Buckles - Tumblr Posts
How I want my closet to look
Hex grids are fun. They're like honeycombs, or '60s sci-fi. Which are two awfully disparate genres to put in the same sentence. I designed these thinner buckled bracelets last week, in preparation for the craft fair I had a table at. I wanted to make a buckled, adjustable bracelet design that worked at a thinner width. I think these turned out pretty reasonably, though I will probably adjust the design a tiny bit next time I make some, to make it cut a bit faster. I just posted this up to my Etsy page. I haven't had a chance to get photos of this design being worn, so there will be more photos coming in the future.
A goth-punk set of spiked collar and armbands I made for a themed party/LARP. They're made of 1 inch wide leather bands, stained black, with mirror-finish nickel-plated spikes, buckles and rivets. The cone spikes are sized at 1 inch, 1/2 inch, and short.
I think they look cool, but I don't really know if I'll have much chance to wear them. I should maybe convince some friends to all mob to a goth club or something.
I enjoyed making them, but I think I likely won't work very hard to sell them or similar pieces. They aren't very much in genre with most of my other stuff, and they're not super original or anything. I feel like there isn't much reason for someone to go to me to make these rather than just going to Hot Topic or wherever. Of course, I could be convinced otherwise. And I might play around with more inventive designs in this sort of vein.
I went out with a friend and got some photos of a bunch of the leather bracelets that I'd neglected getting photos of for a while! I won't link to these individually, but all these designs are up on my Etsy shop.
This buckled collar necklace is intense. Vegetable-tanned leather primarily, with black deerskin leather lining. Partly it's a prototype for a commission someone asked about, partly it's testing out an idea I've had for a while, and partly it's just a ridiculous item for myself. Breaking it down:
Someone asked for a collar-style necklace with a similar sort of pattern to a hatchwork pattern I designed a while ago. But they asked about doing it in two layers, with a contrasting color showing through the cut-outs of the top layer of leather. Also, they wanted a backing of a soft leather, which I'd not really worked with at all. Since I haven't done those things before, I figured I should make a prototype to check that it would work.
One of the many silly ideas that's been bouncing around my head for at least a year has been making something with huge chunky spikes. I can buy punk-style spikes in a variety of styles, but I've been unable to find anywhere that makes large, squat conical spikes, of the sort of proportions that Bowser of Mario Bros fame has on his armbands and shell. I've thought that it should be possible to make them out of leather sewn to shape, but hadn't gotten around to trying it yet.
Also, I was feeling like it was time for me to make something fun for myself. And I just got a couple new colors of leather dye, one of which was Chartreuse, and since bright green is my favorite color I really wanted to use it on something.
The way I did the lining was to fold the deerskin leather around the edge of the stiffer veg-tan leather, and sew through the resulting 3 layers at the same time. This lining piece is made long enough to overlap itself under the buckle when worn, so the soft leather gets complete coverage over the tooling leather. The top piece is sewn on top of this pair of layers. This is also done at the same time. So really you're sewing through 4 layers of leather for most of the time. It took a long time. But it looks reeeeeally nice, and it gives a very smooth rolled-over edge of super soft liner. All in all, it took like 4 hours of hand sewing. Which was ridiculous. But cutting all the holes ahead of time with the laser cutter meant that everything is super consistent and clean.
Oh, and at the end there is a pair of bracelets that I threw together the evening I finished up the collar. I'd had the blanks lying around left over from a tooling demonstration I helped with, and I used them to test out a wax-based leather finish that I hadn't used much before. I've been wearing them around for a couple weeks now to see how it holds up. I think it might be a better finish to use for straps than what I've been using, but it has the disadvantage of darkening the leather noticeably.
Anyway. Long post there. Tried some things, learned some things. I'll be editing some stuff to make it slightly quicker to assemble. I may decide to get a more straightforward lined collar concept worked out and put it up on my Etsy page, but I'm not sure yet. If you like this huge-spikes concept, though, drop me a note and I'll be happy to do a custom order.
Finally put ears on this dog mask/pup hood!
This was a prototype/first run at making a mask in this style, with snout in front and buckles in back. It worked out pretty well, and I think the buckle arrangement looks pretty clean. The snout and ears both detach with snaps, which felt like it was a good way to start thinking about modularity. And there’s enough room in the eye area that it fits on over my glasses, which I think is pretty cool. The snout is open at the bottom, which is pretty comfortable, but the snout is deep enough that it doesn’t really expose the chin very much. And the base structure should be able to support different types of snouts.
The only thing I’m a little bit skeptical of is the ears. I wanted to try a minimalist construction, and it seems to work with just 2 points of attachment (which pivot too, being snaps). But the shape is maintained by stress in the curved segment between the snaps, and I’ll have to see how that holds up when the ears get bonked. But if it does need some adjusting, they’re removable, so that’s easy.
