Otter Necessities

This, That, and a Couple Repeat Things

2012-02-02T11:46:00.000-06:00

Ron's done some Googling, and gotten an idea of the cost to buy a new trailer. a 5' x 8' with drop-gate/ramp is less expensive than I was thinking - under $2K. Time to start saving pennies. 6' x 8' don't seem to exist (or were hiding) the next step seems to be 6' x 10', which is getting larger than needed.

I did some searching, banners have come down in price since I bought the one we have, due no doubt to wide-format digital printing. (Our current banner is vinyl, with the letters, etc. cut out of vinyl and pasted on). Printed fabric is a bit more than vinyl, but still quite affordable, and I'm leaning that way. My initial investigations were on-line; now I need to check local shops, as I'd prefer to buy from local businesses.

Yesterday I pulled out the graph paper, list of available bin sizes, and my scribbled mess listing what's in the hardware drawers in the big green road case. I think I've figured out a rational arrangement for each drawer, and what goes where. I dumped the information into a spreadsheet, so now I'm ready to order bins. One of these days.

Last night I started working on posters and flyers for the Capricon Cafe, based on various advertising and other images Ron's cleaned up. I'll probably continue on that tonight, since Cap is next weekend. I've already got the MuseCon party flyers mostly-done, all I need to do is put in the room number.

Hardware Sorting and MuseCon Classes

2012-01-31T10:01:00.000-06:00

After much googling and skimming threads on discussion boards, I think I've found what I need to keep hardware sorted in the big green tool cabinet road case. Nice little vertical-sided plastic bins, made to go in . . . the drawers of tool cabinets!
http://www.schallercorporation.com/servlet/the-Plastic-Boxes/Categories

Now I just have to measure the drawers and decide what sizes I want.
Tonight, however, I need to bring the tablecloths and other fiber-ish things inside from the yellow road case, and work on class descriptions, etc. for our leatherworking class(es) at MuseCon.

The plan is to offer more projects this year, in addition to the basic small key fob. In order of increasing difficulty they are:

A larger key fob, which like the basic key fob is cut out using a die I got to make something almost but not quite totally unlike a key fob.
A paperback book cover.
A belt pouch.

The basic key fob will still be free and won't absolutely require pre-registration. I think there will be a charge for the larger key fob, but it won't require pre-registration either. Again this year I'll have conchos for sale that can be added to either key fob. Or the pouch, come to think of it.

The book cover and belt pouch will require pre-registration, because I'm making the kits up myself, so I'll need to know how many of which color (black or shades of brown(s), my choice on the browns).

The prototype of the belt pouch needs to have a piece of hardware added, and we need to actually make one of the large key fobs, and then get pictures of both.

I also need to decide exactly how much I'll charging for the various projects, write up class description(s), and send all the information and pictures off to Xap. So she doesn't come after me with sharp pointy objects, because the plan is to have class registration open by the MuseCon party at Capricon, next Saturday night.

I should also finalize a basic hand-sewing kit to offer to people who plan on doing the book cover or pouch (or just want one). I should have enough tools to lend, but people may want their own.

After that I need to finalize the pattern for the belt pouch - the gusset in the pattern for the prototype came out too long. There is no real pattern for the book cover, just dimensions for the body and flaps. I probably should write up instructions for the pouch and book cover, too; since it's very likely people will have to finish on their own.

Odds & Ends Missed Earlier

2012-01-30T10:50:00.002-06:00

My brain wasn't fully operational last night, so some bits I missed or that weren't necessarily clear:

Load Bars:
When we got to Berland's House of Tools, we were looking at things that are designed to hold up plastic to divide rooms for painting/dust control, but the box says can be used as load bars. The sales guy said no way to using them as load bars, and pointed us to the real load bars, that Ron had missed on his earlier trip. Thanks sales guy! The real ones were more expensive, but obviously a case of getting what you pay for - we happily trusted one to restrain the big yellow case.

Pictures of Setup:
Yeah, no pictures. Again. Xap said something about getting pictures, but I thought she meant to use to refer to for future events, but setups very rarely get duplicated, so I've never kept notes on setup.

