In 2016 at the age of 16 I made my very own sword. I made it for the course handcraft and although it wasn’t my examyear yet, I was allowed to particapate in the final exam of the year above me. The assignment was:  “Change your life! Build your own universe.” (Handvaardigheid, CPE 2016)

I decided to make my project about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which was my universe to escape reality back then. After making various different sketches I decided to make a 3D map of Skyrim of paper maché. After some iteration I wanted to make a connection between the real world and my universe. I came up with the idea to make a sword and put that in the globe. If you then would lift the globe you would see that the sword pierced a bloody schoolbook to symbolize how school can suffer under my universe.

When I told my teacher and my classmates that I was going to forge a sword, everyone told me I was crazy and that I’ll never succeed, but that just made me more exited to prove them wrong. And I did. I forged (amateur style) a sword in the barbecue in my grandmothers garden.

For this project my grade was a 9.3 out of 10. I included this project in my Game Design portfolio for two reasons. The first is that I am still just really proud of it and the second is because I think this project shows that I’m not afraid to back off from an ambitious idea. When I believe in a idea, I’ll find a way to make it work, by using a barbeque instead of a forge.

If you want to see a video of how I did it, watch the video below!