The next mask I make with this structure I’m going to adjust how the straps attach to the mask. Here they’re just riveted directly to the mask. Next time I’ll attach D-rings to the mask and attach the straps to those. That’ll let them pivot around that point, rather than needing to be lined up to point in just the right direction.
Mask was made by hand from 4 oz vegetable-tanned leather, stained black. I’ll finish it with neatsfoot oil, which’ll darken it up a bit more and make the surface a bit more supple. Rivets and snaps are nickel-plated steel.
Whew, been busy, forgot to post this bird mask. It’s hand-cut and assembled with rivets for that steampunk vibe.
I wanted to make something that hearkened to the plague doctor design that’s all hip with steampunk folks, but was a bit more friendly and fun as opposed to threatening. My more broad-improvements goals were: working out the shaping for where the beak part of the mask hits the face, since that detail will be common to a lot of mask designs; and improving on the strap configuration I’d used for that pup hood. These straps connect to the mask with D-rings and snaps, so they can pivot at that point rather than being fixed, and they’re removable/replaceable.
Oh, and it does fit over medium-sized glasses, it’s just that none of my friends who were there for this photo shoot had glasses.
And it’s up on my Etsy shop!
I decided to make something festive this year. I found somewhere to get a whole bunch of sleigh bells, and I made a reindeer harness! For reindeer! Definitely!
These were photos I took while making it. It took 2 evenings, with a day to dry out in the middle. (I soaked the straps to form them around the rings and buckles so they’d sit really nicely.) I used some pretty thick and stiff 8-ounce vegetable-tanned leather, so the straps have a nice heft to them, even before adding a couple pounds of bells on.
The one thing that I’m a bit unhappy with was the pop rivets to attach the bells to the leather. They worked great, and they seem like they’ll be strong and long-lasting, but on a bunch of them they left a bit of a scratchy point pointing in towards your skin. That might end up being uncomfortable when wearing it, though I wasn’t really able to test that since I was finishing this up late at night and I didn’t want to bother my housemates with more noise than was strictly necessary.
In just a moment I’ll post up a couple shots of me wearing it. I got this done the night before flying out of town for Christmas, so no nice photos yet, just phone-camera selfies, but oh well.
Link to photos of it being worn.
I made this reindeer harness for Christmas! This thing is really loud!
I think this is probably the first big strap-based project I’ve done in leather. I’ve made a couple chainmail X harnesses a few years back, but my leather projects have mostly been masks. This was a really fun piece to make, though it turned out to be a bit more work than I’d anticipated.
I got this done the night before flying out to visit family for Christmas, so all I could get was phone camera selfies. I’ll see about getting some nicer photos of it in the new year. I’ll probably put it up for sale, too, since I won’t have much opportunity to wear it, and it really is fun enough that I think it should be enjoyed. In theory it would’ve been nice to make this in time to sell it to someone who could have fun with it for the holidays, but oh well. At least I got it done in time to post for you all. Merry Christmas.
Progress shots over here.
Here’s my empowering warrior armor for Magic Meat March! Got it done just in time! I made the whole get-up out of leather, save for the shoes and the prop dagger. I just went to town this week with the strap cutter and the rivets.
It’s got a jointed spaulder for the shoulder, held in place by an asymmetric harness, zig-zagging down to a supple pouch to hold the necessaries comfortably in place. Onto this attaches a cuisse to guard the thigh.
Then there’s some accessory pieces: A thigh piece made of three panels laced together; an arm band with shearling trim for warmth; and a corset-like bracer to protect the wrist and forearm. Oh, and there’s that mass of straps for the left arm. I’m not even sure what that’s supposed to be for.
If I’d had a bit more time I was planning on adding more fur trim to the other pieces, but since it’s spring time now I don’t think that’s necessary. Wouldn’t want to overheat, after all. That extra padding would just get in the way during a battle anyway.
Some close-ups and silly shots from my @magicmeatmarch submission. (More “reasonable” photos here.)
The only piece didn’t make specifically for this costume, this week, was the strap thing on my left arm. (That I made the day I got a strap cutter, and just really wanted to make something silly to test it with.) Nearly everything else was made with a pre-finished leather that I got recently to try out. I maybe should’ve gotten a somewhat thicker grade than I did, it’s a little bit floppy for the armor parts, but it’s really nice to work with for the straps. And it saves a lot of time, since I don’t need to dye it and seal it with a top coat.
Definitely the hardest part of the Magic Meat Month challenge is finding a secluded place to take photos. This time we only had one pair of people wander by and look Concerned at us. One of them pulled out his phone, and since the cops didn’t show up by the time we were finished, I can only assume I ended up on his Snapchat feed. I waved to him, that seemed to scare them off.