I'll try to remember to get a picture of the straps I made for hanging pouches on the gridwall, since I need to shorten a bunch of them up.

New Merchandise:
Although I didn't get around to working on any of the little squarish soft pouches last week, I brought several with us, that we worked on Saturday once we were set up - both to keep busy, and it attracts attention. Ron finished the one he was working on before I did, but only because he kept getting me to do bits and pieces of his.

Big Yellow Road Case:
It definitely got attention during load-in and load-out! It's kinda surprising how much it holds. Still figuring out how best to pack it. We found one hard pouch kinda squished, but we found it Friday night, so we hit it with a hair dryer, re-shaped, and it was fixed.

The yellow case is a bit taller than our tables, but not enough that you really notice unless they're next to each other, and even so it wasn't a big deal.

Even though loading and unloading required some lifting of the yellow road case, Ron says his back is much less sore than usual after an event. Today he's shopping for ramps (actually ramp ends to put on 2-by lumber), which will help even further.

The yellow case now lives on the side porch, locked shut and tied with a good cable and lock to one of the 4x4 uprights. Which reminds me, we were thinking about getting locks for the gates now that the dogs have yard access during the days. I want to prevent something along the lines of neighborhood small fry wanting to play with the dogs and accidentally letting them loose.

Big Green Road Case:
As Xap noted, it's big. Taller than the yellow road case, although I'm not sure how much. The ones I was originally looking at were probably about the same height as the yellow road case, and not as wide as the one we got. But Ron correctly computed that those would have been marginal or unable to hold all the belts. So we went with the one with the maximum capacity.

We've been taking a small table to put the cash box, receipt book, etc. on, which usually we have a smidge shorter than the (merchandise) tables. The top of the big green road case will be taking over that duty. And if we don't want something out where it can be seen/grabbed (like the cash box), we can put it behind gridwall or in the top drawer - which is the one of everything drawer, so will be empty during events.

The top does have a lip, to help restrain another tool chest that can be put on top. We'll probably get a piece of plywood, or Ron suggested a cutting board, to level it out. We'll see - plywood is cheaper than cutting board material, but doesn't look as nice. On the other hand, I'll probably be throwing a tablecloth over the back and sides, and hence also the top.

The big green case is another reason Ron's looking at ramp parts - its handle is nowhere near as sturdy as the one on the yellow road case.

Consensus is that finding belts in the road case will be much easier than in the bins. No more heaving bins around! And not so many layers in the drawers. In fact in one drawer we have the rolled belts packed up on edge instead of lain flat and layered. I think it will also be easier to add new belts to stock rationally, as opposed to just chucking them in whatever bin had space. It also looks like there's going to be plenty of room to bring belts up to the optimum stock counts.

I also think we can probably to move the hardware display into one of the drawers, instead of the yellow bin, where it wasn't really making me happy to pack - it was just the wrong size to fit politely. And in the same bin as the hardware just makes sense.

Other Odds and Ends:
Regarding the "eating cheap food for the next two weeks" comment, we'd planned to set aside the proceeds from Maidens to get the leather I got a while back made up into two new kilts for Ron, and we're still going to try for that, even with buying the green road case. AltKilt (altkilt.com - plug plug) will be at Capricon next weekend, and we've arranged to hand off the leather at Cap so we don't have to ship it.

A couple/few years ago I started the process of shifting belt hardware - dees, buckles, and wide fancy rings with engraved stainless hardware from Tandy - over to hardware from another supplier, which has nicer engraving, and is highlighted with black. After re-packing belts yesterday (and seeing what we have left, which I'm grokking better than reading the inventory list), I've decided I'm tired of the gradual switchover, we're close enough to the end that its time to chop the old stuff off the remaining belts with it and replace with the nicer hardware.

The 1" dees I can use to make more small belt frogs we need more of anyway. Not sure what to do with the big rings and 1" buckles, I may just pitch them in a bin and mark them as clearance sale.

