Musketeer

Musketeer - 2011

My godson receives an iconic character as his annual Christmas ornament.  It started with a train engineer and over the years I have worked my way through a variety of countries and time periods:  minute man, a cowboy and Indian, a knight, a Roman Centurion, an Eskimo, the Gloucester fisherman.  Many of them were warriors or hunters.  People carrying swords and axes are possibly not the most appropriate thing to gift at Christmas?  There are so many colorful costumes out there and let's face it - some of the most interesting are military uniforms.  I've tried to veer away from the warriors in the last few years, but as I puzzled this summer over what to make, a musketeer popped into my head.  When something sticks in my head like this, I've learned to run with it.

I think it was the blue of the musketeer outfit that had caught my eye.  In doing my research, I discovered that there are many different uniforms for musketeers.  I suspect what I ended up with is probably a mishmash of a few different time periods.

Various stages of progress

This took a while to make.  I worked on it in bits and pieces.  I had the boots and legs done before Thanksgiving, and then it sat for a week.  Baking cookies and a pie and dipping toffee took precedence.  But even when I had time, progress was slow.  I worked on it for several nights, just an hour or two at a time.  I had to rework the boots, because they were too high.  The legs were too skinny.  He was becoming taller than I wanted.  The tabard was difficult to work with; the blue kept smudging on the white shirt and vice versa.  I had to work on hair color for a bit, and hemmed and hawed over facial hair.  Then debated over making a sword, and should he hold it or have it on his hip?  Decisions, decisions!

I finally had him all assembled and ready to bake.  He went in with the vet ornament and got singed as well.  The results were shiny bangs, a tricolor feather and dark blue edges to the tunic.  So no more cooking ornaments in that oven!

All that was left was painting some trim and the blade of the sword.  Painting detail always makes me nervous.  It's tricky getting in and around legs and arms and clothing and not touch something else.  It all worked out in the end.  My musketeer looks splendid.  En garde!