Taurus

Cowl: X

Steer Horn Neck sling: X

Fingerless Gloves: X

Shoulder piece: X
(The rest of this suit is not listed for sale due to minor cosmetic imperfections that were byproducts of the process of still learning how to armorsmith. I don't feel comfortable selling these items publicly due to that, if you're absolutely in love with something on this suit that isn't for sale on etsy, throw me a message and I would love to work something out!)

The Inspiration:
            Second installation to the Zodiac Project! This time I looked to the Taurus in my life for inspiration, the second operator to Armored girl, my boyfriend Vartan. It was very important that he be a part every step of the way. I initially would propose many options, and bounce ideas off of him so that the suit would reflect his taste and personality, but still be the original design I wanted from the beginning. The things I desired first and foremost for this suit was to have it resemble the silhouette of a Minotaur, with a large chest/head and broad shoulders. The chest HAD to be bare, as most Minotaurs in classical illustration have bare chests, as well as covering the waist, forearms and feet to resemble the areas that would be loaded with fur if he were a Minotaur. The second thing I wanted was Vartan's middle eastern heritage, so I'd have to say that was why I chose a large cowl and harem pants, as well as to shoot this outfit in the desert.


The construction:
           This suit took a lonnnnng ass time, much longer than I had hoped (yaknow, the one suit per month thing.). Not even two months in did I have any sort of base finished due to the amount of dreadlock (my main income) orders I had to finish to fund this project. About a year later I'm glad I took my time, because it actually turned out pretty okay.
          All metal pieces are aluminum. I decided to utilize the aluminum when I wanted to create the helmet, but needed something to keep it's shape, as I hadn't tried wetforming leather at this point. It bends to make the helmet adjustable, but also provides more of a mixed media feel. I then used the aluminum throughout the outfit, for a sense of consistency. The cowl that blocked out the face was a special burn-out fabric I bought to also use as the loin cloth, It took about 8 hours to "shred" it by hand, meaning picking apart small fibers and leaving others untouched for a torn effect without actually fraying. Bracers, and belt were made from scratch, 8 to 9 oz veg tanned leather hand stained/dyed. A lot of time was taken for the belt due to a full lining stitched in by hand. Because I wanted to go with a post apocalyptic theme, it was important I make a lot of the components from stuff I already had on deck. For example, the gloves are old weightlifting gloves, the straps of the shoulder piece is some weird mesh, and the shin guards are part of a motocross ensemble. If you guessed the shoulder piece was made from car mats, you guessed correctly. All in all, the tedious hand stitching, stamping,poking holes and such, although time consuming was worth watching it come to life. I learned so many new techniques making this suit, I just KNOW the next one will be even better.


Behind the scenes:
          When taking these pictures we went to the Salton Sea as per recommended by a friend. It's a "sea" that was really run off onto the salt flats from the Hoover dam in the 20s, and was once filled with wildlife as well as tourists. Now it's almost like a modern pocket of wasteland in a all too uptight world from the erratic flooding it did over the city's levys.
          So about 8 am in the morning we hop in the car with our two friends, Summer, her boyfriend Josh and her paralyzed pug Kitty, to go on a wonderful adventure. When we arrive to the town we were shooting at, we searched among the grid-like area for the perfect little abandoned spot in the run down trailer park to begin shooting. Right away we pick the first lot that had two buildings, each one with it's own beautiful trademark art.
          Before we arrived we had already pre-dispersed (is that even a word?) the responsibilities of everyone in the group. Vartan would be the model, I would shoot, Summer would work with my new awesome light reflector thing to manipulate the natural light, and Josh would do the behind the scenes photographer. Boy did all that shift! I'll admit, it's always great to come with a plan, but it's even better to go with the flow. Once we all rotated into our natural roles, Vartan was still the model, I was now the light diffuser worker/idea giver, and Josh scouted locations/moved the car when needed/helped with reflector thing when I was too stupid to do so/pushed kitty around in her cute stroller/all around helper outer.
        This combination worked much better, since It actually turns out I cannot take photos LOL, shocker?
         We took the majority of our body shots within the first location before heading off to another location which was just clearly desert. There we were able to get two or so shots, but not the best, so we decided to find some shelter in another abandoned home from all the direct sun, AND THEN, AMAZING SHIT ENSUED. Low and behold, an abandoned TV, chair, and mattress were all that was needed to make the most badass photos I've ever been involved in.
          After the shoot, tired and hungry, we all decided to pack up the car and head to the actual beach part of the infamous bombay beach. I bet you thought the post apoco vibe stopped at the abandoned trailer park right? Nope, because they're abandoned for a reason. Apparently the sea itself was too volatile to actually live/interact with due to the salt flats it sits on. Anything that lived within it's waters ended up dying and washing ashore, creating a white beach of weathered bones almost akin to sand. It was common to see dried carcasses, bones, and feathers. The smell that permeated the air was about the same as walking into a yeasty, fish filled trash bin, Which got worse the closer you put your nose to the ground or sea by the way.
          It was such a fun experience to spend with great people, and I can't wait to go at the process again with a new suit <3

