After gallivanting across much of western Europe we've made it back home safe and sound. I'm resuming work as normal on Monday with a few orders that came in while we were overseas. In the meantime though, I've been compiling our trip into a series of annotated slideshows to share with folks overseas. They're public though and anyone who'd like to go through the playlist can get their start here. I've also put all the pictures of museum exhibits (and there's quite a few) into their own public gallery and those can be browsed here.
It was a pretty excellent trip and we were fortunate enough to enjoy the hospitality of some interesting people.
Handcrafting reliable, custom leather goods & gaming accessories.
Friday, May 22, 2015
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Gilgal Country Round
I do enjoy some pyrography from time to time and it's been ages since I last picked up my "burny pen". Almost a year even, since I made the Derpy Dragon. In a couple of days my wife and I are flying to Europe for a big vacation. We'll be visiting some family friends in Britain, Wales, and the Netherlands before swinging through my old stomping grounds in Germany. It's going to be a whirlwind of a trip and we've been looking forward to it. One of the places we'll be visiting is a tiny church in Wales where some of her ancestors are buried. It's in a remote location and there's a whole story about how it'd been lost until her Grandmother found it some decades ago and now it's been renovated and repaired as a family center.
They hold a tea party there every summer now and it's a big shindig. I figured the least I could do was contribute a little country round of the place. My mother-in-law was nice enough to provide a good photo that I was able to transfer onto the linden and bingo-bango. The tung oil finish should finish curing just as we're packing so we should be good to go!
They hold a tea party there every summer now and it's a big shindig. I figured the least I could do was contribute a little country round of the place. My mother-in-law was nice enough to provide a good photo that I was able to transfer onto the linden and bingo-bango. The tung oil finish should finish curing just as we're packing so we should be good to go!
Friday, May 1, 2015
Production Model of the Easy Rider
Between developing the prototype and this production model it feels like I spent the entire month of April on this pattern. Even if I only produced two units of much note it still feels like it's been pretty productive month. This pattern was pretty tricky to engineer there's enough going on that it took more than one unit to figure out the best ways of going about it.
The biggest change for the production model was switching the lining material. I went from a polyester fabric with a plastic backing (very useful for gluing) to a poly-cotton blend with no interfacing. The blend works much better as a lining and edging but the lack of an interfacing means it won't stay glued down. I normally avoid putting glue directly onto a fabric (it tends to seep through) though this time I used a spray-on cement. It stuck for awhile but by the time the stitching was done it'd pretty much come loose from the leather. Fortunately all that stitching holds it in place pretty well so it doesn't seem to be a big deal.
I also have some concerns for how the stitching looks with the fabric. In the future I'll probably use a thread that matches the color of the fabric. I might also go back to the usual single seam rather than doubling them up. I like the look and security of a double seam but it's almost certainly overkill.
In either case, the Easy Rider is now, finally, available in the shop. Whew!
The biggest change for the production model was switching the lining material. I went from a polyester fabric with a plastic backing (very useful for gluing) to a poly-cotton blend with no interfacing. The blend works much better as a lining and edging but the lack of an interfacing means it won't stay glued down. I normally avoid putting glue directly onto a fabric (it tends to seep through) though this time I used a spray-on cement. It stuck for awhile but by the time the stitching was done it'd pretty much come loose from the leather. Fortunately all that stitching holds it in place pretty well so it doesn't seem to be a big deal.
I also have some concerns for how the stitching looks with the fabric. In the future I'll probably use a thread that matches the color of the fabric. I might also go back to the usual single seam rather than doubling them up. I like the look and security of a double seam but it's almost certainly overkill.
In either case, the Easy Rider is now, finally, available in the shop. Whew!
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Dragon Binder
I've been pretty busy with these messenger bags lately but I took yesterday to finish a personal project. After we get back from our trip (we'll be bouncing around Europe for most of May) I'll be diving right into DMing a new D&D campaign. I'm just dorky enough that I like to wrap my DM binders in leather like a proper Tome of Terror.
For anyone who might happen to be following me on Twitter I was tweeting the progress as I went along so there's lots of WIP pics. It's a little rushed to get all finished in a day (I was originally hoping to stitch it into place but wound up using rivets when I was just about out of time), but I'm looking forward to traumatizing my players with it next month.
I've been debating whether or not to add something like this to the store but I suppose it probably couldn't hurt...
For anyone who might happen to be following me on Twitter I was tweeting the progress as I went along so there's lots of WIP pics. It's a little rushed to get all finished in a day (I was originally hoping to stitch it into place but wound up using rivets when I was just about out of time), but I'm looking forward to traumatizing my players with it next month.
I've been debating whether or not to add something like this to the store but I suppose it probably couldn't hurt...
Camera Comparison
I've recently picked up a new phone, a Nexus 6, specifically because it has a pretty good camera. I'm told it's particularly good at processing colors in situations with non-optimal lighting. I'm pretty satisfied with my camera-camera but it'll be nice to have a device that can capture color better on overcast days. These two pictures are taken under the same conditions so I could try making that comparision. What do ya'll think?
Canon Powershot
Nexus 6
Canon Powershot
Nexus 6
Friday, April 17, 2015
Introducing the Easy Rider
This one's been awhile coming and it's the cheif reason why there haven't been more posts for the past couple weeks. A brother-in-law requested a messenger bag he could roll up and stow while riding his motorcycle and after a couple months to ponder the design, a few proof of concepts, and a lot of drafting I was able to come up with this.
For all that, the design is fairly simple and fundamental, which should also make it reliable. The front is made from a flexible, almost fabric-like utility leather and the back uses a more rigid bison leather (though normally I expect I'd use stoned oil since it's half the price and I can get more of it). In either "mode" the lid fastens closed by pulling a tongue through a keeper. It's faster than a buckle and I find it more convenient and reliable than a snap for something like this. The strap was made from some light veg-tan so it'd be bendy enough not to get in the way. I used a polyester lining because it has a plastic interface that works really well with contact cement. However, I'm not really happy with how it worked out for the edging. It's functional but I think a different material would probably look nicer, especially with the double seams.
All in all, it's lightweight (about .76 kg with the strap), super sturdy, and easy and quick to manage. The biggest drawback is the ~50-60 hour build time. Hopefully I can pare that down without modifying the design because I definitely intend to add this as a regular item on the store.
For all that, the design is fairly simple and fundamental, which should also make it reliable. The front is made from a flexible, almost fabric-like utility leather and the back uses a more rigid bison leather (though normally I expect I'd use stoned oil since it's half the price and I can get more of it). In either "mode" the lid fastens closed by pulling a tongue through a keeper. It's faster than a buckle and I find it more convenient and reliable than a snap for something like this. The strap was made from some light veg-tan so it'd be bendy enough not to get in the way. I used a polyester lining because it has a plastic interface that works really well with contact cement. However, I'm not really happy with how it worked out for the edging. It's functional but I think a different material would probably look nicer, especially with the double seams.
All in all, it's lightweight (about .76 kg with the strap), super sturdy, and easy and quick to manage. The biggest drawback is the ~50-60 hour build time. Hopefully I can pare that down without modifying the design because I definitely intend to add this as a regular item on the store.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Another week, another pouch
I like making pouches so it's pretty good that I seem to get pretty regular orders for them. This one was a "normal" Spaceman design but made to some custom dimensions. A little shorter and narrower than the usual design.
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