Straps, Double Trouble

Two totally separate clients from two separate countries contacted me around the same time to commission essentially the same thing: double 1" black straps at a custom length.  The orders themselves might not be that interesting but the symmetry was amusing.  I had to be really careful not to mix them up and I'm pretty sure the right straps got to the right client.  I hope...

Busy, busy, busy

I've been lucky to have lots of work to do this summer.  A lot of it is routine stuff I don't regularly post but I figured I'd make an exception this month and lump them all into one post.  In addition to other posts this month I've also made five dice cups and:

A shoulder strap color matched to an antique satchel

A custom belt pouch (fit to the client's camera)

A padded shoulder pad color-matched to the client's messenger bag

Casing Chest

Casing is the process by which vegetable tanned leather is prepared for carving or molding.  It involves wetting the leather and then creating the conditions for the water to work its way uniformly through the leather.  As the name implies, this usually meant leaving the wet leather in a heavy box for several hours.  Historically anything from an ice box to a humidor could work as a casing chest; it just had to be mostly air/water tight.  These days the casing chest has often been replaced by ziploc bags and/or plastic wrap but there have been many times I've wanted to just have a big box I could drop my leather in to case (or keep it from decasing overnight).  So, naturally, I built one.

Most of the chest is built from cedar tongue-and-groove boards that I could lock together to form the walls.  I used some old 3/4" plywood we had sitting about for the floor and lid. 

Most of the descriptions of antique casing chests I could find (which totals two) described a heavy cedar chest lined with galvanized steel.  The cedar I could handle but plates of galvanized steel were a tad outside my budget.  So I've substituted it with HVAC tape (basically aluminum foil with a sticky side).  To simplify the structure I ran a bead of hot melt glue down each groove between the boards.  Then I ran some gorilla glue (which expands to fit the space available before hardening) over that and covered the whole kaboodle with the tape.  After an hour or two the walls were basically flat.

I was originally going to lock the whole thing together with some old fashioned dovetails but that turned out to be impractical with the tongue and grove boards so I settled for some simple butt joints.  Once I had the floor installed and the first coat of tung oil applied I glued some strips of latigo to the upper edge of the chest.  Aside from looking nicer than the ends of the boards, it should function as something like a gasket.

After a second coat of tung oil I cut the window in the lid and glued a big sheet of plexiglass under it.  I was concerned early on that a big, dark box with lots of humidity and little air flow would soon gather mold.  There are some "classic" solutions to this problem (periodically scrubbing with vinegar and the like) but I figured if the box wasn't constantly dark then it might not be a problem to start with.  Time will tell if my hypothesis is correct and if it isn't... well I know where to find the vinegar.

I still need to find a pair of hinges that will fit the lid but the box is effectively finished as it is.  When I find the hinges I can just bolt them on.  The chest was sized so that it could fit inside the shelves in the Studio but putting it in there keeps it in shadow and limits how far the lid can be opened.  Fortunately I had enough wallspace left to bolt a small shelf to the wall.  Done & Done.  I'm looking forward to trying it out on my next carving project.

Strap Extension

What do you do when you have a new purse strap would be ideal but just needs to be 5" longer?  You send it to a leatherworker to make it 5" longer. \o/

I laminated two pieces of milled vegtan with a spot of glue and some extra tight stitching to add another 5".  I expect it'll work out to about 5.125" inches in the end as the leather stretches but the stitching will mitigate that pretty well.  And not to brag or anything, but I think my stitching looks a lot nicer than the original factory stitching. >_>

Busted Luxury Purse Strap Duplicated

This wound up being a rush order to get in the mail before we left for PAX (tomorrow morning) so I can label it "Mission Accomplished" on all objectives!  The client owned a luxury purse strap from one of those big brands.  I'm not so sure if I should name which one but they've just started throwing their ads over YouTube so there's there.  In any case, the point where the strap anchored to the purse snapped a few weeks ago.  This particular line of straps had been discontinued and the client was trying to find a replacement.

Fortunately for me this style is numbskull simple.  They'd used some really unconventional dimensions which made finding a replacement buckle pretty challenging.  Once the client was able to send me the original, busted strap that became a non-issue.  I was able to match the dimensions exactly and got pretty darn close on the color.  The buckle and keepers are still the originals.  The biggest difference is that I beveled the edges and did a thorough job of staining and conditioning.  It looks to me like the luxury brand assembles the straps and then gives them a light treatment with some neatsfoot oil or something similar.  I'm pretty unimpressed for what they apparently charge.

