Functional prop commissions

General

Some time wayyyy back in 2016 I saw a video - I think it was on Facebook back then?

Someone built a functional crossbow from cardboard and rubber bands. And for some reason, while planning my Poison ivy design I remembered that.

So, I searched a long time, found something similar as a video (no idea if it was actually the one I'd looked for) and no PDFs to download. I downloaded it (sue me), watched it what feels like 100 times and finally had working parts.

So, that should be doable for any kind of weapon, right?

It started a wave of creative outbursts that sent me to schools to get scraps of their wood working supplies from their handicraft ECA and into art galleries for the same reason.

Wood is easier to manipulate than foam and way more forgiving if sanded, so those were my trial pieces for each one.

And after the wood waas done, I took them apart again, drew cardboard patterns, scanned them and built PDFs so that you can actually build them youself now.



















You can find them on my Kofi via crafting.

Generally there are 5 levels of difficulty/competency:

Beginner ★✰✰✰✰

Easy, simple patterns. They're fairly easy to cut out, mistakes don't matter in terms of functionality and there aren't a lot of parts to figure out. They're fully customisable.

Intermediate ★★✰✰✰

Fairly easy, relatively few parts. You should try to make the parts look like the pattern in terms of functionality, but it's nothing space related that migth become an issue. Customisation is possible, just not as easy anymore.

Advanced ★★★✰✰

You're getting there. More parts, some of them essential in their craftsmanship. Last stage where you can customise parts other than when it's fully built and you want to burn/cut in patterns or paint it in a special way.

Proficient ★★★★✰

Not only do you have a lot of tiny parts that need to match each other perfectly, it's also the point where you have parts that require fine-motor skills. The rubber bands in this are especially tricky, trying to pull them into the correct areas.

Expert ★★★★★

Tiny parts, check. A lot of them, check. Shape-sensitive parts, check. Also, a knowledge of 3D shapes should be available, at least fundamentally. Expert patterns arent just about cutting 2D shapes and attatching them to each other; now you need to build and shape some of them to 3D parts before they can be attatched.