                       The next suit on the list for the project was supposed to be Gemini, but I will actually put that on the back burner to do the suit for our Armored Girl mascot. After the Armored Girl suit, we'll be right back to continuing the Zodiac Project! Thanks for reading!

                        If you'd like updates on my Armor, merchandise, or other weird things I'm up to, feel free to like me on Facebook, or follow me on Tumblr.

                                              - Dev

Aries

                 

Floral Headband: X
Arm band: X
Chest piece: X
Skirt Hike Belt: X
Leg plates: X

The Inspiration:
            Welcome the first addition to the Zodiac Project to Armored Girl! Aries, the sign of war, the ram, the first of the Zodiac, and well my favorite sign since it's mine. This suit took well over a month to make, longer than expected. I tried to stray away from rivets and use mostly hand stitching to complete a more rugged/handmade look. I wanted this Zodiac project to be more of a video game influence to it, so I tried to make Aries, since it's my first suit in this long journey, to look as if it were a Level 1- 5 outfit of patchwork pieces you would find running around your favorite starter place in a video game. I also chose to stay within the brown/tan field of color, since that's the natural shades that the classical ram portrays, but I wanted black on the hands and feet to symbolize the hooves. I drew most of my inspiration from the Aries women in my life, who usually were a balance between masculinity and femininity. I feel like the pink flowers and soft flow of the skirt counteracted the rugged roughness of the leather.

The construction:
           YOU GUYS. This was by far the most "Eyes bigger than your stomach" outfit I've ever done. It was the first time I worked with actual Veg-tanned leather (or most things I used to make this outfit) for the leg plates and arm band, which is a leather you must dye, cut, and wet form yourself, basically from scratch. Most of the time I work with remnant leather I find from scrap piles in renaissance faires, flea markets, internet, etc and although it's already treated/dyed for you, it's hard finding enough pieces large enough and the right color to construct what you have in mind. So this was a joy. I practiced many techniques for the very first time, like beveling, hole-punching, stitching, and edge slicking. I was like a kid in a candy store! It was a lot to take in over a span of just two months, but boy was it worth it! I made my very first large armor pieces, and I'm proud of the outcome. Sure there were things I would've done differently if I had more time, but what artist doesn't think that way?

Behind the scenes:
          When taking these pictures we went to three locations. A duck pond, the side of a road, and Lake Skinner. The first location was a trip, keep in mind we did all of this on cinco de mayo and so I did not expect an entire mountain of people to be at the park this late (7:30 pm), but I was soooo wrong. The first location was great for headshots, but the heckles from nearby people pushed us to move to another location on a dime, which ended up working for the best because we got our greatest shots there.
          We drove as fast as we could to Lake skinner because the sun was starting to disappear, shot a couple of things on the side of the road to get there, and then persuaded our way into the reserve itself, and we were only given 30 minutes to be there before they closed. When we got there and found a good spot, We used a large cheap door mirror to reflect some of the light onto my face (and to help me model ahaha) for the perfect lighting and backdrop of the sunset. This was also the FIRST time we shot with my new DSLR camera, and the difference is astound. Vartan, my photo taker, no longer had to fight with the camera to work properly like he had to do to the old one, and so his creativity really shined through with the new buttons he got to play with.

