Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Finished Coronet

Well my investiture is now over, and I can get around to updating my blog. The making of the coronet hit a couple of bumps which took a bit to overcome. Initially I cut all the pieces out of the brass. That was about as far as I could go by myself. I turned to Ygraine of Kellswood and Anton LaFlamme de Saint Aubin for help. Most of the rest of the work was completed by them, and I was given pictures of it as them moved through the steps of assembly. Next they joined the front piece to the back. Ygraine and I had tried to blacken the back piece, but unfortunately the black finish was not stable, and rubbed off easily. The resultant flat piece didn't look anything like I was expecting. At this point I was really getting worried that it was never going to be done on time, and I was really worried about what it was going to look like in the end. The next report I got on the progress of the coronet had it now connected to become a circle. They had put a small tub of brass along the top and bottom edges to hold the two halves together. I was beginning to be a little more hopeful about it at this point. At least it looked like a coronet now. There was still the area between the original panels that needed something to cover the joints, and obviously the color was not quite what we were hoping for. The next picture I saw of it showed it with the final piece of tube added across the joints and the pins on the top to hold the beads. It then went off with Anton to be polished. the next time I saw it, Ygraine and I put the smokey quartz beads on the top and it was as ready as it was going to be for the investiture. As you can see the coronet really came out looking quite good in the end. We may go back and try to get some sort of blackening in the background still. The beads are not put on permanently yet, but I don't expect that part to be too hard. Anton thinks we will have an easier time working on the second coronet. I only need one for now, but eventually the Barony will have both a baron and baroness and will need both coronets. The part that really surprised me is how comfortable the coronet is. I wore it all day in the hot sun and never got a headache, though I did get quite a sunburn on the part in my hair. I will have to remember to put sunblock on it in the future. I would never had gotten this far without Anton and Ygraine helping me, and I owe them a real dept of gratitude.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

great!! :)