind,
so I grabbed the notebook I always keep by my bed for just
such an occasion, and drew a quick sketch. I didnt get
a chance to look at it again for about 2 months (the whole
next month I was busy preparing for The
Pacific Fandango, a huge road trip with a bunch of strangers,
and then was actually ON the trip for another month). When
I returned, a little wiser, and a lot dirtier, I picked
up my sketch and the dream came flooding back to me. I remembered
how it filled me with this sense of Mission. It felt less
like a flight of fantasy, and more like clear instructions
to make this blade.
So I did.
I figure
this might at least save me the ackwardness of answering
a knock at the door one day to find my nemesis standing
there with some crazy awesome deathblade, laughing at me
before striking me dead because he had the same dream and
actually made his sword and came to find me, but I sat
my fat ass on the couch, watched anime, and never got
around to it. Now wouldn't THAT be an embarrassing way to
die!
Anywho,
here's where I'm at thus far....click the thumbnails for
larger pics...you know the drill.
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| I
scanned the drawing and then drew over it in vectors (movable shape
objects) so I could modify the design easily. I drew all the different
components on different layers so I could hide and unhide different
pieces, and also to see the tang (the piece of blade that runs through
the handle) I drew from the outline of the handle. Once I had it
in vectors, I played with the size and scaling a bit and actually
printed out 6 or 7 different sized templates, then cut them out
and matched them up to my hand. I cross-referenced this with a big
chunk of clay that I would squeeze in my hand, study the imprint,
and make small modifications to the handle design as I went. |
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