Howdee folks!
One of the reasons why my other projects are on hold temporarily is that I was commisioned to build something for our annual carnival party at work. This year we were expecting some special guests, the incumbent Carnival Prince and Carnival Princess of our local sports club. As a welcome gift it was decided to create some medals, one for him, one for her and a third one for our music entertainer. The medals should look very authentic and representative - and had to be made within six days. My colleagues knew that only one man was able to fulfill this task on schedule - and on budget: Me. Of course. Who else.
So I was tied to a big heavy cannon ball and locked up in the basement, together with and old torch and a small window for fresh air supply, fed with water and bread on occasion when the guards were in the mood...
Alright, it wasn't that bad but the schedule was fairly tight because I had to fulfill my regular duties at work, too. I knew it could be done though and started looking for inspirations. I ran a quick google search and found some very nice medals. The free ones were much too simple for my taste, so I took a look at the commercial ones. Many of them were made of real metal and cost about 50 - 75 € and up. It was impossible to justify getting three of them at that price - and so a challenge was born: to create something which would look extremely precious - but which at the same time would cost almost nothing. With that premise in mind I swang into action.
I chose one sweet-looking medal and analysed its structure. Quickly it became obvious that it could be re-built using cardstock. The final object should consist of several layers which would give it strength and depth at the same time. I checked our storage and found two used sheets of gold cardboard. The sheets had a few dents and wrinkles but it was possible to cut around them or to place the cuts in a way that the scruffy areas were hidden by other elements later.
I traced the medal and separated the different layers in Corel. The result was printed, glued to cardboard and cut out to get a series of stencils.
One of the reasons why my other projects are on hold temporarily is that I was commisioned to build something for our annual carnival party at work. This year we were expecting some special guests, the incumbent Carnival Prince and Carnival Princess of our local sports club. As a welcome gift it was decided to create some medals, one for him, one for her and a third one for our music entertainer. The medals should look very authentic and representative - and had to be made within six days. My colleagues knew that only one man was able to fulfill this task on schedule - and on budget: Me. Of course. Who else.
So I was tied to a big heavy cannon ball and locked up in the basement, together with and old torch and a small window for fresh air supply, fed with water and bread on occasion when the guards were in the mood...
Alright, it wasn't that bad but the schedule was fairly tight because I had to fulfill my regular duties at work, too. I knew it could be done though and started looking for inspirations. I ran a quick google search and found some very nice medals. The free ones were much too simple for my taste, so I took a look at the commercial ones. Many of them were made of real metal and cost about 50 - 75 € and up. It was impossible to justify getting three of them at that price - and so a challenge was born: to create something which would look extremely precious - but which at the same time would cost almost nothing. With that premise in mind I swang into action.
I chose one sweet-looking medal and analysed its structure. Quickly it became obvious that it could be re-built using cardstock. The final object should consist of several layers which would give it strength and depth at the same time. I checked our storage and found two used sheets of gold cardboard. The sheets had a few dents and wrinkles but it was possible to cut around them or to place the cuts in a way that the scruffy areas were hidden by other elements later.
I traced the medal and separated the different layers in Corel. The result was printed, glued to cardboard and cut out to get a series of stencils.