TVvoodoo's Straplab

[TVvoodoo]

Documenting the making of a custom Class Act/Prophecy hybrid for a forum brother who has been very patient with me!
First off he knew he wanted a certain length (with adjustment), 3" wide, padded in black smooth grain leather, back buckler, with a slight reptile theme, but staying in black/gray/chrome colour theme

First off... Pick a buckle, any buckle

Then, with a gothic cross feature on the front, he wanted it in a reptile theme, so I presented him with choices I had here in the shop.
Some were leather, some where vinyl. Doesn't really matter for such a small element, really.

See which bits we chose? He also wanted to see the leather before I started assembly, thankfully he approved this pic I had already cut it - this is a black upholstery leather, not as thin as garment stuff, really nice to work with. The tail strap is sturdy veg-tan which I still need to dye a matching black, nose end also made of the same sturdy stuff

The body is now formed, and I set to putting the back buckle assembly to the main body. Both sewed and rivets for security.
Oh and glued too LOL! Not going anywhere soon.

Also laid in the cross element on the frontside, with a few prong studs, and the celtic flavoured concho of his choice.

Prior to main assembly, I have to get all the main body bits together on the top of the strap so I can pad it out and line it afterwards. This pattern a combo of mushroom-headed pronged spots in the middle and four quick rivets surrounding. I don't know how many, approx 35 all told I think

A straplock fella, he wanted me to punch the proper sized holes, and press into the vegtan on the nose and tail like another craftsman does, I was game to try with an old spare lock set I have taken out of service (not a fan), and some creative spacer-ing. 2 tons of squeeze baby!

While this is good 3.6 mm thick vegtan (9 oz), this punches it maybe 3/4 of a MM down There will be plenty of threads left to attach locks I think, and no compromise in strength.

Then we get to sewing! Note the rolled-over edges, not just chop offs like so many others feel is good enough. Also, while I many not be running giveaways of free bonus straps, or two for one whatevers, you can be sure the Well-Hung strap you get was measured PIN-to-PIN, and will be LONG enough for you, and not having to sit on a sketchy last adjustment loop. This one floats between 49-59 easy. The customer needs 55" so kinda right in the middle.

He also asked I shore up the keeper bit on the back end which holds the tail strap down, as he wants to hang his wireless off it. Not a problem! Only thing is it'll conceal the Well-Hung logo, which could work to his advantage . Very sturdy, very comfy and a little bit sexy. What more do you need?

Also because parts of it are dyed, gotta to let that dye set, and lock it down with a few coats of clear so it don't rub off. This takes a day or two.

Crazy thing... My Consew got thrown out of time during stitching but thankfully not while I was sewing the contrasting stitch along the main body, which would have been a nightmare. Had to spend a couple hours taking apart and adjusting my machine yesterday before I could finish. It's been maybe eight months since it has acted up, so I've been pretty lucky! So glad I learned how to do tweaks on it... hauling it to the city and paying for a tech to fix it would put a major hurt on what I do, besides, it weighs like a hundred pounds LOL!

Watch for new in the Reverb store later today... Autumn Python... probably the last one for "PythonTober" - this is hand-dyed by me, which is kind of cool, if you like the special stuff.

 

[WavMixer]

Today I am assembling a Gilmour/Hendrix alternate universe strap... It's a bit off the beaten path, will be a ladder-back with the shiny croc stuff from the earlier post on the nose and tail for a extra coolboost. Black suede, I dyed the lacing to match his vintage burst.

I'd finish this baby in a couple of hours, but my 80 year old pop just called and basically demanded I come over and take out down a tree for him. Yay! I can't wait until i get to demand stuff from my son. I don't think I will be getting near the same response.

And how about some sunday Pr0n? To me, just another run-of-the-mill hopeless Strapoholic, this is edging up to about as sexy as it gets.

Autumn Python is very cool, I'd like to keep it, but my guitar:strap ratio is already way out of whack. I will release this one into the Edmonton Guitar show next Sunday.

Now you post the Autum addition! That matches all of my wood finish guitars very nicely. Perhaps we need to do some horse trading?

