Back in the summer of 1981, I went to see John Boorman's movie "Excalibur" with a group of art school friends. It was a retelling of the King Arthur stories based on Sir Thomas Mallory's Le Morte D'Arthur. It was a good adaptation, of the original work, treated as high fantasy rather than history, but unlike many more sanitized versions of the King Arthur stories, heavy on the sex, grit and brutality of the age.
I was an impressionable college student, and boy did that movie make a huge impression on me, especially the amazing armor designed and built by armorer Terry English. His armor looked organic, heavy, dangerous. I was so impressed, that I decided to make my own suit of armor.
Let me point out that I had no idea what I was doing, but that didn't stop me. I did book research (this was before the internet and Google) and lots of sketches of different armor pieces and how I thought they should work.
Next I scavenged the raw materials i would need. I didn't have much money, so mostly I made it from bits and pieces found in dumos, thrift shops, and my parent's garage and basement: leather and buckles from old belts, lightweight sheets of steel and aluminum flashing, even parts of a dishwasher drum for the helmet. Fortunately, my father was a avid tinkerer, and had a well-equiped basement workshop including several high-speed grinders, a drill press, atap and die set, and heavy-duty vices.
My parents didn't know quite what to make of my project, and my dad was very protective of his tools, but for the most part, they left me to my own devices.
Using a a method of trial and error, and over 500 pop rivets, afetr three months of labor, I had a workable, wearable suit of armor.
I also made a spear, (repurposing a metal edger) a dagger and sheath (flat bar stock ground to shape), two swords with scabbards(blades made from the leaf springs of a truck, ground and reshaped) a large metal shield (sheet metal over plywood) and a black linen surcoat embroidered with a red dragon.
The first time I wore it, I discovered that armor is not comfortable to wear. Even in cold weather, you sweat like crazy, but it looked and sounded great. I wore it to many costume parties and other events.
It even appeared in a student film I made while at MassArt.
I lost the suit in the process of getting divorced, (the ex-wife donated pieces of it to a renaissance festival, and the rest was discarded). The only thing I had left of the armor after the divorce, was one single, grainy snapshot taken by my sister over the Thanksgiving break. I decided to do a watercolor painting based on that snapshot.
Here I am in all of my armor-ey splendor, circa 1981.
