Belt

I have been trying to come up with some way to make mongolian belt plaques for my belt. I had ordered some 1 inch from a really well known company on line, and they were beautiful. Unfortunately, they were really 3/4 inch instead of 1, and since I put them somewhere safe (so safe that I can even get to them right now...no they're not lost, they're hiding!), I will be using them on some other project'ing in the future. I have been contemplating making metal ones with cut outs or etching, but that would envolve a set of tools and skills I have yet to aquire. So I was at an impasse.

Then it hit me ( It was nice. Honestly, had it been me, I would have hit me harder.)

Why not needle felt them, stupid. You won't have to worry about the metal bending and breaking (much like my circlet at the event this weekend), and you can make them any size you want, with any design you want. More importantly, you have the skills and the MATERIALS sitting next to you (which I did at the time).

SO...


here are the first three. I decided I wanted something simple for right now, since it IS an experrrriment and I need to make about twelve of them. They are 2"x3" and I can sew them directly onto a leather belt.

Papa's got a brand new bag

I was running out of space in my old bag:

old army 3 fold medical bag

So I went looking for something bigger. I have always wanted a big messenger bag, and at a local bike shop I found what Iwas looking for
.
How big is it you ask? Well:

The big green bag on the right is my OLD bag. The new bag is a CHROME Kremlin and is 3000 cubic inches my friends.
Fully loaded with ALL my roving (including the stuff I had to take out of my old one when I FIRST ran out of space) and tool bag.

Now, I need to find out if I can needlefelt it as the liner is free floating and yes, I can get a pad in between.

quick project

I did a quick little pouch to hold my astrolabe and the supporting infosheet.

The front

The flap and the back, with astrolabe.

The smoking cap

For Dragon-con a number of us were going as a twisted Alice in Wonderland group (unfortunately due to work schedule...you know the rest) and I was to be caterpillar. After looking at some classic illustrations of said character, and practicing my "And Who are YOU?" ala Disney, I started on my costume.

This was going to be my smoking cap for the costume. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to wear it anyway. Damn, damn it to heck. (GRIN)

I hand needle felted the entire thing. The cool thing was just as I was considering needing a hat form to round the top, someone gave me one. Yea for Megan!



Me and said hat. (God, I so look like a younger version of my grandfather!)

new camera

As the title states, I now have a new camera that will be dedicated to my work bag (of which I have a new one of as well). So, pictures and words forthcoming, as I get re organized to do this.

ow, stop it with the hitting...

I have been inform'ed that I have been lax in my updating of this bloggish endevour. I admit that I have not been...well, overly abundant with the project info, but in my defense, I have never been a diarist (that and I keep leaving my camera at home). I apologize.

The steampunk watch.

I was thinking about watches the other day as the steampunk forums were going crazy about some new skeleton watches that were out on the market. A skeleton watch for those not in the know is a watch in which the movement is visible. But the new watches they were discussing.... not cheap by any means, so I hit ebay. I actually wanted a transitional wristwatch with a top crown. Before the wristwatch became what it is today, they used to take pocketwatches and mount loops on the case for a band to pass through. Then when a pilot or airship captain needed to check the time, he did not need to take his hand off the wheel to check his pocket watch. But when I saw the prices on the ones I could find.... my rememberances of wayward youth started to de-frost/fog and I remembered my old pop swatches.

They had a top crown because you coud pop them out of the holder and wear them as a pocket watch or a lapel watch if you had the clips for that. And they made skeleton movements. So after ripping my storage closet apart trying to find my old classic, ebay awaited.Eight bucks later (with shipping) I had an eighties (that's 19-80s for you jokers out there) flashback sitting on my desk. A skeletonized one at that. But what to do with it? It didn't really look all that steampunk at this point. WeeeeeeL....Needlefelting to the rescue!



I figured that if you were up in a cold gondola under a big explosive bag of gas you would probably want something warm. But this is only the beginning. I found a website that I can buy old pop swatches from europe. What I am going to do is use this as the band but the watch is going to be a pocketwatch. There is a retro popswatch that looks like an old train conductors watch that will go on this band. Why two watches you ask?

The wristwatch will be set to greenwich mean time, the pocketwatch to local.