 

[TVvoodoo]

Yes, I love that idea Wav... lets chat this weekend?

 

[TVvoodoo]

Managed to come across another Metis Sash recently, won't mean much to most of you reading, but if you happen to be of Metis heritage (Canadian Native/Euro mixed-bloods), it'll mean a very whole lot! What a culture! Music and dance in particular! Think sort of like Zydeco, but with maybe with a bit of a Scottish-meets-native-powwow beat music flavour. Anyway, as some of you may know, an important cultural artifact for this group is the traditional Metis Sash... such sashes were typically worn by all the famous Voyageur/explorer types all through the 1700-1800s as an important and practical clothing item by people throughout North America.

When I find 'em, I hold my breath, ask for forgiveness, then chop 'em down to make a guitar strap. I know those who have a sample of the few I've made so far, TREASURE them. Here's the latest "Rebellion" guitar strap. The name references one Louis Riel, perhaps Canada's most famous rebel, politician, martyr and some might argue... madman. After surrendering to the authorities, he was tried and hanged for high treason in 1885. He dared raised the issue of rather cruel displacement of Metis / First Nations peoples via the hurried settlement of the Canadian west by European Settlers.

Each colour thread has special cultural significance... I go on about it in the Reverb listing. Very comfortable, and good and long too!

Also got another very flashy Star Power strap in the works... think I'm gonna name it "Disco Stu"
Get ready to Awww, Shake-Shake-Shake and watch for it tomorrow!

 

[TVvoodoo]

Regular watchers of the straplab know I am unashamedly in touch with my sparkly self. Some might claim that sparkles are a tad feminine, well I say tell that to all those bassboat dudes or our brothers with the flake guitars. Sparkles are always in fashion!



Now you it's time for you show band types to consider getting your groove on with "Disco Stu" new in the Well-Hung Star Power lineup. Great for those black and chrome gats where you want to accent the hardware a little bit.

Hundreds of tiny mirrory bits on this strap, make the light dance upon it when you move.
3" wide, good and long with strong leather ends, and ultra-padded for comfort in the Well-Hung tradition. Are you feelin' it?

 

[TVvoodoo]

Today I got my far-out hippie groove on create a pair of straps called "Woodstock." A concerned for his brothers and sisters in peace and love-itude, Wavy Gravy himself was heard to warn the hordes back in 1969: "Don't eat the brown acid", adding later, (but lost upon Scorceses' cutting room floor) "...make sure you use a Well-Hung guitar strap for great style and comfort."
Or something like that.

It's as if it got crafted back in 1969 with amazing ultra modern features, but suddenly time-warped forward to the here-and-now, (probably with the help of suspect hallucinogens).

A super bohemian knit fabric forms the base of these, with a woven diamond pattern in everycolour.
I found this super retro groove-worthy material covering a large throw pillow - had to have it.
Managed to get just enough fabric off of it to make a couple of nicely padded and definitely long enough straps.

Onto each of the two, I sewed a pair of leather chickenfoots, (one front, one back) that I filigree carved and backed with suede leather so it could dangle down in some hip-happy fringe.

If there was ever a strap you that could help you Tune In, Turn Up, and Drop Riffs, here it is!

Oh, and Collin in Ontario sent me a sticky sweet photo of his vintage P-Bass, picked up from a former bassist for the Colin James Band. He fell in love with this thumper, and wanted a strap suitable of such a prize... he took my suggestion from my back stock, and VOILA! a fitting matchup

Sayeth Well-Hung disciple Collin on facebook: "If you're the kind of man who's got a black belt in karate and needs boots to match, or lady who's purse and shoes need to match, or the other way around, I won't judge... I highly suggest the keen eye and craftsmanship of Mr Brad Harrison. His straps are not only fashion show ready but are also well-built to take a beating. If you want to trek through the jungle Kung-fu fighting bigfoot himself Mon-Fri and still be able to look good on the weekends for mom's Tupperware party, these straps are right for you. Chewbacca, Warf, Rambo... the cool kids wear cool straps, and you can too! All without sacrificing any comfort. Your heavy beast need not be one of burden. My poor old shoulder has been very happy since I found these. Much like Archimedes' lever and fulcrum, with a comfortable enough strap and shoulder to place it on, I can carry the world! His other accessories are also rubust and chic... I have 4 straps thusly, a few sets of Pro-Ppins and will soon try out his old timey strap locks... All of which are as dapper as they are burley, much like Brad himself. Highly recommend and will certainly buy again."

