TVvoodoo's Straplab

[TVvoodoo]

Today in the StrapLab we are inspired by a martial arts legend

Been a few years since I made these, the time is right to bring back the next level of Sum Yung Long Hung Guy series. Will be available in a few days in black/gold/red, brown/orange/gold and blues & silver. When I see this material, I imagine Hugh Hefner circa 1975 lounging in his dressing gown, surveying his companions before the evening entertainments.

Silky Oriental wedding dress/special occasion fabric sporting plenty of fierce embroidered dragons, peonies and flaming lanterns.

Used to make these in a hootenanny configuration, this round I am going to use good leather on the front and back in the ladder style to change it up a bit, because more leather is better IMO.

Oh, and an experiment. This is what happens if you try to paint on aluminum painted surface with glitter glue, and it's really not pretty. looks like dogs breakfast actually.



Had an idea, i get a lot of ideas, sometimes those ideas are 100% sucky. That's good, because this idea was plan "B" anyway. Plan "A" will continue but I figured I'd at least test the idea while I was waiting.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Ok, phew, that was a busy couple of days! Four of each ready to go!

in person these things are spectacular. Should make a video of them.

oh, and this. Boy is it kind of ugly. But I can't help but keep wanting to figure out HOW to do it proper. Silk screen? Stencils?
I just want sparkly paisley some way, somehow.



Maybe that's the ticket. Cardboard stencil, spray and sprinkle, repeat. Hmmmmm.

 

[Thatbastarddon]

Yes! Stencil the glue, then waft the glitter....but let the glue settle a bit first..:
Best of luck!

 

[TVvoodoo]

Strange with the timing of this but tonight we embark upon an epic journey in a fantasy theme... think huge, beastly and reptilian. This one for a fellow Saskatchewanian, here the basic shapes are cut, and I keep an extra piece on the side for tooling practice and dye testing.

This stamp arrived yesterday, came all the way from Bulgaria! Bulgaria, also known as Middle Earth, is where according to legend, they know much of large scaly beasts. A very common masculine name in Bulgaria actually is Dragan, or Drogo for short. Who else suddenly fantasizes about a name change? I mean, I ALMOST want to have another son so I can give him a badass name like that!

Mid length of this strap is to hit 52" - dampened with distilled water, rolled up and put in the PB jar with a wet sponge to "case" overnight (get the moisture content right for tooling).

This is one of those cases where I got a referral from a TTR member. Thank you @Jethro Rocker for the recommend, this is going to be a fun one, not super crazy difficult, but
my first try at a repetitive pattern over the main body of a strap, and there is quite a lot that can go wrong.

 

[TVvoodoo]

More wood splitting for half the day today, and one strap package sent to San Diego, but I did get some small progress on Project Drogon....

pulled it out of the can and marked the stitching lines nice and deep along the sides... then got out the measuring thingy

For these repetitive tools, it's best to have some guidelines marked, or in this case at least a centreline - I watched a couple of youtube vids today to learn more about this sort of tooling.

then I put the strap back in the can, moistened again for one more night of casing, and set to getting some practice with the new stamp.

Each tool has a learning curve, and I found this one is very unforgiving. It's rather stressful you have to be very sure before you smack it
every time, or crap happens. one degree tilted wrong, looks like crap. not set exactly right, looks like crap. Crap, crap, crap. everywhere, crap.
You cannot branch ahead and hope to match up. You have to work slowly, methodically up one, across. Up one, across.
I'm going to have to bring out my real good readin' magnifiers for this one.

after taking breaks, the third time I tried I was seeming to finally get the hang of it a little bit. It's terrible tense doing this, you have to take breaks to reset.
Sometimes I wonder why I get myself into these things... but after a couple straps like this I'll be an old hand at it.

Messaged the customer it might take me a bit longer. He said "No problem, I'm willing to wait for perfection" LOL! No pressure!!!!

 

[TVvoodoo]

Drogon tooling on the actual strap begins... kinda shakey... but it got better and better. By the time its all dyed probably won't see the errors.
over two hours of stamping. Can't lie and say it's perfect. But I guess that's part of the human/handmade deal, amiright?

This is where the tail strap loops will go.. later I distress stamped the blank area with a backgrounder tool

Tail strap only had room for two wide

And here she is, stamping, backgrounding done.

got it outside in the sun and wind settin' on a big pine bough... getting aerated so it can dry out for dyeing. That should happen later tomorrow I hope,
but I'm going to need to do some tests first, mix dyes etc.

 

[TVvoodoo]

First of all, we need to set the mood properly.

