Shiny Things Gallery | Fandom | Final Fantasy | Other | Carbuncle Jacket

A while back, quite some time ago, I got a jacket on Ebay for $8 (shipping included). I needed a more functional jacket than my shredded leather one, and this did nicely. I'd also already become much too emotionally attached to Prompto Argentum from the Episode Duscae demo (bitches love Indy, don't you know)... and the "IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY NOW WATCH SOME BASTARD FUCK IT UP" patch. Because. It spoke to me. I combined them, then set them aside to come back to later.

Final Fantasy XV clearly released since then, and I don't think I'll ever recover so I've stopped trying. I'd been wanting to put something on the back of the jacket for a long while, going back and forth between more complex designs, and then just-- Carbuncle. Specifically, the heraldic Carbuncle featured in one of the Ascension Grid backgrounds. But... I also really adored Carbuncle's FFVIII form. So I did a bit of a mash-up in terms of design, softening and simplifying.

But all of this overlooks the medium. Mixed my own fabric paint with. So. Much. Super fine. Iridescent pearl pigment. That probably comes through in person a lot better than it does in any of the pictures, but I tried. There are about 6-8 thin layers of SPARKLY and color. ...After the 6th layer, I decided that I loved how it was coming out, but I wanted to "age" the design a bit, to make it look a little less perfectly smooth. So... I washed it in the washing machine. Then touched it up, and ta-da, a little extra sparkle, extra dimension which is impossible to get a good picture of, and it looks more "lived-in" rather than having just painted it. Which I like.

Then I attached the seven Swarovski crystals, because me. One, they were in the original artwork (as options/nodes, yes, but still, shiny), and two... extra sparkle, yes please. I also painted little cartoon-y skulls with fangs on the hidden snaps in the front, and attached this little "ROCK STAR" bracelet centerpiece I got on clearance for $1 because I liked it too much to pass it up. The bottom bit was an old plaid shirt I got second-hand and just kind of liked for the fabric years ago, but I'm glad I found a decent use for it; the jacket itself was kind of useless in cooler windy weather because it was so short in the back. (Yes, this is what broke my needle somehow.) There's an official FFXV bandana tied around a sleeve because I could not resist, and various patches and pins. What I never did get was the official FFXV Carbuncle patch, which is horribly ironic.

Special thanks to dying-of-thirst-here for sharing the Ascension Grid backgrounds.



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