 

[TVvoodoo]

today I bring you two new Prophecies...

#1. your shoulder is going to feel discomfort, unless you get Well-Hung
#2. Your feeling of elation once you do, will bring good things to you and those around you

Actually, ... along with that are two ACTUAL Prophecy line straps... my attempt to sort of "ape" a style of a once respected strap outfit possibly backfilling a bit of a gap that has emerged in the market

"Red Seal" boasts a Croc embossed cross and some subtle metal work and a maltese cross concho, on a dark mesh grill, black leather with rolled edges

"Hyacinth" features a black leather gothic cross settin' on a gunmetal blue sheridan embossed background. The cross is sewn with royal blue thread. In the middle of the cross, a celtic styled concho. All on a Black leather body with rolled edges.

Both 3" wide, longer than most and luxuriously padded. Should be up on reverb tomorrow AM if all goes well.

I say filling a gap, because i see discussions on other forums where guitarists are asking who can do this kind of work after the original company exited stage left.

Aside from the business practices and customer service.... the Ethos CRAFT was super interesting to me with the highly detailed work, which I admired from afar for years. That kind of detailed stitchwork is daunting... which is why they had that niche kind of cornered. It's NOT easy to do, and I'm only now beginning to get a bit of a handle on that kind of concentration required.... most larger companies have computer controlled stitching for this sort of work but I don't believe the Ethos outfit ever did. My industrial sewing machine wants to work so fast and powerful, minute detail stitching is kind of like trying to paint a Rembrandt with a roller brush...

I think I can get there eventually, these are helping me get the skills and the eye for it. There were some other very complex designs that involved embossed leather, some creative dye work, AND this stitching... pretty crazy stuff. But also perhaps some examples nearing the height of the art/craft of strapwork made

 

[TVvoodoo]

Today off the bench, #3 in a small group of new Prophecy Line straps. "Great Earthquake"

Gothic cross in a glittery black lizard material, and nearly 20 glittery rivets and studs on it too, and a Maltese cross ta boot. But the Earthquake comes from the F-Twin grill the cross is a-settin' on. Behind the grill a couple of 12" speakers are bound to cause the ground to shake... ok, not really. LOL! But it looks the part, ok?

Got fun words back from Matt in MA

So guess what showed up yesterday? My blue dragon and brown Shaky! Still no sign of the #87 Military.... yikes! But lemme tell you-- love both of the straps that just came. The blue dragon is, ironically, just like the kimono I wear when I have one of my Playmates bent over my Bentley for a spanking, whilst I have my pipe and brandy as an appetizer. Seriously, the colors are more vibrant and just bad-ass than the pic-- love that! And, my friend, you outdid yourself on the brown Shaky-- it's literally exactly what I was hoping for. And you can only imagine how good that strap is gonna look in 10 years... just a great great addition quiver of mighty WH arrows! Great job

also a pic back from Kevin in NY state who's in a band called Junkyard Heights, recently signed with BIG Records - first single "Rusty Truck" released October 25th - here' his bass sportin' The Well-Hung No Prisoners series strap "Bad News"

Not quite sure what I'm looking at here, but seems creepy AF! He tells me the artist was none other than Mike Learn who some of you may know did the custom paint jobs for Jackson/charvel back in the heyday of 80's and 90's hair bands (Ratt,Skid Row, Dokken, George Lynch, Def Leppard, five finger death punch, Queensryche) now has his own outfit. Cool!

Also Kevin in Ontario sent some pics back... he purchased this Shakey custom in F-tweed for a specific project... Guessing some old Neil or Crazy Horse tunes are on the setlist?

 

[TVvoodoo]

Today the reverb store got another Prophecy called "Elusive Death"
here's a pic... probably the last I'll be doing for a bit... though I have a guy messaging me about making a blue one...