Need to figure out what the next events are. Val Day is, AFAIK against Cap again this year. I think Reenactor Fest is next weekend, but we didn't quite fit in the first time we did it (IIRC RF's second year around here) - not quite historically accurate enough, besides being very probably too late to get in. Got a flyer for an event in Bloomington later this spring (April?), and talked to one of our friends from Ravenslake (Lake/McHenry counties-ish) about what they've got coming up. We've got to make the gridwall and road cases earn their keep!

Road Cases Redux:
I have to repeat myself, sorry. The big yellow case alone really sped up getting in and out. I think the gridwall also helps, and I'm looking forward to using the green case.

It Followed Us Home, Part II

2012-01-29T19:01:00.000-06:00

We got home about 12:30, warned Robin we were on the way, so he got the trailer unloaded, and we got it back to U-Haul before 1:30 this afternoon, so we didn't get charged for a third day (should have picked it up a bit later - say 3-ish).

Then we went to Menard's for a pair of locks for the big yellow case, and a good hefty cable and padlock to lock it to the side porch.

We gotta stop going to Menard's.

You see, we'd been talking on and off over the weekend about a road case for belts, to make it easier to keep them sorted and accessible than the several bins we've been using.

As we went past the aisle where the big yellow bin came from, I turned down to look at something else.

Then Ron joined me. We looked. And discussed. Fetched a tape measure. Discussed options some more.Waffle waffle waffle. Discuss discuss discuss.

Then I went out to the truck to move our luggage to the floor of the back seat and to the front seat, fold down the back seats, and move the truck to the loading zone.

On the way I called Robin, and told him we'd done it again, and would need his help. He asked if it was bigger than the yellow case. I (sheepishly) admitted it probably was. "Ye gods" was his response.

Ron and Robin managed to unload it, get it in the house, and get it assembled, and here it is, the new road case for belts and hardware! (with Robin making a goofy face)

Click to embiggen.

Yes, I know, it looks like a rolling tool chest. But really, it's a road case!

It locks, so the drawers won't come open in transit. The biggest drawers have double slides, and are *quiet*. It came with pre-cut thin foam liners for the bottoms of the drawers.

I'd been looking at Menard's middle of the road tool chests, as the bottom end ones were too flimsy and the drawers rattled. Ron didn't object, but we ended up moving up both in quality and in size from the chest I was looking at originally. We may be eating a lot of cheap food for the next two weeks, but we think it'll be worth it.

This afternoon we sorted belts and packed the road case. And then we packed the contents of the hardware bins that go to events into it, too. Right now the hardware is in zippy bags, but I'm going to measure the drawers and get dividers.

After this (admittedly poor) picture was taken Ron and Robin got the sticker on the lower right drawer off, and we added labels to the drawers.

We'd already been trailer-committed by getting the yellow case, so getting this one just means we definitely need to work out ramp(s) to get it into and out of trailers, as well as the house.

And now, I think it's time to retire to the tub.

Festival of Maidens Final Run-Up & Report

2012-01-29T18:45:00.002-06:00

You know how last week I said I was going to stop making predictions about what I was going to work on evenings, and then on Thursday I said I really really needed to make belts?

Yeah, didn't happen.

But it was a conscious decision. I decided to take all of Friday off (instead of just the afternoon), so I worked on pouches on Thursday night.

Friday

In the morning we dropped the truck off for the oil change, ran errands, and picked up the truck. Once home I finished the last small bits on a couple pouches, then we lugged leather downstairs, cut belts, then finished them.

After lunch we picked up the trailer. We stopped at Ace to get a padlock, then home to pack this, that, and the other thing.

Once Robin got home he and Ron loaded the trailer, and by the time Xap arrived we were ready to go.

I'd gotten e-mail that we could set up between 7 and 9 Friday night, so we did the drive non-stop, unloaded, and flailed around setting up. We got the gridwall, big bin, and tables into position, and a bunch of merchandise out of the bin before realizing that we were tired and hungry (note lack of mention of dinner yet), and decided to be done until morning.

Dinner, then to bed. ZZZZ.

Saturday

Got up, ate the complimentary continental breakfast, and got downstairs to set up. The space was supposed to open at 8 for setup, and the event actually start at 9, but as I suspected people were there and we could work on setup 7:30-ish. We didn't need the extra time, but it was comfortable.

