This ended up to be an interesting puzzle for me. The shoulder of a piece of armor is a tricky thing to figure out in a way that is easy to make. But after a few iterations I came up with a nice technique so I could have good looking shoulder armor that was easy to make and actually worked so you could move your arms freely.

This article on creativity takes you through some of the process that I experienced during figuring this out.

The tutorial on how to make these armor pieces is here

I entered this project not knowing exactly what process I would follow. I didn't know what materials I would use although I had a good idea that I would use craft foam in one way or another.

Here is a synopsis of the creative problems faced in a project like this:

1. What materials do I use to make the parts?
2. Exactly what parts do I need to make in order to have an arm of armor?
3. How do I attach these together in a way that is easy, free and flexible? Free as in no cost.

So the first thing I did was made a newspaper shoulder the same size as my own shoulder. The thinking is that I could hot mold some craft foam over it.

I put a piece of craft foam over it and hit it with the heat gun. But... I wasn't happy with the results. It was awkward and it wasn't shaping the curves well. I also thought "How many youtube viewers have a heat gun?"

So, I scaled back a little bit and worked with posterboard. I figured I could get the shape right and then see what I had and how I could work with it.

This looks pretty good. It is the shoulder piece (Pauldron) And I could make it with a couple of easy cuts and a very easy fold. So.... This is great. The thought then came that I could make this out of a thin cardboard (cereal box) and then I could overlay craft foam on it! Voila! We have a nice process for how to make our armor.

Ok, We have a process for making some nice foam armor. It is easy to do and it looks good. Next I needed to figure out exactly what pieces of armor I needed to make. We have already done the gauntlet and the vambrace and now I wanted to go all the way up to the shoulder. What pieces of armor is that? I did a little research and there are a few variations but the most common setup involves three pieces: the shoulder, the bicep and the elbow! Yup. Got it!

And sometimes the shoulder (or pauldron) was composed of more than one piece. They were often layered and that had a really nice look so I thought I would add in one layer to make it look a little nice but not be much more complicated.

Nice. We only have one thing left to figure out. And that is how to attach these pieces together so it was strong yet it had the flexibility to hinge freely. It needs to hinge so you can move your arms!

Attaching the pieces together

I originally thought that I would buy some nice little fasteners to put this all together. I figured I could get cheap fasteners at the local hardware store. And I was right. They had lots of fasteners. I bought a few different ones.

But... I really wasn't thrilled about asking my web visitors and youtube visitors to run out to the hardware store to buy materials.

So I figured I would try some wire. And it worked great. This is because we have that double stack that is cereal box cardboard and foam. They are strong enough to keep their shape without the wire pulling out.

I did some tests and it worked great. A little bit of hot glue will cover up that wire and make it look like a river.

And that's it. That is the creative process I followed to get to the completed foam armor shoulders and arms.

Creativity: NOW! Top Keys to Unleash Your Creativity, Come Up With Brilliant Ideas & Increase Your Productivity Tenfold! Lead Innovation Through Creativity, ... Writing, Copywriting, Visualization)

Creativity: How To Increase Your Creative Confidence & Change Your Life (Health Wealth & Happiness Book 41)

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