Tried dying F-tweed black, didn't like it much then i rubbed the HECK out of it with rubbbing alcohol and it came up a dark bronzy brown.
That's more like it!

Last week I came up with a hippie strap idea called Woodstock, (see above)... dang it if the first edition wasn't a hit! Got a lot of watchers real quick on Reverb and they both sold off real quick. I'm no dummy (keep telling my wife this, she remains skeptical). So, let's try again with this other far-out retro material I found over the weekend.... second edition is called "Feelin' Groovy" - soft fendery easter egg colours, just a cool Love-in vibe happenin' here, again with the big leather chickenfoots, and even longer fringe than last time so you can really let that freak flag fly, might want to stay out of the wind though....

Also added to the store another python... actually made it last month, didn't have time to list it. Sharp looker this one... Pattern hand-dyed by yours truly. "Desert Python"

Tomorrow working on a custom Shock & Awe... going to be fun!

 

[WavMixer]

Dayum, I like the desert python too!

 

[TVvoodoo]

Special day today in the straplab! A forum brother asked me if I could put together a "Career" Shock & Awe for his late uncle, a veteran who he treasured. Unfortunately recently headed off to Valhalla. He wanted to honor him, and gathered up a bunch of career related insignia/badges and shot them my way. He was worried if he didn't send enough... LOL!!! He sent too many - I can't even put hardly my own Shock & Awe stuff on it, and really it don't matter to me... he just won't get the individual series number etc...

I got 'em in the mail yesterday, and he was in already my custom queue... no sense making him wait. Here's my mock-up... he approved it ...fast!

This was also for him to choose black or brown leather... he chose black. To the sewing machine we go, to affix the individual patches to the 3" wide cotton webbing I have here... (Korean War surplus). Cotton is important... way more comfy and "organic" than poly webbing. Easier to relic too... that will happen tomorrow

He also sent me a couple of medals... never seen these before I'm thinking they are maybe marksmanship awards? I'm sure someone here will chime in. Two types, similar, but i liked this one as it had a nice patina on it.

I didn't like the idea of a pin on the back leaving a sharpish hunk of metal hanging off the strap.
Let's do something different - first... nip the pin assembly off the back and dremel it smoov...

nip off the hangy chain bits... I was thinking trying to make a police badgey sort of thing out of it, then mount it to the strap.

Chopped the shape out of a chunk of vegtan, used this scalpel tool I got last xmas, I don't normally do such fine work.

Then I wet down and re-dyed the leather piece and inserted the medal into the holes. As the leather dries, it will mold a bit closer to the edges, won't be perfect but fairly secure sittin' in there. I'll glue it to another piece of leather on the backside, then sew the whole assembly to the space I left on the front of the strap. Should look pretty cool... hoping so anyway!

continued tomorrow!

 

[jtcnj]

Had to do some catching up on this thread..... glad I did.
I am sometimes Shocked, and always Awed by your creations, Brad.

 

[iblive]

Had to do some catching up on this thread..... glad I did.
I am sometimes Shocked, and always Awed by your creations, Brad.

Not sure any of us here should be shocked anymore by Brad’s creations. Especially those of us that have purchased from him.

In awe….. absolutely!!!

 

[TVvoodoo]

Just dawned on me last night how timely it is, this one. What with it being Veterans' day down there, Remembrance day up here. I have family members in the military, grandfathers now passed on, my wife is a military brat, father in law, my brother in-law is still a Major, I believe, semi-retired, I think he's some sort of reserve force or something right now. He's on some committee in Ottawa that does all the paperwork and set-up for the awarding of medals inside the CAF.

Anyway, this morning I couldn't help but invoke the old Bugs Bunny "Pilot to Bombardier, Pilot to Bombardier" as I drip, drop, dripped UV resin on top of the medal in the leather form.

Then it got to lounge in the tanning bed for a bit.

Then sewed onto the frontside space of honour I left between patches

This was an experiment, didn't work out eactly perfect as planned, when you flex the leather bit, the resin glob separates from the sides, but it's secured to the bottom, definitely won't be scratching up any guitars, and looks finished off.

