At the end of July I am going music festival, they have a fancy dress day with the theme of "Medieval", so obviously I'm going OTT and putting too much effort into my costume, as part of this thought I'd have a go at make some gauntlets.
Having no real experience with metal work and very little money for materials I thought I'd devised an alternative way to make metal looking gauntlets.
Originally I was going use rivets and make proper joints between each pieces of "armor" but this did not prove possible, in the end it worked out that it was simpler and faster to do without and it still looks fairly good.
So what I think we have here is an Instructable that will allow you to make gauntlets with no special knowledge or tools and for very little cost
I am unsure how hard wearing these are but they should last the duration of any fancy dress event, and repair would be simple.
Whilst the number of steps might make this look complex it is actually quite an easy Instructable, I may have just overworked it.
Update: I've made some additions since I published this and so thought I would add these in.
This is only my second Insturctable, I hope you find it useful and enjoyable.
This video was taken before I added the Cuff sections, sorry for the lighting issues the reflections played havoc with my camera.
Having no real experience with metal work and very little money for materials I thought I'd devised an alternative way to make metal looking gauntlets.
Originally I was going use rivets and make proper joints between each pieces of "armor" but this did not prove possible, in the end it worked out that it was simpler and faster to do without and it still looks fairly good.
So what I think we have here is an Instructable that will allow you to make gauntlets with no special knowledge or tools and for very little cost
I am unsure how hard wearing these are but they should last the duration of any fancy dress event, and repair would be simple.
Whilst the number of steps might make this look complex it is actually quite an easy Instructable, I may have just overworked it.
Update: I've made some additions since I published this and so thought I would add these in.
This is only my second Insturctable, I hope you find it useful and enjoyable.
This video was taken before I added the Cuff sections, sorry for the lighting issues the reflections played havoc with my camera.
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Signing UpStep 1: Materials
So these Gantlets consist of three basic materials, with a total cost of £3.25:
Ladies Garden Gloves (£1 from Poundland)
4 Vinyl Self Adhesive Floor Tiles (£1 Pounldand)
Aluminum Tape [48mm x 10m] (£1.25 Hardware store)
A few words about the materials and why I chose to use them
Ladies Garden Gloves: It may seem strange to use and specify ladies garden gloves, however at the Pound store I bought these from the man's work gloves were of a very poor quality, the leather on the fingers was made for mismatched scraps, often too stiff to bend even before adding the "Armor". These ladies garden gloves seemed to be of higher quality, the fingers are supple and move easily and the colour is a good match for the final product, on the downside the non protective section was made of flowery fabric, but I covered this with permanent marker.
Vinyl Floor Tiles: Again an odd choice maybe, you could possibly use cardboard or craft paper or whatever you think works best, but as I will explain, vinyl has many advantages, as well as a few draw backs. The design on the tiles doesn't matter too much, however the façade is often textured to match the material it is supposed to be, try to choose a design with as little texture as possible, and don't worry about the texture we will take care of that later. Each you will only be using 3 tiles.
Aluminum Tape: I love this stuff, it is like slightly thicker kitchen foil, but with a self adhesive side, its official use, I believe is for air ducts. On hard surfaces it can be applied to look smooth as glass but on flexible surfaces it tends to crinkle a bit as you will see, I've used it to cover sketch books, make metal looking helmets, prop knives and a very cool (read: geeky) set of Wolverine claws. However it can be hard to find, so when I find somewhere that sells it I buy as much as i can, try hardware stores and the cheaper general household stores, alternatively online and sometimes at Lidl.
Ladies Garden Gloves (£1 from Poundland)
4 Vinyl Self Adhesive Floor Tiles (£1 Pounldand)
Aluminum Tape [48mm x 10m] (£1.25 Hardware store)
A few words about the materials and why I chose to use them
Ladies Garden Gloves: It may seem strange to use and specify ladies garden gloves, however at the Pound store I bought these from the man's work gloves were of a very poor quality, the leather on the fingers was made for mismatched scraps, often too stiff to bend even before adding the "Armor". These ladies garden gloves seemed to be of higher quality, the fingers are supple and move easily and the colour is a good match for the final product, on the downside the non protective section was made of flowery fabric, but I covered this with permanent marker.
Vinyl Floor Tiles: Again an odd choice maybe, you could possibly use cardboard or craft paper or whatever you think works best, but as I will explain, vinyl has many advantages, as well as a few draw backs. The design on the tiles doesn't matter too much, however the façade is often textured to match the material it is supposed to be, try to choose a design with as little texture as possible, and don't worry about the texture we will take care of that later. Each you will only be using 3 tiles.
Aluminum Tape: I love this stuff, it is like slightly thicker kitchen foil, but with a self adhesive side, its official use, I believe is for air ducts. On hard surfaces it can be applied to look smooth as glass but on flexible surfaces it tends to crinkle a bit as you will see, I've used it to cover sketch books, make metal looking helmets, prop knives and a very cool (read: geeky) set of Wolverine claws. However it can be hard to find, so when I find somewhere that sells it I buy as much as i can, try hardware stores and the cheaper general household stores, alternatively online and sometimes at Lidl.
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Foil tape at Lidl? I know where I'm going tomorrow (or next week).
I did make a suit of armour, but i used cheap, camping foam ground sheets, covered in the aluminium tape, it was low cost and work fairly well except the softness of the foam cause a large amount of crinkling in the aluminium.
You could also try colouring the aluminum with a yellow sharpie the the aluminum will show through making it look like yellow metal.