The curtains I made last weekend to hang behind the belts were good, they definitely reduced visual cultter, and Xap heard several comments that people could see the belts.

The new shelves were good, as were the leather hangers I made Friday afternoon (which is what I forgot above) - they're short bits 1.5-2" wide, with holes for hanging by S-hooks from the gridwall. I need to shorten up some of them, and I'll probably also get more shelves.

Business was decent, a slowish but steady trickle all day.

Not many belts, but another guy with lots was there, and I'm used to my belt sales sagging when we're both at an event. But that's not a complaint, he's a cool guy. There was another guy with pouches, but I think ours were more popular. We were back to back with a lady with jewelry and some purses she makes, but her stuff was very different, and she had more jewelry than leather. She was also very personable and friendly, and we chatted a lot.

The iPouches didn't sell, but one of the other new pouches (medium, landscape-format rectangular, about 4" x 6", hard front) did. As well as a little square soft pouch about a half-hour after I finished it.

Packing up was quick, even not having any experience packing the big yellow case.

Food-ish Natter

The event was at the Illini Union, which also has hotel rooms, so that's where we stayed. It also has a food court, which the Union's website indicated was open until midnight Fridays, and had a bunch of places to choose from.

WTF? 9pm on a Friday night and most of the food court was closed?!? Especially the pizza place (Sbarro)?!? With a bunch of students right over there in the bowling alley? We were seriously confused. But Chik-Fil-A was open (only other thing was a coffee shop), so we were fed. I don't grok the cult following of Chik-Fil-A: as it was hot and fresh and my blood sugar was in the dumps it tasted really good, but once I was human again I decided it was an otherwise utterly unremarkable chicken sandwich.

Saturday lunch: half the food court was still closed. How bizzarre!

Given the first two tries at using the food court, we elected to order delivery for dinner Saturday. Found a thoroughly adequate Chinese place.

Yellow Road Case Analysis

Putting four full caster wheels on the bin may have been not quite the wisest idea we ever had. It easily crabs, which can be good for cornering, but if you're on a side slope it'll quite happily slide off downhill while going forward.

One of the tablecloths was big enough (IIRC it was sold as a bedspread), so the case worked well as a table, even better when Ron chocked the wheels with the hardware bins.

Coming in we'd piled the gridwall on top, which made it hard to get to the handles to pull. Going out we piled the belt, fiber, and hardware bins on top, which worked better. Until a few feet from where the trailer was parked, when the 1 of every belt bin made a bold leap for freedom - the crack is terminal, but not catastrophic.

Sunday

We got up, found a Bob Evans, then came home. Where I realized I didn't have my iPad at the restaurant. Fortunately, the restaurant has it, and Xap has friends in Champaign who will pick it up and bring it to Capricon. Barring that, I frequently work with people at the State Water Survey I'd have been comfortable asking to retrieve it and either ship it or bring it next time they're coming this way.

Tired. And was very hungry. But a dinner from Tre Amici fixed that.

Now, time to finish this post, and post about the rest of today in another post!

Load Bars and Related Natter

2012-01-26T10:05:00.001-06:00

While Robin was at karate last night we looked for load bars (aka cargo bars) at Menard's and Home Depot. Ron had already stopped earlier in the week to see what Berland's House of Tools had.

Nothing at Menard's, found some at Home Depot, but Ron likes the ones at Berland's better, so tomorrow we'll go get them.

The Master Hitch website indicates that they carry them, but the website is pretty much useless - no specifications and no price; and they were closed by the time we were out running around.

ULine has for-real load bars (as used in semis, etc., as opposed to the ones sold for use in pickup beds), but besides being significantly more expensive (although probably worth the price), they're also too long.

If we knew there were sufficiently strong tie-down points in the rental trailer, we could just use good ratchet straps to keep the road case from rolling around. But we don't know until we pick it up.

Really, what we need to do is buy a smaller trailer more suited to the amount of stuff we actually haul, and build a shed for storing things that are currently living in the big trailer. But the stair pit wall and back porch are more pressing, and then there's college tuition for Robin.

Anyhow, must make belts tonight.

