Making the Satyr: The Accessories

The best fabrications have detail, some so small that you never even see them, but if they weren't there you'd notice (take the Lord of the Rings movies for example). In my spare time while my brother was working and I had a few mornings off I decided to make a few small accessories. If you find yourself trying to come up with some ideas, or don't even know where to start, think more in the theme of the materials you will be working with. I wanted more natural materials, things you would find in the woods or could create from such things: leather, wood, and feathers. Bone and clay would work well if you have the ability to work with those materials as well.

The Bow and Arrows

After a quick trip to the craft store I picked up some dowels with the idea of making a bow and arrows. You'll notice the back-most dowel is actually thicker than the rest, this was to be the bow.

To make the bow I chose a hemp cord, the string I've been using for previous things is far too rough and would cause the bowstring to look frayed. Hemp, however, looked to be the appropriate size and style. If I wanted it to look really nice I would have chosen some more expensive waxed cord I had seen.

My intention was to make notches on both ends of the dowel to hold the string in place. Making the notches with a knife causes the knife to dull too quickly and I was nervous with the idea of using a knife (if I can cut myself on a light switch twice I really shouldn't be trusted with sharp objects). Having just recently moved I was also lacking tools like sandpaper or a saw. However, I have used a nail file before to buff paint off a piece of metal using the logic that it's basically a form of sandpaper, so I decided to use that with some surprisingly good results and got the notch that I needed. Unfortunately, after several attempts at stringing the bow, the dowel broke.

I decided to reevaluate the bow and instead focused on the arrows. I bought a pack of feathers and cut them into the desired shape for arrow fletching (definitely a project you do outside) the dowels I cut to 2 feet, long enough to be convincing arrows and short enough that they wouldn't be awkward. Because they were cosmetic arrows I left out some details intentionally, like the notch the bowstring would fit into and even arrowheads. The arrowheads for two reasons: because the arrows would stay in a quiver and not even be seen, and so they wouldn't be considered a weapon (weapons and weapon-like objects in costumes are very much a safety issue to keep in mind)

I attempted to glue the feathers on with several types of glue, having poor results: the weaker glues aren't sticky enough for the feather to stick on while it dries, and super glue is too runny and has other disastrous problems (by wearing nitrile gloves I didn't glue my fingers together, but everything else became a runny mess that quickly dried into a crispy mess). I did scrap the idea of arrows, but only because the costume deadline was coming up, and I had other things I needed to do more. Only recently realizing I should have researched it before hand, a quick search brought up a very interesting website here that shows fletching by hand without a jig.

Although I didn't complete the arrows I did, however, halfway complete a quick and dirty quiver by gluing leather over a cardboard paper towel roll. I'll see about posting some pictures someday.

Vest Extras

Accessorizing the vest was what got me started on the details. My brother was nervous about buttons on the vest, wanting to leave it open, but after a year I think he got more comfortable with the idea of me adding to it. For the buttons I chose horn toggles. I've never been a fan of button holes as I want to be able to correct mistakes, and cutting holes are pretty permanent, so I use loops. The loops I used are made of a rough twine. Afterwards, I poked some small feathers under the stitching of the buttons, they hold together very well. There are three on the bottom and one on the top to help hide the tips of the bottom feathers jutting out.

Painting the Horns

 I already mentioned in a previous post this month about buying the horns. While the horns are gorgeously designed I have to admit I wasn't expecting them to be so pale. The picture on Amazon shows them as a tan brown, while the ones we received were as pale as my hands in this picture (and that's with my summer tan). I chose acrylic paint in the hopes that it would work on the polymer clay the horns are made of (I have no idea what either of those mean, I mention it in the hopes that someone more knowledgeable than me is currently stroking his beard going "Hmm, yes.")

Along with the quiver here is a list of other accessories I didn't feature here: headband, scarf, bracelets, loincloth, tail, and bottles.