Pictures of things I am working on currently.

Welcome new viewers

This post really is to touch base with everyone out there that I had the pleasure to meet with weekend at the Billings Renaissance Fair! Many of you complimented me on my jewelry and my other workings as well.
I am adding some new wares to my stock, these include : Hand painted parasols and girly tunics.
I am starting to dabble more into my glass work but I am still working on getting the shop put together.
I will be posting items that I am working on here in the near future so keep your eye out.   

A Quick How To

Alright so my belt sibling needed a nice quick how to get started with her leather project, so I just put this together quickly. Keep in mind this only goes up to the cutting stage. I will do tooling later when my children aren't sleeping. :)
Step 1: Gather your tools, on this pile is (Starting from the left) My edger, my swivel knife, sponge, White paper, tracing tool (you can't find them like this anymore I have been told but the other one works just fine) sharpie and wax paper. I use wax paper instead of tracing paper (you can use either)

Step 2: Make your pattern

Step 3: Take a section of Wax paper and trace your pattern on to the wax paper

Step 4: Use your sponge to wet your leather, you don't want it so soaked that your leather is dripping but damp.

Step 5: Lay your pattern over the top of your damp leather and trace it with your tracing tool. You might poke through the wax paper, but that is ok. If you have a pattern you are repeating you should draw the shape more than once on the wax paper. I can normally get 3 tracings from each piece of the pattern.

Step 6: You need the use your swivel knife at this point. Make sure your leather is still damp. I like to use the blade that is uncovered. Always draw your blade towards yourself. Go slow and watch the corners on a piece. Try to keep an even pressure so your cute is smooth and even.

I added this because you mentioned you were doing a piece with edges. You need this tool and you wet the edges down and rub it along the edges. It will help smooth them out.

Tada a very quick get started and I can do a little bit with tooling too if anyone is interested just let me know! :)

chain pretties I made

Ive been working on learning chain. Earrings 4 a pair. Braclets are 8 and head pieces are 12.

Craft dump!

Crafting can be such an immense pain, as it can cause to many ideas to be bounced around in one's head. My head has been swimming with fun ideas and I am struggling to keep my motivation to finish a few other projects. So this post is more of a commission list and where I am in progress...

Belts
2 have been designed and started to be cut - need to finish cutting and then dye, paint and seal. Deadline is the 27th of April.
1 belt -have blank and design but design needs work because of over complication and I still need colors.

Cloaks
K's is 80 percent done, need to attach the hood and put the heraldry on the back and scotchguard.
D-
We have talked about design and I need to order fur in order to do a collar. I have the website.
WO-
We have talked about design on a cloak as well but haven't decided on colors or anything like that.

Chair
It is dissembled, and spray painted the wood and now I need to get leather and get my designed figured out. I have been looking at so many phoenixes and I can't decide. 

Mosaic tables- I have the tables but now I cant' seem to come up with ideas. I want something that appeals to many but I can't seem to settle on a certain one yet. I might post about it more later and have some voting.

I also came up with a fundraiser but I need to figure that out as well... See what i mean to many things bouncing around in my head. :(

An Auction!!!

So I was doing a little shopping (heaven knows you really shouldn't let me loose in Jo Ann's without supervision) So because of this I was wandering down the fleece isle and I had an idea. I saw this lovely fabric. 

So an idea came to mind. I am going to make a cloak. It will have a target outside (for nice weather cutting) also the hood will be lined as well. The outside is black target. I have a cloak clasp that opens and closes.

See isn't it pretty?
RIght then. So this is how it is going to work. I have built a Target (bottom weight) black 50in cloak, lined with the previously shown fabric, and fixed with the clasp above. Starting tomorrow morning I will be opening bids on the cloak. I will be starting to bid at 50 dollars. If the bid gets to 70 dollars I will put your heraldry on it (Or heraldry of the person you are getting it for) and scotchguard it. If the bid gets over 90 I will include polar fleece hat of our choice.  If it gets more then that you might end up with a tunic or a sluff coat we can negotiate it out.

So here is how you bid. Comment on this post with your bid (Increments of $5 please) Also please leave your name! I will close the bid at Midnight on Sunday. Please feel free to share and spread the word. If this goes well I might do more auctions in the future. I think it would be fun to do a stained glass auction!

So good luck and Happy Bidding!!!

An example of a finished cloak

Alright, so since it seems like my cloaks are the first thing that is getting brought up. I am currently in process of working on one for someone and then I am doing something fun for another one (You will find out in the next post). So this cloak pictured is my own personal cloak. Yes I know the clasp doesn't open, but I did that on purpose as I have a small child who likes to undo things. So anyways to the pictures!!! 

 

 These two pictures are the back. The back is made of trigger (which is a heavy bottom weight) which works wonders for cutting the wind. My personal heraldry is on the back. It is done with paint pen.  This cloak is

 Here is the inside shown off. Yes, this is tiger stripped polar fleece isn't it awesome! :) I didn't line the hood but I did use the strip to cover the edging and I liked it that way.  This provides wonderful warmth and honestly with my messed up circulation it makes it worth it. :) Please do no mind the small helper. He loves this thing and wants up in it every chance he gets.

There you go a nice example of my cloak. :) I will be posting pictures of the next one :)