OK - "And The Dragon comes in the Ni-iigggggt!"
Sonofagun. Lookie here, it got red! Real red. Suddenly reminded of my pop and his mercurichrome obsession back in the day.

Ok I did things a bit backwards on this strap. Normally before dying I would have trimmed the sharp edges off before dye. But in this case I knew I was going to do the edge black, so I rounded the edges first, then dyed the edges black. Did not blacken the tail strap edges because, reasons.

First coat of clear resist darkens the red and shines it up real nice. Resist coat is so when I lay the darker layers on later, it doesn't fully obliterate the red. The goal here is to end up with a mostly black strap, with hints of red undertones showing through. Does it feel like I know what I am doing? I hope so!

It's a 100% known true fact Dragons are highly magical. You know what else is? Glitter! Being a normal red-blooded Canadian fella, I sport an extensively fabulous metallic paints and glitter collection that is totally TO DIE FOR! How and why? This stems back from my guitar refinishing days gone by. Anyway, just glad I don't have to go out and buy any of this stuff again. It's a little bit embarrassing. I now begin objective tests on how to make realistically magical dragon scales. Anyone here seen a dragon up close in real life? Please pm me after you come down.

As usual more pics and running commentary on the F-book.

 

[JohnnyGoo]

Awesome

 

[TVvoodoo]

glittered the strap a bit last night, very subtle red twinkle. clearcoated over it.
This morning... some antiquing. after that dries, later today more black dye. Carefully!

Just discovered this band a few days ago. Man, have I been out of the loop. Easy on the eyes, and ears.

Ok, antiqueing has dried enough to move forward. I break out the black dye, and CAREFULLY do the edges again... moving inwards slowly and brushing over the red leather to make it slightly black. Once it's kinda black, rub like crazy to try to get some red back. Bad news: the red glitz was completely obliterated. Good news, I have more.

In customer descriptions to me, without saying in so many words, we're going for what I'd call a "Black Cherry" sort of finish. A strap that pretty much looks black but only when you look closer you see it's not exactly black - red undertones. This one, is now is definitely that, a black strap from like 8 feet away in most light. Under powerful light, it has a bit of a warmer glow even from a distance.

Did I nail it? Interesting finish. This is with a teeny bit of red and gold micro flake added and the first of three clearcoats. Had a bit of a heart dropping moment with the clearcoat turned the whole strap like purple for about ten minutes... but after I realized it was just the clear hazing over before drying clear, I relaxed. But I thought for a few seconds there I was a goner.
Now we want to protect the finish further, keep the dye from rubbing off onto dudes favourite shirt. Have also done a preliminary burnishing of the edges here also. Some mink oil on the backside, then one more clearcoat tonight. I will sew the backing and padding on tomorrow morning, poke some holes, final edge finish, one last light clearcoat, take a few final pics, then point it towards it's new master and tell it to fly home.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Drogon is sort of Badass. WARNING - graphically violent scene

The Well-Hung Guitar Strap named Drogon tries very hard to live up to that fiercely handsome reputation

Strap is now being fed a steady diet of sheep, goats, pigs and other sacrificial offerings I dare not mention, getting ready to wing his way to it's new owner.
Plenty more pics and fun commentary over on the Well-Hung F-book if you dig this sort of thing.

I think this could work well in blues, greens, orange, purple and gray with black as well.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend to my Canadian compadres. Got a bird roasting right now, fresh biscuits too... The aroma is driving me frickin' crazy

 

[TVvoodoo]

made a couple of these maybe six months ago, out of a ladies blazer/jacket I found in thrift. Well they sold rather quickly, and that was the end of the fabric for me. turns out a night of searching for alternate paisley fabrics, turned up this one again, available by the yard from a supplier in England. Contacted them, they said they get if from a supplier in Canada. Wierd. So, this fabric has made a round trip to Jolly old London and back.

Time of the Season... what's your name? Who's your daddy?



metallic paisley embroidery in soft gold, amber and red on 3" wide padded black leather. Showy and groovy strap that will time travel you right back to 1969.
Now back in the Reverb store.

 

[jtcnj]

Trogdor!!!!!!
Beautiful work as usual, Brad.

 

[TVvoodoo]

 

[JohnnyGoo]

Very nice work Brad.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Very nice work Brad.

Thank you Johnny, it's all done now... that was a wild ride, actually. Glad I got it out of my system. Felt I had to do it for some reason.