No More Predictions

2012-01-25T15:03:00.000-06:00

I'm going to quit trying to predict what I'm going to attack next on the to-do list.

By the time I got home last night Ron and Robin had packed the new shelves into the road case.

Meanwhile, I was feeling tired and crabby, so while they worked on dinner I stomped off to the computer and started working on updating the price list instead. After updating the version that's set up for the phones, I decided to make a new version to print out, which was achieved by cutting, pasting, and otherwise re-formatting text. If I tried to describe exactly what I did it would probably sound terribly complex, but it was much simpler than re-typing. Both versions are actually in one InDesign document, since I export as PDF for the phones anyway, so I just choose which set of pages to export.

About the time I was finishing that (after dinner, so my blood sugar wasn't so low and therefore I was much less grumpy), Ron asked if there was a way that I could have auto-magically generated the second copy of the descriptions/prices, so that I wouldn't have to update things in two places in the future. I admitted that there was, but I'd been too lazy to figure out how to do it.

Damn it, now I'm wondering just how hard that would be.

No, no, no. Not before Maidens. I have belts to make and odds and ends to pack and pouches to finish.

I'm writing off doing anything with the purses and the grainy-looking iPouch this week. And I probably should abandon the idea of working on more little soft pouches, too; but that one's being harder to let go of.

Working on the List

2012-01-24T14:39:00.001-06:00

Last night I got inventory resolved; and I added the new pouches, even the ones not quite completed, and tagged them. Adding the new pouches necessitated crunching the numbers on each one based on what leather, etc. each one is made out of. Spreadsheets to the rescue!

Unfortunately, I had to add another item to the to-do list: updating the price lists, as the process of Ron and Xap doing inventory revealed that there's some gaps in the lists.

The shelves I'd ordered for the gridwall arrived yesterday, somewhat to my surprise. Not that I expected it to take long for them to get from DesPlaines to Palatine, but I never got e-mail notice that they'd shipped. So now the wider shelves can be taken out of the road case and the new ones put in, as well as the completed new pouches.

Maybe since we'll be poking around in the road case anyway I'll go ahead and pack easels, etc. We'll see.

Bunch Accomplished, More to Go

2012-01-23T11:27:00.001-06:00

I got a bunch done this weekend (although it doesn't necessarily sound like it if you read my personal blog).

Saturday I cut out backs for seven hard pouches, cut two purses, got four of the hard pouches mostly ready to assemble, did work on two more, treated the purse parts and several pouch backs with "Aussie Leather Conditioner", and dyed edges on other things brown. And did some necessary around-the-house things like grocery shopping.

Yesterday we worked on things that needed Ron's assistance. We finished getting six of the seven hard pouches ready to assemble, mainly I needed Ron for two that are going to have antler tips holding them shut - Ron's good at setting the loops the tips go into. The seventh pouch, the iPouch with the interesting grainy pattern, is on hold unless/until I get time. I'm also ignoring the purses for the time being.

Yesterday we also made the curtains for the quarter-round hanging bars that go with the gridwall,
to help hide all the belts hanging down on behind, which creates visual confusion. I did the sewing, Ron set snaps. Robin had asked if I'd finally fix a pair of shorts I'd had for a while, and do something with the collar on one of his vests, which I said I would. Then once I had the sewing machine out, three more pairs of shorts appeared.

On the other hand, Robin had been very helpful on Saturday, and prior to the extra shorts in need of repair appearing yesterday he'd helped Ron with the somewhat smelly job of trimming and drilling holes in antler tips, so I guess I can't complain.
Still on the to-do list prior to Festival of Maidens:

Resolve inventory issues
Price, tag, add to inventory, and pack the new merchandise
Finish packing easels, etc.
Make belts
Finish the pile of pouches
Get load bars
One of us has to get the truck to the scheduled Friday AM oil change
Pick up the trailer (Friday afternoon)
Possibly work on purses
Probably should get some small squareish soft pouches ready to lace
Possibly work on the interesting grainy iPouchThis morning, before going to get and during an oil change on the Kia, I got the belt loops on two pouches laced about halfway around the flap on one of them. That's not an insignificant amount of work.

