In a "thank goodness I finally came up with a plausible reason to dress like a steampunk owl" moment of brilliance, I've changed the focus of my costume slightly. Instead of an actual owl, my costume is that of an owl catcher. Because to run a time machine, you need a live, unharmed owl, of course. And I'm the one to supply it.
What does an owl catcher need? A gauntlet! Because owls nip and pinch. I didn't want a regular falconry gauntlet, mostly because they're big and heavy and therefore hot, partly because I would just look silly without an actual owl to carry on it. But I found this tutorial to make a leather bracer, and that seemed like a good starting place.
I don't have any really thick leather. The thickest I have is a scrap too small to do much with, so I went with a thinner, more supple piece that was big enough. I pretty much followed the tutorial so I won't repeat it except to say that it's a lot different with thin leather. I could not get the stupid edges to bevel no matter what I did with the spoon, mostly. They look okay anyway, though. At least, I'm okay with them. I have low standards.
For lacing, I decided to use a length of the laces that came with my corset. The corset I ordered turned out to be too generously sized for me (yay dieting! yay doing situps and hiking all the time!) and I cinched the laces in, knotted them, and cut the excess off. So I have two lengths of tough black laces. I used my leather punch to make the holes, then got worried that the thin leather would tear with all the adjusting of laces I'd have to do. So I decided to add grommets, of which I have an awful lot.
I'd never used grommets before. I just watched the first online video tutorial I found, but it was easy. Basically, you push the bigger piece of the grommet through front to back, set it on a firm surface that you don't mind if it gets dented a bit, put the other half of the grommet over it on the inside, put the pointy end of your grommet tool thingy on top of that, and hammer that metherfeckin thing hard with a hammer. Trust me, it works. It's also kind of fun.
After lacing the gauntlet, I decided it needed some extra decoration. I'd never tried embossing leather and it turns out that I didn't press hard enough. Once it dried, most of the drawings I'd made were almost invisible. But that's okay, because I have Sharpie markers.
Above: I let the gauntlet dry overnight while sitting up like this.
Before I put the feather trim on this evening, I wanted to make it look like the gauntlet had seen some use. Since I don't have an owl, and since an owl would probably slice its way through the leather without even noticing it, I turned to the one sharp-clawed creature I do have access to: Jekyll. You know, my cat who bites me all the time.
He didn't want to bite me today. Or scratch me. He just wanted to be petted no matter how much I tried to awaken his hunting instinct by teasing him with the laces or with one of his 10,000 cat toys scattered throughout the house. This is the cat who woke me at 3:30 a.m. last night after trying to climb into the (capped) chimney, and when I picked him up--groggily afraid a rabid raccoon had found its way into the chimney and was after him--he almost casually bit and scratched my arm. This is the cat who lies in wait for me to walk by in the mornings when I'm trying to get ready for work, and leaps out at my ankles and seizes the hem of my nightgown or the cuff of my pants. This is the cat who lies under my computer table while I'm online, purring and occasionally nipping at my bare toes.
Anyway, finally I managed to get him excited enough to tear into my gauntlet. Authentic battle damage! I decided that was enough for now, and took the gauntlet off to finish it.
I had bought a feather boa to use as trim, so I measured a piece off and cut it. I then trimmed the feathers short on one side of the piece, laid down a line of glue (my favorite Gem-Tak) and pressed it into the inside of the leather cuff.
Then I was too impatient to let it dry before I took pictures. Hopefully it will stick to the rough side of the leather. But for now it looks good. Here's a clever photo I took to show both sides at once. The fist of justice! Note that I put on my awesome hat even though I knew it probably wouldn't show in the picture, because I wanted to get in character a bit.
And finally, here's a hopefully readable close-up (backwards--you know, I could have taken it off to take a picture, huh?) of the embossed-and-Sharpied design. SOC stands for Society of Owl Catchers. (If SOC stands for anything else, especially if it's something nasty, please don't tell me.) And that's not the best owl ever drawn, even by me, but it's at least recognizable. Don't think of it as a bad drawing, think of it as an original American Primitive.
