TVvoodoo's Straplab

[TVvoodoo]

Tonight working on a project I started a number of years ago...

I digitally separated the layers of the fender pink paisley, so that I could make my own, in any colour combo I wanted.
What a crazy mind-bending job it was.

But how I have it set up, a fella can play and play and play with it for hours

I can even change the colour of the silvery bubble background. Very groovy, baby.

Anyway, on Ramo's favourite forum fellas go kinda ga-ga over this pattern, and once in awhile I get asked to supply a file some somebody can print their own and
make themselves one. Most often they want one of the old regular style - but even then there are so many variations. Plus the file I have is set up that
I can mimic all kinds of ink fades, aging tints, registration errors etc. It's really quite fun.

folks have had good results printing on sign vinyl, but I suggest a good heavy paper is better. Sign vinyl can shrink and cause the laquer on top to crack. Fender has had issues with this in the past ten years with the black and silver paisleys.

anyway, that's my job tonight!

 

[TVvoodoo]

This one is under design... a detailed tooling job starting soon... going to feature black, purple and some gold

"Grapevine" will be featured here as I craft it

 

[TVvoodoo]

Been a bit quiet lately, I had a bit of a winter road trip to visit the in-laws. Tuesday returnwas interesting. counted 43 cars trucks and jacknifed semitrailers in the ditch for the first hour and half between Red Deer and Edmonton. What a crazy drive!
A few semis had done a full 180 before hitting the ditch. VERY icy roads. Anyway, we made it plenty safe.

While away, I kept chatting away with my fellow strap freaks and even secured a few orders, so I have a custom queue right now that's the deepest it's ever been in Well-Hung history, kind of stressy actually but I ain't going to complain. Nice problem to have.
Anyway... here's the start to Grapevine.. actually renaming it "Grapes of Wrath" for a fellow Canuckian over in BC wino country. After this another tooling job called Black-Eyed Susan for a Texas fellow, and in between and at the same time, I'll be working on one for
an extremely handsome TTR gentleman (just ask him), I think it's gonna be called HellRider, and a sort of new branch out for me into the world of biker bling, so watch for that.

Anyway, some grapey bunches, leaves and twirly vines all transferred, carved in and the bevelling fun has begun.

Once the art is roughed-out by all the beveling, then I can begin backgrounding to separate it, make it jump out a bit.
I actually have a very nice backgrounding tool that does a similar effect, a bit nicer, but I made myself so many small nooks and crannies with this busy design, couldn't use it.
So, a slightly rounded off nail gets called up from the bench. Just a whole lot of tapping.

rounded off the edges, here it is after the first dye drop. I think i erred a bit on the red side of purple, so will have to go over it again with a slightly
more bluey dye and a paintbrush. While I'm at it, It'll help give a 3D effect to the grapes, I figure.

I'm hoping for an overall pimpin' purple undertone to this strap, but the leaves and background will soon be died black, once I get the
grapes closer to the right colour. Gonna let this all dry first, see what I get.

 

[Don O]

Been a bit quiet lately, I had a bit of a winter road trip to visit the in-laws. Tuesday returnwas interesting. counted 43 cars trucks and jacknifed semitrailers in the ditch for the first hour and half between Red Deer and Edmonton. What a crazy drive!
A few semis had done a full 180 before hitting the ditch. VERY icy roads. Anyway, we made it plenty safe.

While away, I kept chatting away with my fellow strap freaks and even secured a few orders, so I have a custom queue right now that's the deepest it's ever been in Well-Hung history, kind of stressy actually but I ain't going to complain. Nice problem to have.
Anyway... here's the start to Grapevine.. actually renaming it "Grapes of Wrath" for a fellow Canuckian over in BC wino country. After this another tooling job called Black-Eyed Susan for a Texas fellow, and in between and at the same time, I'll be working on one for
an extremely handsome TTR gentleman (just ask him), I think it's gonna be called HellRider, and a sort of new branch out for me into the world of biker bling, so watch for that.

Anyway, some grapey bunches, leaves and twirly vines all transferred, carved in and the bevelling fun has begun.

