Dog Collar, Jade

Back in 2017 I made a collar for a lovely pooch named Radric.

The client liked it so much that now that they have another young puppy they reached out to get another collar for her.  We had to wait a few months for Radric's sister to get big enough that she could be sized for a collar.  The client wanted to embed 8 malachite stones in the collar and by the time Jade was old enough to be sized I thought I'd figured out a good way to do that.  Then I got to actually producing the collar and realized there was a much better way of going about the whole thing.

I'd originally planned to laminate the stones between two strips of leather and cut little windows in the top layer so they could be seen.  That's ancient solution for this sort of thing but it leaves a lot of the stone covered up and with enough time and jostling the stones can potentially work loose.  But as it happens the stones were basically beads, with little holes drilled through each one.  So I cut the windows to the exact size of the stones and ran a bit of jeweler's line through each stone on the interior of the collar.  Between each stone the line is secured around a rivet so it's not working loose anytime soon.  This way the stones are essentially sitting inside the top layer of the collar.  And between the leather and line they aren't going to fall out anytime soon. =)

Martingale Collar, Ky-oosh

I've just been waiting for an order like this one to come in so I could finish up the last bits on the pattern.  The collar I'd made for Max a couple years ago was a good start but had a "small" flaw in that the screw holding everything together proved weaker than a half-husky's enthusiasm.  This time there's no screws at all, just laminated leather that outta stand up to just about anything.  And it's always a good project when I get to mix together some more "Federation Blue".  There's a big, poofy fluffer in Ontario who's going to be pretty styling by the end of the week!  Meanwhile the martingale collars now have a dedicated listing on the shop!

Collar for Sumo the Mastiff

Sumo's a pretty big mastiff.  His 28" neck means my wife could wear his collar as a belt.  I laminated the collar so the arms of the studs wouldn't catch is Sumo's hair.  Might take a couple weeks for the leather to adjust to its new shape but I'll wager this'll be the comfiest collar Mr. Sumo's ever had.

Dog Collar for Radric

Radric's a nice looking pit bull who'd outgrown his previous collar.  I'm guessing he has a thing for ice cream too since the client was very keen on having it on the collar.

Collar for Kona

Kona is a pooch here in the Lower Mainland of BC who's keeper wanted a stylin' new collar with their contact info.  Normally I'd use a heavier leather for a collar but I didn't have a piece large enough to cut a ~30" strap out of.  So I cut a ~60" strap of a lighter leather and laminated it down to itself.  It took longer to produce this way but it should be a stronger collar for all that stitching.  I don't make many collars but I might start using this approach more often.

Martingale collar

Ever since we picked up our pooch, Max, I'd figured to make him a custom collar befitting his handsome self.  Martingale collars are all the rage these days so that was the obvious style to model the collar on.

Max isn't terribly large (50 lbs of 30 lb dog) but as a Husky/Collie mix he can be pretty energetic on walks.  So if anything I figured I'd overbuild the collar.  It's 1.25" wide laminated latigo held together with a sturdy saddle stitch.  The slip loop is essentially the same, laminated latigo, but I figured I'd close it with a chicago screw so that it could be opened and closed if I needed to resize it.

The basic idea of a martingale collar is the same as an old fashioned slip collar.  If the dog jumps or the trainer pulls on the leash the collar restricts in such a way that's equivalent to telling the dog "nuh-uh".  In theory martingale collars should be better than slip collars (aka chain or choke collars) because they distribute the pressure around the neck (though as near as I can tell slip collars do the same thing).  There's some concern that prolonged slip collar use can weaken a dog's neck muscles but this mostly seems to come from a single study in Germany that I'm a bit skeptical about.  It's certainly an area that could use more study.  Suffice to say there's piles of anecdotal evidence, little scientific data, and ample controversy around dog collars.

So far as Max goes he didn't respond to the martingale collar in the least.  This may be mostly a Max thing (he's very easily distracted) but the one time he wore the collar outside on a walk it proved harder to keep him under control that otherwise.  That was a particularly bad morning (lots of other dogs out) and Max got excited enough that he sheered the chicago screw, breaking the collar and causing a bit of pandemonium.  He went straight home after and everything turned out alright but I think I can say that for Mr. Max, this style of collar isn't very effective.

I may still add them to the store someday but I'll need to find a better solution than the chicago screw.  In the meantime, happy dog walking!

Mr. Gibbs Custom Collar

Mr. Gibbs had some very specific requirements for his collar and for the most part there was no problem matching those specs.  I almost sent it out a couple of days early but fortunately I held on to it overnight to see how the acrylics would cure.  They came out almost black (instead of dark green) so a little touching up and it was good to go!

Big Buddy's Beefy Collar

22" might not sound like much but when it's the circumference of a pup's neck it certainly looks pretty sizeable.  So much so that I upgraded the thickness of the leather to make this guy's collar.  That posed an interesting challenge with the tiny skull conchos but nothing some skiving and creative metal pounding couldn't resolve.  The client apparently liked the collar I'd made for Killer back in the summer and wanted the same style just twice as wide (2") and with their phone number stamped into the leather.  I wound up stamping the phone number into a separate piece of leather so I could stain it differently but it's blurred out for the internet so I guess you'd have to trust that it looks pretty legible and nice.

Talking Nerdy Gear

Anyone who follows my twitter account no doubt knows that there's a bevy of excellent podcasts that I listen to while I'm working away at the workbench.  Among them is Cara Santa Maria's Talk Nerdy podcast which is pretty much what it sounds like.  Every Monday morning she releases an hourish long chat/interview with another science-y person usually around their science-y specialty or some social issues (or both).  These science-y persons come from all over the place so there's a pretty wide ranging diversity of topics, perspectives, and representations which is something I've had a hard time finding in other podcasts.  In any case, it's good stuff.  And also Nerd Corps.

As it happens, Ms. Maria is a fellow transplanted Texan and that might be why I felt I needed to make her a name belt of her very own.  I've listened to her podcasts long enough to have some ideas on what sorts of things should go on just such a belt, but as it turns out "CARA SANTA MARIA" in 1" tall letters doesn't leave a whole lot of room for tooling.  As I studied photos on the internet to try and get a guess at the size of the belt I reckoned some pyramid studs would probably match her aesthetic better anyway.

Being a cool person, Ms. Maria has a wee pup (no doubt suitability) named "Killer" and I didn't want to leave the little guy out.  Especially since I found a couple of teeny tiny conchos that looked like they'd match his little skull and crossbones tag he seems to have in any of the pictures I could find.  Though if trying derive a woman's belt size from a few pictures was challenging, I'm not really sure if it's at all practical to guess at a dog's collar size.  I have a suspicion it came out too large to make a serviceable collar but I guess I'll have to wait to find out.  If Canada Post's ETA is accurate then Ms. Maria and Killer should be getting their package about the time this goes live on the blog.