Busy times

It feels like I haven't gotten much work done lately, but looking back on some recent photos proved that this was not true in the slightest. Not much work was accomplished as far as crossing projects off the waiting list, but there was still plenty of productivity. Up first are a couple of gifts for the Arts and Drafts holiday party. We always have a white elephant gift exchange and the crafters are quite ruthless when it comes to gift stealing. For a useful gift, I carved a crochet hook out of a section of elk antler and put a skull in the handle:

Then, as an experiment and because it makes me laugh, I made a riding crop from a section of fishing pole, some paracord, and some leather. I tooled a small "A&D" logo at the business end to keep things appropriate, and here's the end result:

As you probably noticed, Christmas just happened and even though I always say I'm not going to do this, I ended up making a few gifts at the last minute. My brother-in-law was rumored to like slim wallets of the front pocket variety, so I made him one out of black buffalo calf. Two card pockets on either side and a space for cash in the middle, yet it's still quite thin:

It had been a while since I'd made anything for my sister, so she received a sunglasses case. It's constructed with a vegetable-tanned interior, an olive green calf exterior, and a couple of cane toad accents on the ends:

My mom managed to destroy her previous gardening tool caddy, so I got reacquainted with the industrial sewing machine and made her one out of blue and natural canvas with webbing handles. Lots of exterior pockets and two small pockets in the large interior section:

My girlfriend loves giraffes, and I like to think of myself as someone who knows their way around a rotary tool, so I carved her a giraffe head pendant for a necklace. It's made out of G10, which is a glass-reinforced epoxy laminate often used in knife handles. The chain is a solid brass peanut chain:

This particular project took up a large chunk of my holiday vacation, but it was worth it. I've been wanting to make myself a porteur rack for the front of my commuter bike, and the holiday break was the perfect opportunity to work on it. I'd started it earlier in the month, but only had a little bit of time here and there to work on it. Once I had numerous days off in a row I could get some serious welding done:

It was constructed from mild steel rod, 1/4" diameter, and was then wrapped in athletic tape, painted with enamel and then clear coated. This serves a few purposes - when it's dry, it's tough as nails and makes a great protective coating. It also acts as urban camouflage, by making the rack look less polished and hopefully less of a temptation to thieves. Also, it disguises the fact that my welds are not that pretty. I ended up giving a previous rack the same treatment:

Tiny and Toads

Only a couple of things to share this morning. Up first is a very tiny book that I made for my girlfriend to celebrate our anniversary. She's very enthusiastic about miniatures and tiny things in general, so I thought this would be both a challenge for me and something she'd appreciate. Onward to the progress shots - sewing the signatures onto cords:

 Spine treatment:

 Cutting channels into the boards for the cords:

 The endbands are sewn by hand, and are composed of my beard hair (she also like Victorian hair art):

 For the cover, I used cane toad skin:

Here is the finished piece, along with its slipcase and a penny for comparison:

 I'd rescued some marbled paper from a repair at work, and that made for an excellent pastedown:

Up next is a potential piece for a client, who's been waiting patiently for quite a while. "Potential" in that I hope she likes it, and if not, I'll try and sell it through my Etsy store. The request was for a bright, colorful clutch that was a little larger than normal, with removable straps. She wanted to be able to carry a phone, sunglasses, and a wallet, and as an artist she needed to have pen and pencil slots. The exterior is pieced together from multiple cane toad skins, and the strap, interior and sides are a softer pale yellow leather:

Surinam toad wallets

This project has been brewing in my mind for a long time and it's finally come to fruition. Ever since I made the tentacle/sucker wallet, I've wanted to do more wallets along the same lines but based on the Surinam toad (star-fingered toad, Pipa Pipa, disgusting abomination, etc.) If you don't know what this is then do a web search at your own risk.
First up is the subtle version. Natural vegetable-tanned leather makes up the majority of the wallet, and the green leather peeking through like a baby toad is cane toad skin:

And now for the not-so-subtle version. This bifold wallet is made up of dyed and tooled vegetable-tanned leather on the outside, and the brown is again cane toad skin. The interior is a combination of buffalo calf and doe kidskin, and an anorak snap keeps things secure:

Please don't hold me responsible for any gag reflexes that may result.

Checking in on some past projects

A few of my past projects have made their way back to me for one reason or another, and I thought I'd post some photos of what time and handling has done to them. First up is the sucker wallet. It came back to get the snap replaced, as the spring in the initial snap just got too loose. This particular wallet was left undyed and natural, so this is how it looks after 15+ months of handling and some treating:

Up next is one of the drawn-upon curse purses. That particular approach was kind of experimental (using dye to draw linework on white doe kidskin), and while it looked great initially it doesn't seem to hold up. I really like how the stark white looks after it's been handled and gotten darker, but the dye faded too much for my, and the client's, taste:

I didn't have high hopes for cleaning this piece, so I offered to redo it in a veg-tanned alternative. Also, this was made to fit tampons and not cards, but she used it as a card case anyway, so I made the new version slightly larger for a better fit:

Finally, this is a good reminder not to leave your leather goods where pets and/or animals can get to them. My friend Rachel has a couple of really sweet dogs, but unfortunately one of them got the urge to gnaw and this is the result:

I'm not sure what approach I'm going to take with this. It can be shrunk down and turned into a coin purse, but that might be the only thing I can realistically do with this.

On to some new pieces. My fascination with whip making continues, and I finally picked up some steel shot and was able to construct a shot-loaded snake whip. Snake whips are typically referred to as something you can roll up and put in your pocket, but this thing is a beast and it's not going to fit into any of my pockets. A saddlebag, maybe...the thong (braided portion) is 6 feet long and the fall/cracker add another 2 feet. I haven't quite got the hang of cracking this thing confidently, due to the flexible handle and the weight, plus this isn't really my best example of plaiting, but when it does crack it's thunderous:

Up next is a clutch and phone pouch combo. The client wanted something to replace a zippered dayplanner, so it needed to be smaller yet hold a smartphone, pen, cards, checkbook, etc., all without a zippered closure. She also wanted a small leather case for her phone that could hold a few cards and some cash. Here are the results, which use luchador masks and skull imagery:

Six card slots, two larger slots for cash and receipts, and a dedicated slot for her checkbook. The phone pouch, pens, etc., all fit in the middle.

Now I can move on to some different leather. I recently purchased some cane toad skins and I've got some interesting plans for them: