Busy Busy Busy!

Oh my goodness! *Another* Post?!?  Yes, yes indeedy. It was a busy weekend (and the last two posts were written toward the beginning of last week). 

As mentioned, Saturday morning I cleaned up the drafting table and took down the light tent/PVC light frame to bring Max in. With Robin’s help, we made room in the front entry, extracted the glass bins, I got in the way by trying to get them out to the porch, and Robin brought Max in and got it into position. And while he was moving the glass bins to the trailer, he also dug into one of the Things and brought me in two smallish bins of pouches! 

After that I sorted belts that were in the house, and then gritted my teeth and pulled all the belts out of Max to work on. Then I started the process of listing them on Etsy. I started with the easy ones, where I already had listed that type, and just had to check the listing and adjust quantities. Then I moved on to new ones, which went something like this:

• Take some pictures (less than a dozen, for the most part)
• Edit pictures 
• List the belts from that batch of pictures on Etsy, mostly by cloning and editing existing listings
• Put that group of belts away in Max

Max had the “One of Everything” set, so that meant a *lot* of belt styles to list, but often only one of any type. Which is tedious, but it gets the listings created. Each different color of leather (1 black, 3 browns) gets its own listing for each style of belt. Which apparently I could handle with “Variations”. Headdesk, headdesk. So I’ll be going back and doing some consolidation, and probably re-taking some pictures. Anyway, I I did not make it through all the belts - I had some buckled ones and all the braided ones left to go. On continued reflection, I'll finish listing the belts I have in the house (using variations!), then go back and revise and consolidate the listings I've already done. 

Saturday I wasn’t using the light tent, because I wasn’t up to putting it back up and schlepping stuff to the dining room. 

Sunday I put the table, frame, and light table back up, re-clearing the drafting table (which things moved to in order to bring Max in), and cleaned up a few other things. And then I sorted the remaining belts onto the drafting table, which did empty the recycle bin that normally gets used as a laundry basket, but got appropriated for Otter stuff about a week before MuseCon. I did not, however, get as far as working on more pictures and listings of belts. I did get housekeeping done and worked on doll clothes. And found three more finished sets of kosode, and put some fabric I bought before MuseCon not-quite-away, but approaching it. 

Friday night as I was going to bed I was thinking about craft fairs, and how to set up, and realized that hanging doll clothes up on gridwall would make them more visible and interesting than laying on a table. So I’d need hangers. I had an idea how to make some, if buying pre-made wasn’t going to work out - but I resisted googling for doll clothes hangers and staying up even later. Saturday I did look for doll clothes hangers, and didn’t particularly like what I found - either plastic and cheap-looking, or more than I wanted to pay (since I have over three dozen pieces/sets for sale). Plus, kosode are square-shouldered, so slope-shouldered hangers are sub-optimal. Plan B! Cup hooks and dowels. 

I debated long dowels to cut to length myself vs. pre-cut, and square vs. round. The problem with round dowels is holding them for drilling pilot holes for screws - Ron commented that you just make a V-groove jig to hold them, to which I replied that making the jig was more than I was up to messing with. So I ended up ordering 12” long 1/2” square stock. I’ll cut them down to 6-8” long. Talking to Ron on Sunday (when we had the jig discussion), I said I needed a little-bitty router table to round off the edges. Ron suggested a rounding plane. He also asked me how much they were going to cost to make, so that I’d know how much to charge if customers want to buy them, and suggested clear wipe-on varnish. Dammit dammit dammit. 

We have, IIRC, wipe-on polyurethane, and I ordered a rounding plane. Only 1/16” radius, but I think the style will work better than the ones that will do 1/8”. And if I want more taken off, I’ll stop at Rockler on the way home one day and get one of the 1/8” radius ones - taking two passes to get there is probably better anyway, and the rounding planes aren’t expensive. So I’ll be making a bunch of doll hangers that are a little nicer/more finished than I was originally planning. Now I just have to figure out the best way to hang them up to dry after finishing without touching each other. 

I have around a dozen and a half belts that need to have their old rings removed and replaced. Most of them are because of corrosion, and I can just cut the old rings off as close to the old rivets as possible, as shortening the belts by a couple-few inches is minor. But there are several braided belts, which I want to upgrade to fancier rings. Those need to have the old rivets removed, as there’s not enough un-braided leather to allow amputation of the old rings and rivets. I was going to work on the plain belts yesterday, but I couldn’t find the screw fasteners we’ve switched to from rivets. I may, as Robin terms it, invoke “Summon Missing Object” by stopping at the Leather Factory and buying some more. 

Aaand, while typing the above about the hangers I realized that the hooks I ordered have a white vinyl coating and a stop/shoulder, with a screw length that’s longer than 1/2”. Which is fine for me, I just wouldn’t put them all the way in. Not so much if selling them. So I (hopefully) cancelled those hooks and ordered different ones, with screws just under 1/2” and an antique brass finish (nicer). At worst I have to return the first hooks, which shouldn’t be a big deal, as they were ordered through Amazon (Prime and Smile finally sucked me in). The second hooks are a whole cent and a half more expensive (per hook), ooh ooh.

Tonight I raided the scrap bin for black leather strips to make more skirt hikes. I got enough cut for 20 or 22 pairs, and then remembered a green belt cut-off, so I attacked that, and got two more pairs worth out of it. So far I’ve only made skirt hikes from black leather, although I am willing to make brown ones if requested, I just don’t want to keep track of multiple browns. But for the green I’ll make an exception. While I was in the dining room cutting strips to width Gimli kept coming in and pestering me. He doesn’t really grok this leatherworking-in-the-dining-room thing (yet). When I moved out to the living room to cut strips to length he was happier. Probably because he can snuggle. :)