I'm not sure what on the to-do list I'm tackling tonight. I'm thinking inventory, since I really should get that resolved before adding new pouches and belts.

Inventory Progress

2012-01-20T15:09:00.000-06:00

Ron and Xap attacked inventory yesterday. They got through everything except one of the hardware bins, and also packed the big road case. When I got home we did the hardware bin (part of the problem was correlating my descriptions to contents). They didn't just check off pouch numbers, they even checked descriptions.

The inventory of pouches is a mess. Not the printouts with notes - that I can figure out. The problem is that there's a bunch of stuff showing up on inventory that wasn't in the bins. I'm used to a certain amount of drift with belts and hardware, because those don't get individually tagged, but since I started tagging pouches that's kept record-keeping has been pretty straightforward.

One of the things that was showing up in inventory but wasn't in the bins was a black lace mania pouch - which was an on-line sale shortly before Christmas. When I record sales items should be removed from the inventory spreadsheets and added to my sales record spreadsheets. What I'm thinking (hoping) happened is that either I did a copy instead of a cut out of the inventory sheet, or that somehow the inventory file got rolled back. In the simplest situation the "missing" pouches show up in both places, and the solution is cheerfully deleting them from inventory, as should have already been done.

The road case still isn't full, even though all the merchandise except belts, hardware, and fiber are packed in it. Robin says there's still a bin full of easels and other display paraphernalia, but now that we have the gridwall I don't think we'll need as many easels. Maybe I'll go through that stuff tonight and decide what to bring to Maidens and what to leave home.

This morning I ordered more of the shelves we like for the gridwall. Ron was hoping to get out early today, but given the weather forecast, getting to the place in DesPlaines was likely to be iffy, so we opted for delivery.

I also looked at load bars on-line, to keep the road case from crashing around at stops/starts/turns, since the wheels we got don't lock. Real honest-to-Ghu load bars (for use in semi trucks and shipping containers) from ULine are too long, so I found some pickup-truck sized ones a couple places, and e-mailed links to Ron to evaluate.

Wheel-Spinning

2012-01-19T10:47:00.000-06:00

Oh joy, Google has updated the back-end interface on Blogger. Yesterday was the first time I'd seen a chance to try the new interface, today . . . here we are. And where, pray tell, are my post tags?

Anyhow...

Tuesday night we started inventory, as by the time I got home (after taking some of the bins back to The Container Store, then stopping at the grocery store), Robin had brought the merchandise bins into the house from the trailer. We only did belts, though, and re-packed into the same bins. Ron had slipped on the icy front steps, so he was a spectator. Robin and I were somewhat impeded by the enthusiastic assistance of the mostly-grown puppy we're dog-sitting for a few days.

Most of my counts were pretty good. Turned out we aren't out of a couple things, they'd been buried under other colors/styles. When I re-packed I tried to pack in stacks, not layers, to prevent that happening again. If I'd been really good I'd have re-sorted and re-packed all three bins of belt backstock to consolidate things, but I wasn't that ambitious. Inventorying belts was somewhat

Finished Ron's pocket multi-tool pouch on Tuesday, and this morning the belt loop tore. Growf. Not sure if it's because I made the loop out of a piece that was too soft, or if I made it too tight. Not sure if I'm going to just replace the belt loop, or just start over. At this point I've metaphorically thrown it into the naughty corner.

My only accomplishment yesterday was looking over the belt inventory and determining what belts I'd make in an ideal situation (ie: plenty of leather in each color), and what we really do need. It looks like I can pretty much achieve the realistic list without ordering leather and getting it before Maidens (ordering could be done as late as Monday, if I'm daring).

Ron had a medical test/procedure this morning, and will be home by midday today, AFAIK Xap is probably going to hang out with him much of the afternoon. Ron had me print out the pouch inventory, and asked if I had any instructions on packing the road case, in the event they decide to carry on with inventory and re-packing. I'd also asked about them going to the place in DesPlaines where we got the gridwall and accessories for more of the narrow gridwall shelves.

We shall see how the afternoon develops, if they don't get to either I'll probably throw myself at inventory tonight and order the shelves tomorrow for delivery, unless the place is open Saturday morning. If they do proceed on inventory and re-packing my goal will be any finishing up necessary, including adding the pouches I've finished recently.