Strap with new Hardware

This strap was pretty conventional as straps go but it was the first purchased using the new variant listings and to use the new hardware.  The client just had to select the options he wanted when he made the purchase and mention the monogram in the notes.  And the hardware works great.  I think it's far better than what I used to get over at Tandy.  A marked improvement all around.

Off to a good start

I've had a handful of orders to process this week but that hasn't stopped me from starting to update the shop's listings.  I've been paying particular attention to the shoulderstrap listings but about half the listings have gotten some sort of tweaking by now.  Previously, I had four separate listings for shoulder straps (based on 1" or 1.5" width and nickel or brass hardware).  Now I have three listings: Thin, Medium, & Wide which correspond to 1", 1.5", and 1.75" widths.  Making use of Etsy's "Variant" feature I've added some dropdowns to the listings so that the client can select from the basic colors and hardware finishes.  And of course, that means the listing gets a handy photo guide to those options:

I've been making use of the variant feature all over the place and I reckon it'll make things a lot easier for clients who just want to submit a quick order.  Much as I like chatting with clients to figure out just what they want, most of the time they wind up going with the same 3 or 4 options.

I've also managed to finally open the listing for the Shoulder Pads.  It's been on my To Do list since last Fall but I didn't have all the pieces together to really get the job done until recently.  I might create a listing to order Shoulder Pads together with Shoulder Straps but there's so many options there I'm still working out how to merge the two.

I received a pretty big order of new hardware yesterday and I'm really pleased with it.  I was already happy that per unit this supplier is vastly less expensive than Tandy.  In addition that the product is noticeably higher quality.  Even if the buckles weren't labeled as "solid brass" you can tell from the nice heft.  I'll need to pay more attention to inventory management to make sure I don't run out of stock but I'm really enjoying pecking a bit higher on the supply ladder.

As I mentioned earlier, I've had a full docket of orders this week.  Four straps and a pair of pouches.  One of the straps is still WIP while I procure a special order buckle for it but the other three and the pouches are already in the mail.  One of these was a twin to the LEGENDARY strap I made last year (the client acquired another card crate and wanted a matching strap for it) so that was pretty satisfying to work on.

Still more to come but I figured I'd better post a blurb before it got too far along.

Final Orders of the Year

Pretty much everything's in the mail already and these will probably be the last orders I'll be delivering in 2015.

The first is a shoulderstrap heading to Lubbock TX.  It would be standard except the client was very keen on having a 2" wide strap.  Buckles in that size, especially brass buckles, are pretty tricky to find.  Fortunately I found an old vintage buckle from a fellow Etsy seller so it wasn't any big problem.

And finally we had a local job.  My father-in-law had bought an ordinary belt in a local brick-and-mortar store only to find the "genuine leather" it was made from didn't hold up to much wear and tear.  After a week or two the vinyl was already peeling off...

Cowhide to the rescue!  I gave it a bit of texture to match the original belt a bit better but the biggest selling point is that this belt will have a lifespan of decades, rather than weeks (like all my belts).

Holiday Busy-ness

I remember about this time last year I was really worried I wouldn't be able to get all my orders done in time to get them in the mail.  It turned out one of those orders was delayed anyway (nobody's fault, just the random risk of international shipping) but mostly I was making large, complicated orders.  This year I've had a bevy of smaller, relatively simpler orders and even a few of the prototypes or OoAK (Etsy speak for art bits that aren't duplicated, they're One of A Kind) that have sold.  I last week churning through one shoulder strap (or the occasional purse strap) after another.  The ol' workbench was pretty constantly full of parts.

Most of those orders went out last week though there were one or two that held on till this week (like the belt set).  I'm happy to say that as of this moment, all my Not-In-Driving-Distance orders are on their way! \o/

Weekly Batch

I'm almost halfway through the week and this is about typical of my usual output.  Since Sunday I've been working on two shoulderstraps and a pouch and now they're all ready to head out.  The pouch is a standard spaceman but the shoulderstraps are a little neat.  One of them has a monogram which I honestly haven't figured out for myself.  The other is destined to carry a fellow's custom case of Marvel Legendary cards.  I'm sure ya'll can guess which is which. =)

I've got another shoulderstrap or two to crank out this week and I'm chatting with clients about a couple of interesting projects.  In the meantime, the Missus and I have picked up our tickets to PAX South 2016 and now we just have to figure out what we want to cosplay as...