MSRaynsford

A friend recently got married and as well as asking me to be one of his groomsmen I was also able to create a whole bunch of stuff for his wedding. You've already seen the wedding invites so I carried the theme through onto the rest of the items. First on the list were place names, 70 names created using a Teal card and a white insert, very handy when some of the names needed to be changed around. ( svg here ) 18 Projects/ 23 Weeks

One of the pieces I didn't have time to complete before the event. I really wish I could have got it done before hand now because I think it's lovely. (files lost) 17 Projects /23 Weeks

After the relative success of the rune wheel, I wanted to continue the theme with a material wheel that I thought also fitted neatly into a circular format. The outer materials can all be shifted one position left or right with an appropriate ritual and the inner circle materials have additional effects that should be noted.

One final piece for LARP, Tree asked for a stack of rune sticks with a night realm rune on the top. He draws things in the boxes before passing them on to other places. He even managed to find a lovely leather pouch to store them all in.

Eli modelling my new padded arming jacket. As some of you may have registered due to my most recent  stream of work that I got very involved in producing prop   items for the new LARP game that happened over the Easter weekend. I wish I had taken a photo of all the orders in a pile before they went out because I ended up with 60   requests   for items and huge   commissions   from the game organisers. That's done now so I'm onto the new work. I have the UK maker faire at the end of the month and I promised to remake Donkey Kong and take it there to exhibit. Iron Man 3 gets it's UK release in the middle of the month and I've already seen an increase in those orders, plus I have 2-3 new accessories  that I should finish and put on sale before the release. I have lots of new ideas like the rune wheel to put down since coming back from the event, I also have another super secret project that is pretty cool that I hope to turn around in the next week or two. F

The game world for empire has a pretty extensive collection of maps for each nation and one of the world overview. After seeing the individual maps I made for people Profound Decisions asked if I could make a huge map to go in the war room. Measuring in at 1.8m x 1.2m I would say this laser cut map fits the requirement pretty well. 14 laser cut panels, 280x560mm, are aligned in a 'brick like' pattern (odd rows staggered) to show the whole empire in one single sheet. The map was outlined with a celtic knot style border and backed onto 6mm sheet plywood. It splits down the middle so that it fits inside my car ready for transport to the event. The final little touch was to create a token for the capital of the empire, Anvil, although I would now like to have the map back so that I can add all the nation names in wood veneer to make them really stand out. ( original artwork here ) Project 16/ 23 Weeks

There is a map for each nation in the empire. A friend suggested that I cut one onto wood instead of printing it out and it would make a nice prop. He was definitely right and lots of other people started to request them too.  

Each nation within the empire has it's own military units and like any good military campaign these can be pushed around a map to discuss tactics and positioning. At 2.30am the morning before heading off to site I realised that I only made tokens for our side and that I had no artwork for any enemy tokens. A few emails later and I had a series of group symbols to represent those armies but it was closer to 4am and I forgot to take any photos.

The first game of Empire ran at the weekend. Children were allowed along to participate in this game and by way of giving them something to do there was an academy were they could go and learn different parts of the game and the history of the game world. I was requested to make some merit badges for the children so they had something to collect when they completed various activities. I'm not entirely sure on the details but I would guess these tokens are for crafting items, casting magic, combat training and potion making. I colour washed each sheet before engraving to create this effect.