So, trying not to be made of flail, but not getting much new made.

Ob: SOPA/PIPA Blackout

2012-01-18T09:31:00.002-06:00

Grumble. Google doesn't seem to have a widget to blackout Blogger blogs for today, unlike WordPress.

So, consider this blog blacked out. If you don't know what the fuss is about, point yourself at wikipedia.org.

And if you want to contact your congresscritters, use paper mail - it shows you're willing to take some time and effort, which on-line petitions do not.

Monkey Wrench!

2012-01-17T11:37:00.000-06:00

Saturday I accomplished very little, other than lacing up a couple shield pouches, but that was expected between errands and karate and a MuseCon meeting.
Sunday the plan was for Ron to build cart(s) for the merchandise bins, while I worked on pouches, and purses - I need to make both a large rectangular purse and lace mania purse in black.

Ron was debating one cart or two, I think we decided on two, so we set out for Menard's to get some more supplies. On the way we revived the idea of road cases - when we were hauling the big trailer to events regularly, we'd come up with idea of building road cases that could double as tables/display areas, with access in the "back" side of at least one to get to belts.

We're not taking the big trailer any more, but the small U-Haul trailer habit seems to be growing on us.

So, we wandered over to the aisle with toolboxes, etc., and found a contractor's tool bin. We waffled a bit, found an employee, asked some questions, I went over a couple aisles for a measuring device, then we found wheels, nuts, bolts, and washers, weather-stripping, and the new road case followed us home:

Yes, it's already become a horizontal surface. In our defense, Robin was in the process of shifting the miniatures from his room to his desk when I took the picture, the fabric-wrapped bundle goes in the road case, and the tools are from putting the wheels on.

It's 4' x 2' x 2', with recessed areas for the handles on each end and places on the front where it can be locked. It's got forklift lift-channels that act as feet on the bottom, that appeared to be pre-drilled for wheels - and the wheels we found are a perfect fit. By our rough calculations it will hold about 11 of our merchandise bins. With the wheels on it's just about table height - throw a tablecloth over it and voila!

The plan is that it will live outside - it is a bin designed to do so - and be locked to the house or trailer or fence. It's got a decent lip on it, but Ron added the weather-stripping for extra insurance. No, the contents will not be climate-controlled. They aren't in bins in the trailer, either.

We will have to look at the loading ramp we have, and see about adding wood to give it a smooth-rolling surface, and doing an event all by myself is Right Out, but solo events have never been high on my list anyway. The plan is to start packing pouches, then the "one of everything" belt bin, and then the belt backstock last - because we have to be able to get to belts easily during an event.

Yesterday afternoon we set out in search of MDF to make dividers, then changed our mind and headed to The Container Store. We came out with not what we originally went for, but some bins to help prevent things from shifting sideways, and that would stack, so that there would be fewer worries about crushing items on the bottom. Except we were mistaken in our belief that we could get the bins into the road case. If we had a precision teleporter we could do it, but not with today's technology.

A little while later we went back and fiddled some more, and got some of the bins (which we had two sizes of) in. That left what seemed like dead space, which Ron promptly filled up with gridwall hardware (shelves, quarter-round hanging bars). I said that the hardware still left a lot of dead space, Ron countered that this way the hardware is less of a pain to transport. He's the transport/packing expert, so I defer to his judgement.

Sunday afternoon I flailed about in the workshop. Not pointlessly, but it was bits and pieces for several things. I did cut out and get ready to assemble new case for Ron's leatherman from a piece that was supposed to be a purse gusset, but ran into a problem with splitting down in thickness. Robin didn't get to bringing in the rest of the merchandise bins (puttering in his room and doing homework) and thus we didn't do inventory and re-pack on Sunday. Therefore, my plan for yesterday was to have Robin bring in bins and help me with inventory, then work on pouches and purses.

Not happening. I spent Sunday night/Monday morning sick sick sick, and most of yesterday asleep.

