Front pocket/card wallet

I received a commission last week for a card wallet.  The fellow that ordered them wanted to wallet to be as thin as possible and to hold 3 cards per side.  After some paper modeling, a few emails and some quick/rough construction this is what I came up with.

 Once the dimensions of the pattern were worked out I cut out several wallets worth of leather in a few colors.  The pieces were then glued along the edges, that were later to be sewn, clamped and left over-night.

I then hand stitched the edges.  After sewing I trimmed, sanded and slicked all of the edges.  I only use waxed saddle thread as it's very durable.

Above lies a grip of wallets awaiting edge slicking.

An array of tools used on this project.

March print of the month

 For this month's print I decided  wanted to print on silk.  More to the point I wanted to make something that could actually be used rather than just looked at.  To that end I decided I'd make bandannas, or scarves, or hankies...I also wanted the prints to be dyed into that fabric, not just on it.  I didn't want to be able to feel the print how you can on a  printed T-shirt.  Not hard to do, once you know all of the steps, just quite involved.
I won't go into all of the details, suffice to say that in learning about this process I gained new respect for some of the beautiful fabrics one can purchase.

The screen for this months image

 Long (boring) story short, after one whole day of printing and another of steaming and rinsing, I wound up with an edition of 18 images on silk(11) and rayon(7).

One blue silk hanky with an assortment of rayon hankies on top

 Using dyes is quite a bit different than just mixing some extender with some ink and just getting after it on some paper.  There are many different variables and many different schools of thought on how to address each one.

As a result of this, and of my inexperience, there is quite a bit of variation in the color saturation of all of my prints.   Then after all of the fun of the printing experience all of these still need trimmed and hemmed.  I can say I'd much rather run a TIG torch than a sewing machine but it is still fun.

But overall I am pleased with the results.  I also printed a number of these on paper since I had the screen done anyway.

(Don't) Take your guns to town

 Here is a custom holster I made for a WWII pistol that a friend of mine owns.  He wnated something small and simple, like the pistol.

 I wet molded the pattern I came up with to the gun frame.  The holster is all on piece of leather with one rivet and one Sam Brown button.  There are slits cut into the back for mounting onto a belt.

I applied a British tan to the holster for an aged look.

I did not make the belt

There you have it.  Simple piece that will age nicely.

Seat for 1950 Panhead

I was commissioned to recover an old Bates seat for a 1950 Harley Davidson panhead chopper that's being built in Denver Co.
I spoke with my client and suggested we keep the seat classic black and simple, very near to the style that the Bates originally was.

First Off I cut the foam to fit the pan (which had been chromed before it was sent to me). I used a combination of a thicker, softer closed cell foam (the white) and the thinner very dense closed cell foam (black).
After I had the foam roughed out I cut the leather for the top and bottom of the seat and wet molded it to the form of the foam and seat pad.
Next I glued the two halves together prior to stitching the seat up.
The stitch pattern I used was a double whip stitch. The black kangaroo hide lace will age nicely with the oil dyed saddle leather of the seat.
There it is, ready for many miles.