I Wanted To Do Some How Well Does This Stuff Last Posts. Pride Month Is Convenient For That, Because

I wanted to do some “How well does this stuff last” posts. Pride Month is convenient for that, because I remember that I made this necklace for myself before last year’s Pride parade. And I’ve been wearing it basically 24/7 for the whole year since. I ate, worked and slept with it on. I took it off for showers and for some occasional costuming events, but that’s basically it.

You can see spots where the point of one scale rubs against the scale below it, and has slowly worn through the anodized layer, exposing the base aluminum. I find it cool that this mostly happens on in the areas of the necklace that curve over the shoulders, and much less on the area that drapes flat in front. 

The edges of a bunch of scales are showing some wear, making it look like they’ve got just a bit of a border of silver aluminum. And a couple scales nearest the closure have some pock-marking, which I assume is from sweat. The plating on the lobster clasp is worn through fairly strongly though.

None of the scales are bent or dented, none of the connections are in danger of wearing through any time soon. And all in all, I think it still looks good!

Not bad for a $50 sticker price and a year of continuous wear!

A couple bracelets that I shipped out yesterday.

The rainbow one is a fun pattern I don’t get to do much, it’s a Japanese 6-in-1 weave, with doubled rubber rings as the node rings. It’s stretchy and fun! I’ve got more Pride designs over in the Rainbows section of my Etsy shop!

The scale one is anodized aluminum in the yellow/gold color.

It’s nice to have small things to make in between the big commission projects.

Money and the Future

Since I tallied my finances for taxes, I've been thinking about my prices. The transaction and payment processing fees through Etsy and Paypal seem to have increased to more than I'd accounted for. I couldn't figure out when that change happened or if it was announced. But my margins have dropped.

Which is to say, if you've had your eyes on my Etsy store, now would be a good time to put in an order, before I figure out how much I'm gonna raise the prices.

(And I do think the quality of my workmanship has been steadily improving. It's been a while since I last re-balanced my prices, I think the bang-for-your-buck has gone up in that time.)

So yeah. Call this a sale announcement I guess. Length indeterminate, probably until next day I’ve got free to angst about crafting stuff.

never die, never die

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 adjustments to my raven skull mask so that it works with eye glasses!

When I’ve got little bits of free time to kill I’m trying to slowly work through my mask designs and tweak the ones I am able in this way. I got a couple more that I made for Arisia in January, that I need to remember to cut more copies of.

And of course, it’s up for sale on my Etsy store!