Now comes the FUN part!

After various methods of messing it up a bit, raspin', burnin', shootin' holes, and some frays, pills, scratches and a little judicious staining to knock down the bright new patches a bit... it comes together - in this case @Thyshra asked NOT to have the usual faux blood I usually put inside the bullet holes... it still looks great. I also like to add a bit of old brass, and of course the well-hung emblem, kind of ties it together.

The stars are removable if they don't want them. Final step... add the padding inside the lining, which in this case a dark olive/gray faux shearling.

 

[ninjaking67]

Wow! That is amazing Brad! Stunning, as usual.

 

[TVvoodoo]

For the next four days or so I will be wrapped up in another MASTERPIECE. Ok, not really of my own, but by the hand of some old Dutch fella from back in 1890, while in asylum. Voluntarily, say all the history books.

art lovers on this forum will probably recognize the style, if I haven't dropped enough clues already.
Anyway, I've worked in this style before on a painting called "Starry Night" and the same customer in Florida wants another, he says he has guitars to match.

The trees are actually olive trees, and there can be no denying that the "Couple Walking among Olive Trees in a Mountainous Landscape with Crescent Moon" (nice title, right?), are having a HUGE argument. You can see that curvy lady in yellow throwing her arm up in disgust, not even listening to the perfectly reasonable things dude is trying to say. Man, come to think of it, this hits too close to home, really. I mean, yes I like dogs, and I do miss our departed Billy. But saying we will babysit Co-Co, from our good friends who are now on holidays, who is very old and likes to shoot doggie diarheah all over the GD place, is maybe going a bit too far. But perhaps i digress....

Anyway, getting a rectangular portrait scaled painting, onto a 3" wide by 50 some inches strap is the real challenge here. So I rearrange the painting, move stuff around, chop it up and glue it all back together. then I print it out onto clear acetate, the major lines anyway, so I can presss transfer teh basic pattern onto the leather.

Once the lines are down they I cut them into the leather with the swivel knife.

The last time I did this, I found that painting over the carving cancelled most of the fine detail I worked so hard to carve in, so this tme I'm more just looking to add "big" texture at this point, knowing that's gonna happen again.

The real key to aping this artwork is the paint strokes and the kooky colours, which I hope to commence tomorrow.
I still have about 2 hours of bevelling to do, to make the art jump out a little bit, on the back end of the strap.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Yesterday, I beveled the rest like a madman, twice dyed the whole strap twice with a diluted yellow/green post-binge urine coloured dye of my own making. Not actual urine though.

This morning, I got my paintbrushes out, a palette thingy, and began the fun part. These things take layers. First off, a light slightly yellow/green beige goes over most of the strap. Lets call colour one "lemongrass"

Then, I mixed up light olive colour and roughed out the trees and bushes.

Next up, a darker olive again going over the bushes, still keeping some of the light olive showing through. Then roughing out the tree trunks.

The tree trunks get a couple layers, one dark brown, then some more even darker brown, again letting some of the original colour show. The are kind of starting to look a little bit like trees

Then some black to carry the manic Van Gogh style, with dark moody curls, in a sort of haphazard way. Here I'm not really following any artwork, or tracing... but the bevels I've carved in

The original I'm working from was painted during Van Gogh’s last month of his voluntary stay at the asylum in Saint-Rémy in southern France. Van Gogh hoped that a stay at the asylum might add some sort of order and regimen to his daily life of which he was not able to produce on his own. Unfortunately, nope! But he did paint some of his best during this period.

"Couple Walking" is one of 18 paintings in his ‘Olive Trees’ series which he painted after they began to allow him to walks outside the asylum walls. He was said he was particularly fond of how the olive trees contrasted with the sky.

At this point in his life, Van Gogh had been at the asylum for a year, and still in an unfortunate state of mind. Some art historians have interpreted the red headed man in this piece as a self-portrait of sorts with the female companion as the company he was longing for. They are walking freely through the trees with a dog at twilight, which might have given him a hopeful glimpse of the life and sort of freedom he wanted. Where's the dog? I dunno. I sure don't see one.

