My Cabinet of Curiosities: A Little Princely Sword


This is the latest acquisition for my cabinet of curiosities - a princely sword. This tiny weapon cannot be linked to any known world culture or period. Interestingly enough, it seems to be made from particular elements found only in asteroids, but no metallurgists or archaeologists can confirm this for sure. What are the facts are on it's old label. Click images to enlarge.


I realized it had been awhile since I created a new prop for my children's story themed oddities and this idea, inspired by The Little Prince, has been in my head for some time. I took it's design directly from the illustration by author Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

The blade is foamcore, The hand guard is one half a $.99 cent "candy ball" found at a party store. The grip is a cut dowel wrapped 3 times in felt which once painted has a nice rotting leather look (string pulled tight around it creates the ribbing). The pommel is a plastic Xmas ornament. All was given a faux rust treatment with acrylics. The label was done in Photoshop, printed and aged with coffee.

It think it's a fun addition to the Bumble tooth, Sleepy Hollow horseshoe. Capt. Hook hand and Washington denture.

7 comments:

  1. That looks great!
    hypothetically, if it weren't a recently uncovered artifact composed of asteroidial metals, how might one get that neat rusty finish?

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  2. Mr. Chicken,
    It's all paint. I'm actually going to post a short, how-to on how I create my own faux rusty metal finishes.

    It's pretty basic though, have brown black and bright orange paint ready to go, then drink a whole pot of coffee. Once the buzz hits, start dunking your brush in each color and dab on 3-4 layers. Between layers I use an embossing heater to dry and let bubble the paint for texture.Then some dry bushing of orange where needed.

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  3. Dave...this is my FAVORITE of the curiosities!!!!

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  4. That's excellent, Dave. You did an amazing job of disguising your materials. It really looks like it is what it claims to be.

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  5. I love your Cabinet of Curiosities! It is my favorite thing of yours to peruse, and I have used your specimen label many times. Can't wait to see more. I've been toying with creating Doc Brown's "Brain Wave Analyzer" from Back to the Future for my cabinet this year, if I can find something to work with.

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  6. Totally creative and wonderful! I would love to have a cabinet of such curiosities!

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