Clockwork Spider-Master's Leather Top Hat

Second leather top hat is now created! This time in black, with a nice high-gloss finish. I shaped it a little more toward what I see as a ring-master style top hat. I'm sure I could find more technical terminology if I was interested in looking.

The real finishing touch on this, though, is the spider-web print hat band, which is nice and subtle and further accented by the metal clockwork spider pin on the side.

Close-up on the spider!
Front of the hat.
Side view on the spider side.
Other side, again with the rivets.

And the back view.

This will be listed on etsy soon, I just am not in love with the photos enough for such a major item. I may cheat and take some nice photos at work.

Plague Doctor - Redux

So, the original plague doctor mask that I did is off this way. It eventually sold, which was nifty, and led to me creating the top hat. The top hat continue to be worn and be awesome and I even have plans for a second waiting in the wings for free time.

The second go at the plague doctor mask led to me creating a Half Plague Doctor Mask. This was done as a lighter weight version of it. Amusingly enough, the same style of bird mask / plague doc mask shows up in Resident Evil 5. I won't go into the details on the character who wears, so as not to spoil anything, but it is interesting to see how often this particular style of mask shows up.

Now, I am back at creating another full on mask, with a few of the lessons learned from the previous two attempts as a custom piece. It is coming together much more smoothly. Pictures to follow soon!

Steampunk Wrist Braces

Finished and shipped out this set of steampunk bracers for there wrists. They are done out of a nice brown leather. It has a thumb hole, rests just below the knuckles and goes down the arm. There is a small dart in the leather to give them more shape. Lots of antiqued eyelets. The lacing is black and gold, actually done with crocheted cord. On the bottom side are slots with metal brace bits to keep the wrist sitting properly.

Street Shaman Staff - Part I

This is an idea that has been rattling around in my brain for a good two years now, if I'm not mistaken. I finally actually had a chance to visit a wood-working shop and pick out the bits and pieces necessary and with my additional free time, I've even started work on it.

I picked out a piece of wood that I liked. I went more for the actual bit that felt right and looked fun rather then worrying much about species of tree. From there, I sat and whittled down the two end pieces so that I could get the handle and foot on.


Multi-piece foot bit. The plastic bit is removable and shows a spike for more rugged hiking and what-have you.

I went with the not quite as practical grip as well, since this is more a style thing.
I used a little epoxy on both bits just to make sure they sat well. Two part putty epoxy, to be more specific. The top piece also has a small screw holding it in. The spike on the bottom I actually drilled a hole, and then actually bolted into it. So that bit seems like it should hold quite well.

From here, I start adding symbols to it and play with how much bark is coming off and all. More photos to come!

Steampunk Cane Part II

I have taken pretty new pictures!






Copper tubing along the top and brass wire going the rest of the way down. Brass tipped, leather wrapped. I have listed the new Steampunk cane here!

Steampunk Cane part I

Only an early picture, because I finished rather late last night by which point I only really had the patience to do a quick phone picture.


You can see a little bit of what I did. It includes the added brass tip, copper tubing, brass wire running down it, some leather accents and a fun dial. I'll try and get some better photos and then go into more detail on what I did to create this later.

Wood Shop

I never really got into wood shop and the like back in high school. Which is almost a little odd, considering I did get into prop building for theater. As well as building set pieces and whatever else needed building. Still, it probably would be handy with some of the projects I find myself leaning into doing. Which is why I trekked out to the nearest decent wood shop and bought myself a few things.

Two big projects to come out of it will be a steampunk cane and my own urban shaman's staff. More pictures to come, almost certainly. Hopefully lots of in-progress photos.

I also picked up some tagua nut, which has a lot of the consistency and look of ivory while being more more friendly to the world. Or such is the theory. It is pretty though. Because I obviously don't have enough projects and methods to play with. Or have recently bought stuff to try glass etching that still isn't even open. Heh.

Slave Bracelet with Tatted Center

This stems from my continuing need to integrate bits of tatting into various other sorts of designs. Which I more or less blame on how much I enjoy TotusMel's work. Go, spend a few minutes drooling.

Now then. A friend of mine got ambitious after seeing this instructable and has started playing with tatting a bit, which means I have a lovely pile of little medallion thingies to play with. This weekend I found some time to make a first attempt at playing with it and wound up with this.


Which probably could stand some better photo treatment before listing, but it was sort of late and the roomie was playing chess and thus there were less wrists available for stealing. And I can only contort so much for photographing things.

The center piece is of course tatting. It attaches to the wrist piece with bits of chain and two rivets. More of the same chain loops up around the finger. (the chain was cannibalized from a necklace.) And the whole thing closes with snaps. I set three closures on it to give some room for sizing.

As first attempts go, I think it turned out rather fun. I think I can push the notion further. Also, I have some chain ordered that might be better suited for such things then my random dismantling of stuff. Regardless, The combination of elements makes me happy. I am thinking about playing with stiffening the tatting so that it lays a little better. Assuming that it wont just cause horrible problems. Heh.

WoW Engineer's Goggles

Per special request, I have created engineering goggles from World of Warcraft. The normal version in the game are rather over the top size was, so I pulled them back to a slightly more normal goggle look, while maintaining a lot of the distinctive ridiculous qualities. They make me smile.


These will not be showing up in my shop, as they are specifically for someone. At the same time, I do like trying interesting things, so if anyone else has a specific sort of goggles they want, I'll be around!

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.