Winter Break.
I found half a tanned hide in an antique store.
I also got a great antique box of alphabet character stamps for metalworking.
To the left is a group shot of 'most' of the bags I made after about a week or two of listening to Sherlock Holmes on "librivox.org". A few were given as gifts before this image and a few after. Others remain to be sold at the End-of-Semester Contemporary Craft Society Sale. $10-25
My first attempt at adding sidewalls onto a bag. Three pieces instead of one. The color of the hemp stitching works pleasingly well with the button.I'm glad to have found a great use for my button collection which, must as the rest of my textiles collection, rapidly expands.
Come to think of it, my metal-working tools might finally outweigh the textile miscellanea :)
Side shot showing added panel, another view showing size. That's two of my fingers, works well for a small foreign coin collection.
I made a larger version of this (~5"x7") intended as a tobacco and pipe bag for a friend. It was unlined and fairly loosely sewn so I am interested how it will hold up - as a prototype. Another similar bag was a little deeper in both directions and had two buttons (~2.5"x4"). This one goes to a favorite waitress as a tip for my next coffee visit :)
A display of the "casual wear-ability" of most of the bags thus far.As a continuation of my "pochettes" series the majority of my small leatherbags will be wearable, or at least hang-able.
This pouch is particularly small, its bulbous button is much too large for my taste but with weight distribution from the beading is nice. I made one a little smaller than this one, given to a friend before recording, and I couldn't get my smallest finger in :)
It is interesting to note the different uses my friends have offered for even the smallest of the pouches - and they do get small! What would you use a small leather pochette necklace to carry? If your answer is particularly interesting I will happily reward you with a pouch of your desired measurements. :D
One of the great things about having a blog is that many times the images I share stand well on their own. This is one such image.A word about the bent nail:
Before my father took his tools to his new sawmill our garage was a veritable heaven for my tween-aged self. I hammered and pierced many a nail and nickle, much as Native American Indians did when introduced to precious metal coinage upon Colonization.
This nail must have been produced in one of my early experiences playing with metal, the tool marks tell a careful observer the way it was manipulated. However, as nice as the history of this nail is and as relative as the history is to my present self-discovery, it does not make for the best clasp. Most of my clasps thus far have been simple brass clasps purchased from a local bead shop. I plan to remedy this by making my own soon enough.
This image shows exactly how offset the covering is. This imbalance is mimicked by the angled beading seen below.This pouch went to my freshman roommate, Alana. My first true Yankee friend as it were. :P
I'm also very happy with the simple knotwork done to connect the short strap both to the bag itself and in securing the nail. (see first image for best shot)
Bellow: This was a gift for another roommate, Lila, with whom I shared the apartment at Plum St. & Grove Ave. sophomore year.
This one is rather large, I knew she'd be brave enough to put it to good use. The buttons here are two part. The bottom is a cup-shaped vintage find secured by a modern-box-store bead.A very whimsical and reasonably eclectic piece befitting its recipient. Hello, Lila! :)
The old metal button is nestled in a knotted-loop of leather cording. The knot itself provides a fitting amount of leverage. An unexpected study took place with many of these pockets, namely the methods and angles used for fixing buttons into place.
Another, somewhat lude, finger image. A very small pouch rendered with careful simplicity. The neck-strap is a rich suede thong with purchased squeeze-on brass hook-clasp.
This is another cloth pendant from last Summer. Lace, "coin" used as decoration on candles from my youth, light- and dark-orange lace, The obligatory measure of linen cord, and a pierced portion of brass which informed the shape and supplies the necessary weight to make this fabric pendant wearable. The brass piece itself is actually one half of a failed H-pattern ring blank from Into Metals class a year ago.
I posted the following previous images mainly for my future self. I would like to point out that I did NOT use this "J" for anything as it was quite sub-par. I was commissioned by my mother's sister to make a pair of metal J's for Christmas presents this past season. At my wobbly-topped, round cafe table, using a clamped-on hunk of 1"x2" pine as my bench pen I cut this guy out. I finished the other two at a much sounder bench chez my parents, but this "guy" serves as an example of steps.
I messed around with fonts of course, then printed a few out in different sizes, decided on the one I wanted and used a scriber to dash out my lines. My sawing was mostly terrible and inefficient, but so it goes. On the others, before cutting the blank out completely as in the picture below, I (due to lack of dremel/flexshaft/drill) tapped a sharp screw through the slightly annealed copper blank and filed away the resulting blister.
Through this hole I could insert my jeweler's sawblade and remove the inner portion of the cursive J. I also used this method to form the hole by which the metal J was suspended from it's leather thong. All edges were cleaned with my darling set of jeweler's files and given a filed texture before a coating with Johnson's paste wax.
As with leather, copper is great for frequently worn jewelry as the more wear it receives, the more individualized the copper patina becomes - as unique as your body chemistry. It's ok to sweat in them to speed up the process providing the material has been sealed with wax. Copper can actually be cleaned with (*yuck!*) katsup due to its acidity. Of course, many other viable alternatives exist!
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I will finish up this posting with a two-month old picture taken at the Jefferson while it was jazzed-up for the Christmas holidays.
Virginia State Flag
::Sic Semper Tyrannis::
---fin