Once the art is roughed-out by all the beveling, then I can begin backgrounding to separate it, make it jump out a bit.
I actually have a very nice backgrounding tool that does a similar effect, a bit nicer, but I made myself so many small nooks and crannies with this busy design, couldn't use it.
So, a slightly rounded off nail gets called up from the bench. Just a whole lot of tapping.

rounded off the edges, here it is after the first dye drop. I think i erred a bit on the red side of purple, so will have to go over it again with a slightly
more bluey dye and a paintbrush. While I'm at it, It'll help give a 3D effect to the grapes, I figure.

I'm hoping for an overall pimpin' purple undertone to this strap, but the leaves and background will soon be died black, once I get the
grapes closer to the right colour. Gonna let this all dry first, see what I get.

What was thread about GAS list for this year? I responded with, I’ll know it when I see it. Well, I’m looking at it now. Brad, I’ll PM ya about one of these !

The wife and I are big wine fans and at our last house we had 40 vines and grew and made a few cases of wine from 2009-2013.

 

[TVvoodoo]

That's awesome @Don O ... I was part of a weekly 3 man wine club years ago... we'd get together and start those 30 bottle kits from concentrate... play guitar eat cheese, fruit and strange breads and drink... Weekly kitchen Party LOL!!
At one point we had at least four kits on the go, a lot of frggin' stirring I'll tell you what!... had to hook up a drill to the big spoon...
but, after bottling and maturing, the next five or six summers were rather incredible. Moselle, Cab Sauv, Chardonnay, Gerwertztraminer, Pinot,
Merlot... we did a bunch!

Some was better than others, but we had plenty of tasty sangria and spritzers... for years... Man I don't know if I hardly drank beer for a long time and hardly missed it. I ended up with two of the buckets and carboys.. . I should do me another someday.

Don, as mentioned earlier, I gotta plow through some customs over the next few weeks but don't you let me forget! Totally in, and you get a "freak went flying" discount

 

[iblive]

What was thread about GAS list for this year? I responded with, I’ll know it when I see it. Well, I’m looking at it now. Brad, I’ll PM ya about one of these !

The wife and I are big wine fans and at our last house we had 40 vines and grew and made a few cases of wine from 2009-2013.

View attachment 79170View attachment 79171View attachment 79172View attachment 79173

2009 I experimented making a case of Mead. Local wildflower honey. To say it was awful would be an understatement. Almost poured it out. But in the back of my mind, remember reading mead ages well.

Fast forward to 2022. Decided it was time to crack one open and see. If still bad….. then dump it. Guess one?? It was actually pretty darn good. Even got a hint of honey, which was not there before. Even my wine snob son and daughter in law said it was good. Must have been since they both went back for another glass.

 

[Don O]

This was the last crush in 2013.

 

[TVvoodoo]

This thread is making me thirsty!

So, a bunch of stuff happened!

I dyed them grapes more blue early this morning, but even when I clear coated them to protect them from the next dye stage, the red just popped right back through again.
Maddening! Dye can be a funny thing sometimes. While this is probably an actual grape-accurate colour, it's not quite as bluey-purple as I was wanting

If you look kind of close, you might also see I added just a smidge of gold dust to the clearcoat for the grapes, because... art! I am an artiste!
Do not question why! I am simply living my truth, and shall never betray my muse. Therefore, I must succumb to her completely, no matter how silly the idea!

I should note I'm taking pics with my cell now, since I busted the LCD screen on my regular camera and this is why of the pics seem kind of overexposed/hot.
Still, I forge ahead anyway. Black dye goes down, while successfully retaining some of the purple undertones.

Now we get to my favourite part... decorative hack and slash with the swivel knife to add a little xtra veiney texture to the leaves. Quite amazing how this step can really add bring additionallife to a piece.

Break out the elbow grease and give it a real good shine 'n buff on the all top sticky-outy bits. After I finish this post, I'm going to polish up a bit more, oil it and let it sit overnight while I ponder my next steps

 

[TVvoodoo]

Dude does not like the grape colour AT ALL lol!
While It is an accurate grape colour, I concur not even close to the bluesy blurple on his PRS. So, I offered to start again from scratch... 2 full days of work .

He also feels it's a little too black, (though I had additional plans for it with gold highlights, he initially asked for black leaves on a black background).

So, last night I done a quickie photoshopped thing to show sort of where I was headed (#3/#4), VS where he might want to go next time.