Anyway, the fun thing about doing this on a strap is, if the customer says it's not good enough, I can always say "What the hell did you expect, Vincent Van Gogh?" The funniest part of the whole thing, is Vincent was at the time known as a very untasteful artist for the times. He was not above trying to copy the work of others to improve his own painting, just like me! And, believe it or not, while his works are worth I can say I've done one better than him. He only sold one single painting during his entire lifetime.

During his tortured time on this earth, Vinnie painted perhaps 900 paintings of which some 800 are known of today. The other hundred were lost, damaged, stolen, destroyed etc. About 100 of them are known as his "top tier" work, collectively valued up to about $7 Billion. The other 700 would sell between approx 1-5 million each.

I'd be happy with a grand for this one LOL! Below I have painted in the brilliant colours of the twilight sky, the details on the strolling couple, as best I could and now get to let this dry by the wood stove overnight before moving forward to the next steps.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Continued work yesterday and today my version of Van Gogh's masterpiece more fittingly titled: "Thikk Woman Harping at Unfortunate Husband While Dragging Him Along on Yet-Another Aimless Trek to Nowhere in Particular" - - Yesterday, the Van Gogh piece got treated to various gentle and furies rubbings many times! First off... before clearcoating/protecting the leather paint or stain job, I like to burnish the edges to get 'em nice and smooth and a shine if I can! This takes furious rubbing! A lot of friction is required to generate the heat that gets these edges. It's real work!

Once you do all ten feet of that (both sides), you can set it down and do some clearcoats. Once those dries, you get to do some buffing to shine it up a bit. This shot was taken after sewing earlier this morning, just after the fifth and final coat of Satin Sheen, four went on yesterday at regular intervals.

Once I lock the finish down, I pad the underside with a carved length of medium density foam,
add a nice slightly grippy lining, and sew it all together

This particular customer likes to have some special features. He likes to have a few pick slots handy on the side of the strap. This is kind of a pain to do, and I don't really like the look, but he's making it rain, so to speak, so he gets what he wants LOL!

Also, Johnny likes to have a short cable on the backside of the strap near the end-pin to loop his cable through. He dislikes loop it inside the strap against the guitar like I, you and most normal folks do, so I add that for him too. Basically, it's simply a 3" by 1" wide chunk of leather secured top and bottom, that he can thread his lead through. Also, he's a straplock devotee, wants larger 3/8" holes front and back to accommodate all that clunky gadgetry, no keyhole slot. This strap is a set-length 56" no adjustment.

In the end it turned out pretty alright, if I do say so myself! If it happens to metaphorically rain tonight, bound for Florida tomorrow

 

[TVvoodoo]

Fun weekend... took a trip to the big smoke, kind of for my wifes' birthday though she refuse to tell me how young she is. Also had to stop at the sparkle store. We had tix to see Canadiana group Blue Rodeo, and they did not disappoint - one of the few musical selections my wife and I both agree on - like we told the kids, sort of the soundtrack of our lives the whole time they've been growing up - and of course, they both shrugged.... whatever. They don't even recognize the name, but the songs are ingrained into their very DNA whether they like it or not. At least one of them probably concieved to a BR tune LOL -

my fave... the performance pretty much like this, with a singalong jam for the first verse... fan favourite, I guess.

Sort of the Canadian "Eagles", if I was forced to categorize them

Funny thing, I was shocked to see dirty rotten scoundrel Mr. Jimmy Bowskill with the band on Saturday and tried not to let it ruin my whole night. He's been kind of a pickup player for a few years now based out of Toronto I guess, last I knew he was with the Sheepdogs. Helluva player, guitar, mando, steel, but every time I see that pecker-head, makes my neck hackles stand on end. I can understand how a fellow like that has to keep moving.

He stole a rather expensive handmade guitar strap from me years ago, so I'll never give up an opportunity to tell the world how I believe he's a total and complete low-life thief. Grabbed it personally from the local music store, told the guy there the Sheepdogs road manager would be settling up for sure. But no. Instead, they played, packed up and left town without paying. Dirty business. Bus passed right by the same store on the way out of town, too. Could have been a simple mistake, right? Over the next few weeks I messaged him several times on Facebook, being VERY polite... please settle up with me on the goods you picked up. Nothing.

