Hex Grids Are Fun. They're Like Honeycombs, Or '60s Sci-fi. Which Are Two Awfully Disparate Genres To

Hex grids are fun. They're like honeycombs, or '60s sci-fi. Which are two awfully disparate genres to put in the same sentence. I designed these thinner buckled bracelets last week, in preparation for the craft fair I had a table at. I wanted to make a buckled, adjustable bracelet design that worked at a thinner width. I think these turned out pretty reasonably, though I will probably adjust the design a tiny bit next time I make some, to make it cut a bit faster. I just posted this up to my Etsy page. I haven't had a chance to get photos of this design being worn, so there will be more photos coming in the future.

Craftsmanship and Scope

Someone recently asked me a question. It was a reasonable question for someone to ask, but it was one that is worrying to me because the question somewhat leans towards a direction that I've been carefully avoiding. This was it: "What's the limit on leather objects? Like what can't they do?" Sadly, I don't have a very satisfying answer. Leather is a rather versatile material, and there are a lot of craftsmen who make vastly different types of pieces with it. There are people who make clothing, bags, wallets, masks, jewelry, armor, saddles, belts, lots of other things; and each of these uses different techniques and materials. The skills someone develops to make one set of products may not be applicable to another sort of item. I consider myself to be pretty new to leather; I've been working with it seriously for less than a year. I have been carefully working in ways that allow me to apply skills that I have learned from other areas of crafting in order to make polished products that other people are not making. But the range of techniques and materials I'm experienced with is still relatively small, because it takes time to figure out new techniques. So I'm not yet especially versatile. I'm OK with that, though. I used to want to be a jack of all trades. I tried to do everything--pottery, drawing, knitting, beading, weaving, sculpting, wood working, you name it. And I still occasionally want to learn new and exciting skills. But after watching the successes and failures of certain ventures, and after much thought, I've learned to be careful with that. I've come to the conclusion that, as someone trying to sell my stuff, it's better to achieve mastery in a small set of skills, and to develop a coherent line of products to put forward in that vein. The more different stuff you do, the harder it is to explain yourself to potential customers. And if you promise commissioners that you can do anything, then every project will be strenuous and unpleasant. So to answer the original question: I can't give a listing of what leather can't do, because I don't even know all of what leather can do. And even if I could list out what can be done with leather, I myself could only promise to be competent at a small fraction of that. Nobody's an expert at everything. Me, I'm pretty good at designing patterns to cut into various materials and then constructing them together into 3D forms. I've had a good amount of practice doing this with a bunch of different materials, and have developed a few methods that seem to be broadly applicable. But it's only been in the last year that I've been working with leather. As time goes on I'm slowly learning more tricks, and the range of things I can make is increasing. And people should feel free to describe something and ask me if I can do it, of course. But I can't do everything. I'm intentionally keeping my scope somewhat narrowed, both for my sake and for the sake of my customers.

Update of the anodized titanium dragon tail with metal spikes installed down the spine. You can see in the close-ups how irregular and varied the titanium scales are, which I really enjoy. This was for a commissioner, but I'm very much considering a similar one for myself.

Not as many photos of it this time as the previous set, because it was getting dark.

This Halloween, cozy up in the dark with a classic horror movie and hope you escape the notice of your friendly neighborhood serial killer.

This mask is available. If I make another one of these, I'll probably adjust the design a bit on the lower half.

Prototyping in paper with scissors and tape. Then I transferred that into a CAD program, cut it out of leather, and stained it. Next comes sewing everything together.

I was prompted to design this mask by a vague request by a friend who's involved in running an ongoing live-action role playing game that happens out in the woods somewhere. It may at some point pop up as part of a costume in that game.

The design I did as a sort of reference to "The Tyger" by William Blake. It's got lots of little flame shapes cut through to make the stripes, and some stitching to pull it into the right shape overall.

It's available on my Etsy store!