This Was A Fun Test Of Neoprene! It Broke! Great Success!

This was a fun test of neoprene! It broke! Great success!

I made this cuff bracelet and was going to wear it around for a couple weeks to see how the neoprene weathered/wore out. I’d expected the spandex fabric sandwiched onto the foam rubber to fray over time, and I wanted to see how quickly that happened.

Instead, the first time I went to take it off the neoprene stretched enough that a couple rivets slipped through their holes. So looks like I can’t just treat it like leather and fake it. Maybe larger rivets would work fine, but probably it’ll have to be sewn and treated more like fabric.

I’m just a bit sad, because I’d rather liked this design idea, and I’d been looking forward to wearing it.

Leather fortune cookies! A full batch of a dozen, fresh out of the oven! Stuffed with mildly perplexing pieces of paper!

I cut these when I’ve got a scrap of leather left from another project that’s too small to fit anything else on, and I’ll tend to dye them when I’ve got extra dye that I got out but didn’t need all of.

I’ve had them up on my Etsy store as singles for a while, finally put up a listing for a dozen.

Red and black dragon tail! I powered through this commission while visiting family earlier in the week. It’s made of red and black anodized aluminum with a mottled stripes pattern. It measures in at 34 inches from the tip to the top of the belt loops, and weighs precisely 3 pounds. Modeled by a friend who has Very Good Wiggles.

I think this is like the 3rd or 4th tail I’ve made with this same color scheme and pattern? I assume it’s because an earlier version one of the tails I link to as an example on my info page.

On to the next commission!

Scale mail dragon tail commission I just finished. One of the prettiest patterns of colors I’ve had the pleasure of working with.

It’s got a custom pattern of anodized titanium scales in purple, violet, dark blue and teal, and it’s got a stainless steel underbelly. The anodized titanium has to be special-ordered from the manufacturer, and it’s pretty pricey, but it’s worth it. The spade tip’s shape was based on a reference from the commissioner, and it’s 1/8″ birch plywood that I laser-cut and painted with acrylic paint.

It measures in at 34 inches long without the spade tip, and the spade tip adds 4 inches, bringing it to 38 inches total. It weighs 3 pounds 13 ounces.

I’m currently open for more tail commissions like this! Info here: https://armoreddragon.tumblr.com/tails

I made some stand-alone dragon horns in the style I used on my dragon head project. They're made of birch plywood, laser-cut and glued up solid. The challenge here was working out a clean attachment to the headband, and I think I did pretty well. The leather strap just threads directly through the wood about 1/4″ up from the bottom surface. Makes for a good solid joint.

The last photo shows the previous version, where the attachment to the headband was via some cord threaded around in the hollow base. The connection ended up kinda floppy and unsatisfying. Like, long ears are cool to wiggle/jiggle when you move your head, but horns are supposed to be firmly attached to your skull.

I’m happy with how these turned out, and I’d love to make more. These were on the small side, I’m thinking of trying something big like rams horns for the next iteration. If you’d like a specific sort of shape, let me know!

And if you’d like this set, you can get them here!

Scale dragon tail in red with a black underbelly. My friend with Very Good Wiggles is showing off how flexible these are and how fluidly they move.

The scales are anodized aluminum, linked together by stainless steel rings. This one measures in at 36 inches from the tail tip to the top of the belt, and weighs 3 pounds 1 ounce. It’s got a lobster clasp at the tip to attach little things onto.