Overall it was a tough experience of an intense creative process, but it paid off with some gorgeous photos thanks to everyone involved.
            See you later when I come back with Taurus!

The Immortal's Wife

              "The Immortal's Wife is a patient one. She sets her eyes upon the horizon waiting for his return, as her husband marches in a company of ten thousand."

             Honestly, I could say that This set is based on the story of the Persian Immortals, legendary for their unwavering numbers that always seemed to be at Ten Thousand men, but to be truthful design has always come first to me, and the story second.
             I decided to call this particular outfit the Immortal's wife due to the black harem skirt I used beneath the cloak, the scale maille (Which the Persians were notorious for being one of the firsts to wear it.), and the huge blinged out ring. All of these pieces were designed out of the idea that I could make a cloak with the similar silhouette of the deeply cut muscle tanks that I wear basically ALL the time in summer. I use this silhouette a lot, and I've even come to use it as the base of my upcoming Ready To Wear line.
            This set took way longer than it should have, due to having to change my previous supplier for my scales, most of the time was just waiting for the ones from my new supplier to arrive. Eventually when the outfit was finished, we loaded up in the car to go find a location the same day of shooting. We ended up taking these shots in a nearby national forest that was freeeeezing cold, and got awkwardly stared at for all the side boob that was going on.
              Although we had a few mishaps, like the fact that we forgot to use our cool prop I bought just for this shoot, and that for the first thirty minutes of the shoot I forgot to wear the ring, I think it turned out pretty good! You can see the full feature here on Armored Girl's facebook page. ;]

                                                                       Cloak: X
                                            Vest: X
                                                                        Ring: X



          Announcements:

                  - Oh hey! The Donation Station is now up and running, so feel free to hop over to the "Get Involved" page here on the Blog to find out how you can help with the upcoming Zodiac Project. Applications are available there as well for those who would like a more "hands on" approach to helping out.
                  - To Celebrate this set, with any Armored Girl Etsy purchase, type "The Immortal's Wife" in the note to sellers box for a free knotted black headband!              

Zodiac Challenge.

Why hello there Armored Girls and boys!

I think it's time to announce what I've been planning since mid-2013.

First off I want you to know what plays a large part in what I do. Can you guess what it might be? No? Okay then, I'll tell you. I'm an ARIES! By default my fascination with War, strategy, armor, independence and creativity comes from my sun sign, the Aries. I usually don't give it much mind, other than reading a horoscope every now and then, or having my astrologist friend use my chart for practice, but this year I think I'm going to give it a little more credit.

My plan for 2014, starting April (With the first sign of course c; ) is a Zodiac Challenge! I will be making an Armored Girl set for every Zodiac sign. That's right, the next 12 armor suits themes are set in stone <3
At first when I thought out this idea I was going to make a suit for each sign's month, but now that I've begun to see how a time crunch can effect the quality of my work, I'm allowing myself the time I need per suit, no restrictions.

Here's some cool features about this project:

•  You'll get to see some AMAZING photos of Armor/clothing/accessories. (Dreads too <3)
• Every month, items from the set, or even the suit itself as a whole will be up for sale to support the project.
• New Models, New photographers, and New Collabs!
• At the end of the project all of the pictures will be glued together to create the very first Armored Girl Calendar. (I'll get into detail with this later.)

This blog will be dedicated to this project, from concept to creation. Behind the scenes info, pictures, and maybe even some videos. You'll get to explore the lives of those involved such as models, assistants, and photographers along with the stories behind them. This is a project that isn't just for me, this is a project for all of my Armored Girls and Boys who want to participate in if they wish. Applications for open volunteer positions can be found in the "get involved" section.

                                         This is the part where I go into detail about the calendar. Ready for it? You, the reader/viewer/amazingpersoner are going to be just involved as I am. For this project, it will take many of those that want to support this idea to make it happen. I've set up a donation station for those who would like to show financial support. For those of you who are a little on the starving artist side, I am looking for models, photographers, editors, and artists to form collaborations! So tell your mom, your uncle, your best friend, and your cat, because this party is just gettin' started. 

                                      See you right here for the next blog post!  ~ Deven bobeven