I've been selling straps to appreciative guitarists for 12 years. Solid gold deals with HUNDREDS of pros, semi-pros, and basement rockers. Except that ONE little sneak. Jimmy Bowskill.

100% BAD Egg. I advise Blue Rodeo management to watch that sticky-fingered dork-head like a hawk. He has no conscience and is little more than a petty burglar in my opinion.

A message back from Neil, an actual paying customer in Edmonton actually, where we saw Blue Rodeo.. He LOVES his Dark Garden strap... sent in a great photo, but I'm a sucker for greenbursts "Looks great on my Charbonneau, incredibly comfy strap!" Says Neil, who proceeded to purchase another within days. This sort of thing happens kind of often, actually. I encourage it!

Today I am working on what will be a Christmas gift for a young lady player, who's showing a ton of promise, so her parents want to encourage her to keep at it with a personalized strap just for her.

For most of the day it was light 'n bright happy Chloe. Then suddenly, she got into one of her moods. Ah, them girls, you know. Or never know.

Coming soon: purple sparkles. Not even joking.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Your near-daily dose of all things Well-Hung... shhhhh.... I won't tell if you don't.

Today work on "Chloe, Princess Sparkle" continued. I ended the day yesterday with a third application of clear coat to lock down the black dye. This morning I did another coat of clear then pulled out the sparkles I picked up in the city.

Now some brave individuals protect us from the bad guys. Others work in dangerous mines deep in the bowels of the earth, and a courageous few way, way high up building skyscrapers. Me, I got my own risky business here in the shop. I don't wanna be caught bragging here, but please understand don't take on these things for status, admiration, or even pure thrills. I make these extreme sacrifices of my safety and man-card validity 100% for my customers, 'cause of crazy things they want.

And money. Sweet piles of dolla-dolla bills, y'all

I love how they seal the container for my "protection". Never thought before about adding a "danger pay" factor to making something with sparkles. But I can tell you this... working with glitter on a project does run massive risks here in the shop via contamination. It's been said, glitter is the STD of the art world. Man, I believe it! I mean if you are not careful these things get EVERYWHERE, and last forever. Likely any of you you fellas who visit strip clubs understand. I've had sparkles show up on straps ten straps later, so I'm quite a bit more careful now.

I make sure the shop vac is plenty handy when working with these things.

So I sponge down another coat of leather clear, and SPARSELY sprinkle some glitter over the wet strap with a pinch of this stuff between two fingers. I don't want the purple to overpower the black, just "be there" a little bit.

Let that dry, put another couple coats of clear on over the next two hours to lock the glitter down, then fill in around each of the name letter edges with some metallic silver paint, and rub some into the simply tooling art as well. Rub on, wipe off real quick.

Once the paint is dry, I put another layer of clear coat, CAREFULLY, one by one, on each letter, then sprinkle a good strong layer of glitter on top while it's still tacky. Real tacky LOL.

I put that under a heat lamp for a bit, then get out the shop vac to suck up the excess sparkle. Phew, glad that was gone. Landfill dig of the far future, "Why, why why all this purple sparkle?" The archaeologists will ponder. "Is there some mysterious religious significance?"

Then, i do the edge border bits with more of that paint mix, but thinned a bit with water so it's a bit easier to rub in, and wipe off.
when it's a bit thinned it doesn't jump out so much either, I just want it to be "sort of" there.

I've worked with glitter on leather before, and it seems to work pretty well once protected, at least the subtle stuff... this thicker coverage on letters is newer territory for me. I'm not actually sure how it will hold up, but dang it sure looks swank! With a little care I think it will be pretty tough. Or is that Pretty, and Tough?

Gonna continue clear-coating this, for another few rounds then move forward with completion, padding lining, sewing etc.

Also adding a pic from a militia member of his olive strat with his custom career Shock & Awe strap you saw me make a bit earlier in this thread, honouring his uncle Jack.

What a killer colour combo with the the creme & black plastic - a totally deadly WMD here, AFAIC