Delano Y.

Inspiration

My older brother and I have been crafting with Duck Tape for quite literally a decade. I remember being in Sunday school in the first grade, folding up pieces of paper and wrapping them in Duck Tape, calling it a sword, and rushing off to fight evildoers. As the years have passed, our skills and ideas have significantly developed. With a glance into our family's garage, you can find a veritable arsenal of Duck Tape weapons: swords, shields, daggers, axes, spears, and more.

I first had the idea for my Stuck at Prom submission three years ago when my older brother created his own. I wanted to make a suit of armor stylized as a tuxedo, and that is precisely what I did. Whereas my brother’s tux took inspiration from our father’s side of the family and our Chinese roots, my armor draws inspiration from our mother’s Polish ancestry. My mother, whose maiden name was Polak, was bullied as a child due to her ethnic heritage. My tuxedo takes those attacks and wraps them around myself as a suit of armor. The Polish Hassar, also known as the Winged Hassar, were cavalry with a distinctive marking: they had feathered wings pointing outward from their backs. In my design, I incorporated several elements from the Polish Hussar, including the weapons they typically utilized (a flagged lance/spear and a saber) and the aforementioned wings. I also included the official emblem of Poland, a white eagle with a golden crown emblazoned upon a red shield. Although the eagle’s crown was removed for a time after World War II due to Soviet control, the eagle regained its regality once the communist regime was overthrown some decades later in 1990.

The only part of the details taken from an external source were the shapes for the shield, eagle, and horse. They were sourced from heraldicart.org, which grants specific usage rights for all contents of the website under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike: “You may distribute this book and website as a whole, or portions of it, or incorporate its contents into other material, provided that you acknowledge the sources of the work and allow everyone to share the resulting material under the same terms.” Creative Commons allows for free usage, adaptation, and sharing (even commercially) of works under its domain, and it is recognized in the Ohio Revised Code. To incorporate the shapes and details, I first imported the SVG files into a 3D design software and modified them before printing them with my family’s 3D printer and covering them with Duck Tape. My brother’s tux was disqualified for unauthorized use of copyrighted material, so I am being exceedingly careful not to allow the same fate to befall me. The website, heraldicart.org, is a resource developed and maintained for usage by anyone, but specifically members of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), of which I have been a member for a decade as well. This organization is dedicated to medieval recreation from all parts of (medieval) world history. I consulted with an armor expert as part of designing my suit and selecting the elements to include!

All my accessories and armor pieces were crafted from various materials, including cardboard, corrugated plastic (essentially plastic cardboard), hot glue, plastic pipes, paper, and, of course, Duck Tape. I would also like to mention that my family was instrumental in the design process for the suit, continually making new recommendations for details and accessories that kept me crafting nearly right until the submission deadline. The first part of the suit I created was the vest, woven from individual rings of machine-cut Duck Tape that I spent countless hours meticulously cutting and taping closed. I also created the suit and pants (having a professional seamstress grandmother undoubtedly came in handy), along with armor pieces that I attached in various ways. My favorite of the armor pieces is the breastplate, which I specifically contoured to the curves of the jacket, forming it as a sort of extended lapel. I made my accessories last: a lance, a saber, a belt, a hobby horse (to represent the cavalry aspect of the Hassar), and one of my favorites, the cravat. To make the cravat, I first made a long strip of Duck Tape before ironing the pleats into the tie and, of course, tied it. I love how the folds of the cravat encapsulate the tie pin/Polish emblem. In addition, there is a subtle heart cross detail around the belt and saber sheath and the tux itself, which is composed of 5 hearts. It is in part a nod to the frequent cross imagery in suits of armor and part a reference to the fact that I am the second of five brothers, something that will always be close to my heart.

This tux has been in the works for a long, long time, and I am proud to finally display it to the world. Duck Tape and crafting are significant parts of my life and identity, and I am honored to have my submission as part of the 25th anniversary of the Stuck at Prom competition!