Initially pitched #5 to him early on, with a brown background matching his headstock. He couldn't see that in his head. Probably should've done something like this comparison first. He agreed #5 is where the next one should be headed, but I told him he's gotta go to the back of the queue... thankfully he's cool with that.

First time in 12 years I do a total redo, and I'm ok with that. Not a bad record to stand on, and he is a solid repeat customer.

How's your weekend going?

 

[JohnnyGoo]

Maybe throw some grape leaf green in there Brad.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Maybe throw some grape leaf green in there Brad.

I think you are on to something here @JohnnyGoo I mean.... Being over in Oregon methinks you probably know your vinyards.
In fact, if I do recall correctly, wasn't it you that sent me this self-portrait last fall?

 

[Don O]

I think you are on to something here Johnny! Methinks you know your vinyards

This is the layout of the mural we are installing in the cellar room in the basement. :dood: 21ft long across 2 walls.

 

[JohnnyGoo]

Wasnt me sent that pic Brad.im more in the North part of Washington now.But the valleys imn Oregon amd Washington are filled with Wineries.Like Boughtic Amps if you will only grape Wineries.

 

[JohnnyGoo]

Ya throw some damn ,e the green almost looks floresant in color but ya throw some green in there.lots of grapes are dark dark purple or black almost.depends on the grape.

 

[iblive]

Thank you Brad for the “care package” you sent me for….. in your words….. being the biggest loser from 2021. I’ll shoot a photo of me wearing the t-shirt and toque with my snowy backyard as a backdrop. Will be a couple days. Gonna be a tad chilly in NE Illinois for the next couple days. Strap may go on my Ibanez bass.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Awesome!!! You know the only reason I called a bunch of you guys losers, is because Well-Hung endorsing guitarists tend to do quite a lot of not-so-humble bragging and swaggering around. Bring you fellas down a notch so you can stay grounded.

Today I am working on a fully floating pad strap tentatively called Wildflower

Right to left, pattern transfer, carved in, beveled anroughly tooled. Lot of tappy-tap today, arm is kinda sore, neck too...

I tend to tense up when I'm tooling, need to learn to relax more

 

[SG John]

So Ace of Spades lucky #7 was ordered up by a possibly evil leprechaun who says he plays in an Irish-themed outfit. Showed me a bevy of green guitars to back it up.



We got a metallic "pot 'o gold" bolt on it, and a dark to light green burst on the sides, just a little bit of yellow showing thru.



Clearcoating right now, hoping to give it some protection from probable 100% chance of future Guinness precipitation. Will pad it, line it and sew 'er all up tomorrow.

It wasn't Pete from the Gobsh1tes, was it?

 

[TVvoodoo]

It wasn't Pete from the Gobsh1tes, was it?

No john it was Vito, lead singer/guitarist of " Vito and the MadeMen".. he's a totally a TTR member

 

[WavMixer]

So Ace of Spades lucky #7 was ordered up by a possibly evil leprechaun who says he plays in an Irish-themed outfit. Showed me a bevy of green guitars to back it up.

We got a metallic "pot 'o gold" bolt on it, and a dark to light green burst on the sides, just a little bit of yellow showing thru.

Clearcoating right now, hoping to give it some protection from probable 100% chance of future Guinness precipitation. Will pad it, line it and sew 'er all up tomorrow.

Also accepted an order for a grapevine-tooled strap for an amazing PRS AAAA purpleburst, which is going to be very cool. Anyone into this stuff should def hammer the watch button on this thread fo' dat!

Your creative skillset never ceases to amaze me.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Thank you @WavMixer , you are very kind!

With the customers' permission, I have put aside Grapes of Wrath for now, (going to be a total redo because of my bad) so I can take care of some other customers.
Grapes has graciously given me me a couple weeks to take care of a backlog of custom jobs, that have suddenly lined up.

So, Wildflower continues... tooled all day yesterday, just a bit more detail work this morning, and first dye stage...

The pad, (before final details)

Put it by the stove, will have a look at it tonight... I'm trying to sort of match the burst colours of this fine looking Taylor

Got a photo back from Well-Hung Brother Scotty in Texas, "Thanks so much, From one craftsman to another" sayeth he, now twicely/nicely hung