But honest? I feel kind of weird about it, you know? Saw some Chinese outfit trying to sell Franky water bottles and other mass-produced EVH themed on F-book even the day after he passed. The comments were brutal... but I agreed with all of them. "No respect" "Cashing in" etc. So I don't even know if I'll put it up for sale or ever make another. It's something I have actually thought about making for years, just never got off my ass to move on it - this week it felt like the time was right, maybe I'm wrong. I guess it could be called a tribute of sorts. I played old VH the whole time while it was coming together. There's nearly a hundred bits on this thing. The red and black are all leather, I didn't have any white leather, so those bits are a tough vinyl. Probably outlast the leather bits anyway LOL!
For the time I ended up putting into it, probably best I just keep it out of the store, and I don't think I could wear it. Maybe I'll put it in my year-end customer appreciation draw or something - because it really is sort of special.

Can't say I am the biggest VH fan ever, never could play one VH song, bad eruption, a little bit of Panama... but the fourth record I bought with my own money was Diver Down. I did eventually own the whole pre-sammy catalog on vinyl. Been more a fan of Diamond Dave than I ever was of Ed, but there is no getting around his massive impact on modern rock, and electric guitar in general.

The music takes me right back, a direct pipeline to my teens and twenties, some partytime nights and days too. Everytime I think "Sheepa lotta peepa dabba looka foh a moopy" can't help but get a little misty. I was one of those peepa too.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Been meaning to replenish some of these Matrikas for a long time in the store. Some on the shelf now, finally!

This version of Matrika is a shimmery surfy turquoise strap of wonder that sits superb on most blue/green, black guitars, white guitars, vintage white guitars and more! Creme flowers, black vines, tons of metallic silver bits mixed in. On a black or white shirt? Oh my! Very light, super strong... tough leather ends, and ultra-comfortable. If you deserve the spotlight, Matrika totally hangs with you, easy. A Well-Hung bestseller, and perfect entry into the Well-Hung alternate universe of mega-practicality and sexy combined.

also, off the bench this morning.... a set of eight Well-Hung StrapMaster old school leather straplocks headed to the UK. Noice!

Two sets in aged brown with contrasting stitching, two sets plain black. The customer wanted one set of each to add another six inches to his chain, so we made a pair each a bit longer than usual. Normally my leather strap locks add about 4" (2" each), which is typically perfect to make those all-too-common comically short "big factory" straps usable beyond the last scary adjustment loop.

Not to mention super quiet, no added leverage, convenient and vintage-style correct. Feel great too. If you remember these, I know how old you are. Bringin' 'em back, baby!

 

[TVvoodoo]

A special project today, if you know your rock trivia/history you will recognize where this is going... Not sure if I've shown one of these here on TTR yet...
I've made a number of these in this theme, but I make them wider, more padded, and some other improvements also.

Normally, this strap is found with silkscreened white on poly. I custom ordered myself a hundred patches made to size in order to make mine.
The customer chose this particular black/meets indigo denim strip rather than the typical black material normally seen. It's a great change-up.
Note how I change the orientation of the symbols so you don't see one side going upside down.

I usually just iron these patches onto the denim strip - they came with a real good glue on them, seem real secure. However, In this case for a super
special fellow and handsome and loyal repeat customer, I figured I take the extra step to sew the patches too. The round ones are easy.
The Doves are a total PITA with all the corners involved.

after these are secure, we mount this strip to the leather base, pad it out (lightly padded in this case, as requested), roll the edges over and
add a black suede leather lining, again by request. not quite as easy as it sounds, but not rocket surgery either.

We went with the webbed belt stealth adjustment on the back end. simple yet secure, which did require some brain thinking. that black leather patch and
my emblem hides the stitching that holds the assembly secure to the strap.

All I got for today, I have about half a cord of wood left to split this afternoon, then maybe one more 8ft truck box full I have to cut and gather myself. Then, my winter wood supply will be secure!
This is something we can't fool around with up here. She gets pretty fresh and it's necessary for survival. I have a furnace for backup, but it makes me cringe when every time I hear it engage.
I try to keep the wood stove going steady, with hopes the furnace only engages when the temperature falls past -25. That and guard the thermostat with a watchful eye. Wife seems to have a love affair with the + button on that dang box. All she really needs to do have a couple shots of whisky and ask me for a snuggle instead.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Fresh off the bench for today... A No Prisoners theme strap incorporating a ladies belt I found that had a glittery gold chain embedded in it.

The great thing about how it is laced in is that it offers a bit of a glinty bling factor, but it is wound so deep embedded in the lacing it could never actually come in contact with a guitar.
So, I picked up a couple of years ago... finally it was time.

Have to mention I was inspired by a photo sent my way. But this strap is not a custom order. Fully available once I think of a name for it LOL!

 

[JohnnyGoo]

Nice work Brad .