Ive Wanted To Make A Shark Mask For Some Time. The Question Of Why Exactly Is Difficult To Answer, But

I’ve wanted to make a shark mask for some time. The question of why exactly is difficult to answer, but last night I sat down and pounded out a design for one. I did the design in 3D in Rhino, building on the experience of having done that plague doctor hood a couple months ago.

Here you can see the design in 3D, and all the pieces laid out and ready to laser cut. I’m going to attempt riveting it all together. The plague doctor hood was sewn together, which takes a really long time to assemble (like 8 hours of hand stitching), but is easy to design for and lay out and know that it’ll work. I’m less certain about the rivets working quite so smoothly, but we shall see. If it works, it’ll mean a vastly speedier assembly. 

I’ll be laser-cutting this out in 8 hours! I should get to bed.

I finally decided to put this Bowser spiked collar up for sale. It was a lot of fun to make, though it did take a very long time to stitch everything together. I’ve enjoyed having it around my room, but haven’t had much occasion to wear it, and so it’s time to let someone else have it if they want.

It’s made of vegetable-tanned leather, with a lining of very soft deerskin for maximum comfort. For more description and thoughts on it, you can check my previous post of this collar.

I posted this other Bowser-spiked collar the other day, and someone asked for one in a different color scheme. This one also doesn’t have the soft lining layer, so it took considerably less time to stitch together. The commissioner also wanted a D ring in the middle, which was pretty straightforward, and a locking buckle, which I happened to have a couple of on hand.

I also decided to use vinegaroon instead of black dye for the base. It’s a super cool and hilariously old-school chemistry process where you rust some steel wool into some vinegar, and when you put it on the leather it reacts with the tannins in the the leather and turns the leather black. Since it’s chemically bonded to the leather, it can’t rub off, which is pretty cool. (Though to be fair I’ve been very happy with the dyes I have, I have never noticed dye any transfer problems with them.) And it soaks all the way through the thickness of the leather, which is pretty cool.

The collar is currently sitting soaking up a last coat of neatsfoot oil on the spikes, which should even out the discoloration seen here at the base of the spikes. (That’s from the oil in the black strap, which I oiled before assembly, soaking up into the spikes.) Then it’ll ship out tomorrow.

Hi! I was curious, what size scales do you use for your tails? The all look so amazing btw!

Thank you! I use the Large sized scales from The Ring Lord. (Though I just got some of their Extra Large scales that they made a batch of, and I’m super excited about making something with them.)

I have a quick question, since I can't seem to find it anywhere on your blog, how much would a tail be? Yours are absolutely beautiful and if I can save up enough in a few months I may commission one! :D

The base price for my dragon tails is $250. Certain materials and add-on options can increase the price, or getting a shorter one can reduce the price. 

I have a page with lots of info on commissioning a tail over here. There’s a link at the top of the page, and I try to link to it when I post photos of tails.

At the moment, I’ve had to close my commission queue while I clear through a lot of outstanding orders and a bunch of other life things. I expect to be able to open up for commissions again before the end of the year.

Also, just a general note, it’s really hard to reply personally when people send messages anonymously.

Commissions Announcement

Recent months have been very hectic for me. I’ve been more stressed than is good for me. My real-person job has had a lot of spikes in workload, and this has worn me out. I have not been able to work on crafting nearly as much as I would have liked to.

Because of these factors, I am going to temporarily close my commission queue. That is, I won’t be accepting new requests for custom commissions. I will work on projects already on my queue until I finish them all. If you have already contacted me (even if I haven’t been able to get back to you yet), I will consider you to already be on the queue.

I also need to take time to work on some of my own ideas for new designs. I need to design things regularly, or else I get sad.

My hope is that I can finish all the things on my queue within 2-4 months. After that, I will open up again for new commissions.