My contribution to @magicmeatmarch this year! It’s a set of armor fit for a light and swift fighter. It protects the important parts while avoiding restrictions on mobility.
I’d been wanting to make a larger breatplate-type item for a while, this felt like a good excuse. I went with the overlapping plates motif that I’ve used in a number of other projects. It’s secured in place with Too Many Buckles along the sides. When it’s all tightened up it has a bit of a corset nature, straightening up your posture. Made it a bit tricky to do the over-the-top twisting-to-show-off-tits-and-butt poses. But I persevered.
The codpiece, bracers and cuisses were older designs, but it’s always good to fit them into matching outfits.
Actually two separate codpieces that got ordered in quick succession. This is my more straightforward and simple design, and it’s made with a very nicely finished leather with a very consistent semi-gloss surface.
For the most recent one, I went and made some adjustments to the straps that probably nobody but me would ever notice. Fixed the spacing on some of the rivet holes, and tweaked the lengths of the straps with the buckle holes in them. And since the straps are modular and I use the same pattern on all my codpieces, it’s a fix that’ll carry through all of them.
Maybe you want one for yourself?
Been seeing a bunch of Mortal Kombat stuff recently, and it reminded me of this design I'd made a few years ago. I'd made one copy of it at the time, and a friend snagged it for a LARP character (last photo), and then I forgot about it. So I went back and digitized the paper template I'd made for that, cleaned up a couple weird spots in the pattern, and laser-cut a new version out of the same super-clean leather I used for the dragon costume.
And of course I posted it up for sale over on my Etsy store!
I made this pup hood a couple years ago. It was my first experiment with this general format of mask, and I’ve used some details I’d tried out in it in a few other projects. It’s been sitting on top of my completed projects pile for quite some time, but I rarely get photos of it.
Obligatory Etsy link!
A batch of fig leaf codpieces from last month, done in black leather and hardware. I’d originally designed this as a bit of a joke, and I’d just about given up on them, then someone asked for this set for a group of their friends who were going to a Pride event. So these went to a group of satyrs in bondage harnesses.
The client asked for black hardware to match the harnesses they’d be wearing, so that was the tricky thing about this order. I had to source the hardware from a couple different places, but they ended up matching pretty well. And now I know a couple more suppliers that had some good stuff.
I don’t think I’ll have the black hardware up as a regular option, since keeping more hardware in stock eats into my space and materials investment budget. (Also the rivets were sufficiently differently sized from my regular ones that they were A Pain.) But I could get them again for the right project.
The regular version of these codpieces is available on my Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/listing/702512626/fig-leaf-codpiece
Christmas is coming, and I want to make another sleigh bell harness. Are you a reindeer? Do you want to be? Drop me a note!
A copy of this one would be $300. I could do various other configurations too. It’d be super fun to get to make one of these along with the dragon tails that I’m opening for commissions on.
(This one was sold a couple months ago to someone with a reindeer fursuit, and that makes me so happy.)
I finally got some “reasonable” photos of the plague doctor mask, and have posted it up on my Etsy here.
This sinister but highly capable healer is ready to bring your adventuring party back to fighting shape–for a price.
It’s my contribution to this year’s @magicmeatmarch, a sexy plague doctor! Inspired by the global viral pandemic, because that’s a perfectly reasonable sentence to write in the year 2020.
I designed the mask in the last couple weeks, and modified one of my codpiece designs to work with the red cross yesterday. The chaps and jacket I’d made over the last couple years for different outfits, but I thought they fit with this idea nicely.
Also, haha CORVID-19.
This aquatic dragon’s streamlined profile helps it cut through the waters smoothly, and its shimmery blue coloration lets it blend in and evade detection as it stalks its prey.
The mask is made of relatively thick 6 oz vegetable-tanned leather. That thickness is a bit much for a lot of the more delicate stuff I do, but it gave this a really nice solidity and heft.
The eye pieces are an iridescent acrylic plastic that reflects greens and yellows depending on angle, and is rose-tinted when looking through it.
I'm feeling really happy with the riveted style I've been working out with these masks. It still always makes me think of like metal panels assembled into a submarine, or something like that. Always gives a bit of a steampunk slant to the aesthetic.
As for overall concept/form/vibe, I feel like I’m doing a good job of hitting my target of the uncanny valley between fursuits and pup hoods. Which means I’m never really sure if there are enough people who want this sort of thing for it to be viable. But I like them, and I think it’s good to push a greater variety of ideas out into the world.
Previously seen here, and assembly photos here.
And it’s up for sale on my Etsy shop!