Star Wars Rebel Belt

Another interesting commission for someone's christmas present.  In this case the goal was to work something "Space-y/Star Wars" into a belt suitable to be worn into a courtroom (since the recipient is a lawyer).  The client and I had the usual back and forth and settled on a series of the Rebel logo on a matted background. 

I spent 10 hours carving the belt the first time around before I realized I'd done the whole thing backwards.  Men's belts always have the buckle on the left and in a supreme moment of derp I'd accidentally put the buckle on the right.  There was nothing for it but to cut another belt and start over from scratch.  No worries about wasted material though.  The mistaken belt is being repurposed for cosplay.

In the meantime I'd figured out that I could make the rebel logo (more consistently and faster to boot) using some cams and an old wood gouge.  Using that technique on the second belt it came together much faster (a bit more than half the original time) and I think it looks a fair bit nicer too.  Its on its way down to Australia now and I love the thought of some subtle fandom in a court room.

Prototype Padded Shoulderpad

I've been meaning to bang out a prototype for a padded shoulderpad for awhile now and a recent order gave me the opportunity.  A client in Denmark wanted a long, all black shoulderstrap with a padded pad and I was perfectly happy to oblige.  The pad started out like the usual variety but then I added a layer of fabric and then two foam applicators.  That was all wrapped in some nice, supple deerskin and the result turned out pretty darn well.  Normally when I make a prototype I wind up with a long list of changes to make in the next mark of the model but not so this time.  I think the only change I'll make is using a heavier thread.  Tandy's new "Fine Waxed Thread" is a bit too fine for my tastes.  Deerskin only comes in a few options but I'm anticipating being able to offer these pads in black and brown/tan at the very least.

Hindu Inspired Guitar Strap

This order was sufficiently complicated that it's taken a couple weeks to fully come together.  The client wanted to work Hindu elements (particularly emblems for Kali, Ganesh, and AMMA) into a Sheridan design.  That on its own took some time but we upped the complexity a bit by narrowing the strap to 2" instead of the normal 2.5".  That half an inch can make a big difference sometimes.  Going with the theme I replaced the typical flowers used in Sheridan with lotus blossoms and heavily employed tinting to give the entire design some contrasts.

In addition there were two modifications to how the guitar strap connects to the guitar.  Instead of having a hole at one end of the guitar strap we fixed a loop of latigo that closes with a stud button.  That will wrap around the neck of the guitar and should work pretty well.  On the other end I'd changed the cut of the little strip that connects to the bottom of the guitar.  Formerly it was cut with a 2" square at one end for the strap to feed through itself.  Material-wise this has been a cumbersome part of the pattern and in this case I was worried about the strip being as wide as the strap.  So I replaced the square with a Dee and that seems to work reasonably well.  The strip can be fed through the Dee in the same manner as before, or, since the Dee is too large to feed back through the strap, it can hold the strip in place on its own allowing for more options in how the strip and strap connect.

All in all this has been a pretty heavy project but I'm pretty content with how it's all come out.  I'll probably start working some of these elements into the "default" design for the Bard guitar straps.

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...

MSF Range Card Holster

This is my third Range Card Holster and was meant to be a Christmas present for one of the MSF's instructors.  We used the same basic pattern I'd initially developed and added a placard of the MSF's logo.  I'd used paper to transfer the design onto the leather but, as sometimes happens with paper, it warped a bit during the transfer so some of the lettering wound up a bit of a slant.  I didn't even notice until I was staining the thing but it's probably another reason to be 3D printing tapoffs rather than relying on paper transfers.

Paisley Guitar Strap

I've made a few of these so this time the challenge was in the timing.  The guitar strap was meant as a birthday present and with shipping time and other orders under consideration it was going to be close.  And close it was!  I put the final touches on at 17:47 and had it packaged and at the post office 10 minutes later, just before the post closed for the day.  So the picture might not be the best but this is at least the third paisley guitar strap on the blog so I reckon there's a few other examples.

Motorcycle Sit-upon

This was another commission for my brother-in-law's motorcycle following the nicely successive toolbox earlier this summer.  The idea was to add some padding to his motorcycle's seat and eventually we figured the best plan was to wrap some foam in leather and cinch it down using velcro straps.  He supplied the foam (which I gather began as a yoga mat) and I coerced some latigo into a housing.  That was particularly tedious since I was stitching through the foam itself.  Without access to all sides of the seam I had to find the underside of the holes by touch alone.  So the inner seam (which holds the top to the walls) took me about a day and a half.  The outer seam (through the lid, foam, and the bottom of the walls) took 8 days to finish.  Since it was a longer-term project I endulged in some Netflix whilst doing most of the stitching so put another way it took 4 action movies, the entire first season of Gothlam, and the first third of "Boneshaker" (a steampunk audiobook) to finish all that stitching.

I haven't heard back for how the seat rides just yet but it looks like it fits pretty swell.