Wednesday, November 12

Ladies Leather & Lace Gauntlet

Received my second piece of tatting from the fantastic TotusMel Tats in the mail today. If you haven't had a chance before, stop reading and go look at her stuff. Very lovely.

Anyway, I had ordered a small piece she listed, thinking it would be fun to play with. It was larger then I was thinking (possibly because I need a ruler on hand to have any sense of such things.) This wasn't a huge problem or anything, just caused a shifting of my original plans. Which is likely a good thing. As my original plan would still have me sitting at my cutting mat growling and cursing. Instead, I have actually finished a piece. When I should have been writing... but that's ok, there's always sleep time to make up for not having enough free time. Heh.


I wanted to go with a mixture of leather and metal to accent the tatting, because that seems to be one of my fascinations these days. Below is a picture. Little bit rough. As I am attempting to take the picture and model it at the same time. Without having holes punched to really hold it in place properly... I will have to borrow someone to get official pictures taken.


I think it has a nice unique feel to it, something that you aren't going to find anywhere else. I set everything with antiqued brass rivets and added some brass saddle buckles to hold it on. The red leather is a very thin and soft suede from a pillow case I have been slowly cannibalizing. The black strap is from the scrap bin and most of the rest of it is currently someone's new set of goggles. I did a lot of the shaping on the red piece as I went along. Tried it both on my hand and on my roomies smaller hand and it fits slightly differently, but the placement of the straps actually worked for both of us, which was a pleasant little surprise.

Anyway, I am supposed to be writing. Shhhh.

Monday, October 20

Steam-rings

Catherinette Rings is hosting a contest to win a fabulous steampunk ring. Click the picture below to check out some of her rings. They are amazingly cool.

You can also check out my favorite ring from her shop. The color combination on that particular piece is fabulous. I might also have a weakness for opals.

I've actually been interested in these since I first saw them. The sort of hose-styling on the rings gives them an amazingly interesting unique texture, and the variations through out the shop in center-pieces really gives them a surprising array of subtle look variations.

Another point in favor of this shop is membership in the Etsy Steam Team. Which continues to be an incredible group of artists producing the coolest steampunk gear on the web.

Sunday, September 28

Needlebinding and Ivory Carving

My friend recently discovered needlebinding while working on a persona for a fun local group. Well, local to her, not quite so local to me. Anyway. My help was drafted for the creating of a needle for her to use. Originally I was just going to do one out of wood, but I've been looking for an excuse to play with carving ivory, as I have not tried it before. Mostly inspired by the leavings of mammoth ivory that you can find on eBay fairly often. I continue to have a deep love of odd bits of stuff for inspiring creations. It also helps that my friend is big on mammoth's anyway, so this was obviously the most awesome version possible of the needle.

Here are the two side of the finished product. Learned a lot about how to work with the material and only nicked myself once. Which is pretty good considering the level of exhausted I am today. It's a little odd in that it was a semi-wedge shaped piece, so it isn't quite even, but I think it will work. And hey, for a first attempt, I think it looks pretty good.

Wednesday, August 6

The Etsy Steam Team

In my continuing need to immerse myself in all things steampunk I managed to find the Etsy Steam Team yesterday and managed to join up! I needed more to build into my latest crafting craze. Especially since it continues to be working out pretty well as a crafting craze to be pursuing. This group has a fantastic collection of various crafters listing some really fantastic stuff on Etsy. If you do a search for 'steamteam' you can pull up related items Check out the homepage:

Sunday, August 3

Air Pirate Pouch

Air pirate pouch that was requested. Brass rivets. Twist clasp and a cool burning on the front.

A nice addition to the goggles I've been working on lately. Check out new goggle listings on my Etsy site.

Tuesday, July 29

My Apartment Smells Like Leather

At least when there aren't fumes off of spray painting of goggle lenses. Continuing to stock up Cracked Looking-Glass Crafts over on Etsy. Fortunately the new roomie does not disagree with the smell of leather. I have been cranking out the strange leather goods, from goggles to cuffs to pouches. Of course, last night I took a break from that and instead worked on a cuff for the technophile in someones life. I need to learn patience and keep my picture taking to daylight hours so that I can steal the bedroom made of windows for lovely natural light. It really makes for better pictures. May also be getting into reenactment gear, or at least doing a few custom orders of it. Still need to do some pricing first. Ah the madness of creating a second job for myself...

Tuesday, July 22

Brass Goggles

My new addiction has become steampunk. As such, my need for goggles has steadily been rising. Finally, I tracked down enough ideas to actually pull them off.


Just a quick picture from the phone. Better pictures will be on my Etsy site later tonight when I get it listed. The frames are actually spray-painted brass, but are actually metal at least. Lenses are a nice acrylic-plastic and sturdy with car-window tint added to get them tinted. I used leather, antiqued brass eyelets and a brass center-bar buckle. (For the record, I love the nearby Tandy Leather store I found). Hopefully more sets to come with some odd additions, though I want to start with some plain sets. Also listing a set with silver frames on Ebay currently. Just to see what happens.

Other then that, a few trade and gift items and planning to stock up the store. Will make an effort to write a little here as well off and on, though most of my attention has shifted to my writing blog. In my defense, I have been rocking out that particular project with many posts.