Ron said something about getting Robin to bring merchandise in and doing inventory tonight, but if the "rain turning to snow and freezing, icy slippery drive home" forecast holds true, I'm going to suggest a delay until, um, Thursday (tomorrow night Robin has karate unless too much homework). And I'm not sure I'm up to the bending over and moving around that inventory and packing the new road case would entail tonight.

And sometime Real Soon Now I need make the curtains for the quarter-round bars that go on the gridwall. It isn't a hard or lengthy job, except figuring out where the pre-washed off-white canvas ended up...

Not Much To See Here

2012-01-13T12:21:00.000-06:00

Got all the remaining 2011 transactions into the books Tuesday, I thought. Then I found a couple more things on Wednesday, which was still head-spinny and tummy upset. I have Monday off, I may attempt to get books closed, and file my sales taxes.
Tuesday afternoon/evening I stitched up an iPouch and another stitched pouch.

Spent much of Wednesday looking on-line for good, large images of popcorn, corn, nachos, cheese, or even just cows, in order to create some new MuseCon party flyers.

I found some images, but not so much of the vintage-label type that I'd been using.

One was a photo of a popcorn box, still flat. After considering what would be required in cropping and cleanup (perforation and fold marks, the white paper had yellowed), I decided to just replicate it in Illustrator. I think it came out pretty good.

Of course, I put copies of that, and the other new flyers, on Ron's stick, but forgot to give myself copies, so I can't post them today. D'oh!

Next up was a package for a mousetrap shaped like a wedge of cheese - cheese with holes, whith a mouse-face looking out of a hole over the label. I got started creating my own version, got kinda stuck, then Ron got home and rescued me by taking over. It's now a "MuseCon Nacho Cheese, Mouse-Approved" flyer.

The next one I attacked was a photo of several cobs of popcorn. In photoshop I played with filters and made it look more like an abstract painting. In InDesign I reduced the opacity, and over it made a flyer that says, approximately, "MuseCon - celebrating creative snacks! Now featuring popcorn!" with other blurbs saying "cheese-o-riffic nachos" and something about Mr. Slushy (and the day/time/room, of course).

The latest one was a picture of a rat and some cheese. I started messing with filters, then Ron took over as he knew how to stack Photoshop filters to make them additive on the fly, as well as stretching the background section. Once we had the picture looking like poster art, and Ron drew me a thought bubble in Illustrator, I added words. The rat is thinking that he just needs chips and then he could have nachos, and the flyer says something like "Don't worry, Ratty, we'll have plenty at the MuseCon party!".

Ron and I both liked the rat photo as it was, but I decided to make it a little less realistic so as to hopefully not give the heebie-jeebies to people who don't like rodents. :)

I'd like to make a couple-few more new party flyers, we've been using the initial crop for two years now, and I don't want to always use the same ones. I probably won't completely retire the initial batch, but it doesn't hurt to have more.

Little Pouches Gone!

2012-01-10T07:35:00.001-06:00

Ok, only two of the little pouches (which is what I expected) - the harmonica pouch and the pocketwatch pouch with the red front and both red and black lace. Robin just put them in the mailbox. The Etsy listing for the black pocketwatch pouch with red lacing has been updated to reflect that it's for sale to anybody.

And now, since my head and tummy say moving around is bad, I'm going to just sit here at the computer and double-check revised business cards, bookmarks, a banner, and the ad for the Capricon program book, all of which I did for MuseCon. Then I'll do books. Because keeping the head and tummy happy is a good thing.

Little Pouches Done

2012-01-09T20:01:00.000-06:00

Mini pouches done and posted to Etsy!

Click thumbnails to embiggen.

Busy Weekend, with Pictures

2012-01-09T11:22:00.000-06:00

Friday night was not-Otter stuff, as was the usual Saturday morning flailing around (you know where to find that natter by now).

Prep Work:

After lunch Saturday I finally settled in to get some work done.

I started with sorting out and putting away the big hardware order that came in Friday. Big as in price, but in heavy, but small, box - rotary latches, rivets, belt clips, and some other assorted bits and pieces, including these conchos for the pocketwatch pouch customer.

Click this and the other pictures to embiggen (a word I've stolen from The Yarn Harlot). The center one is a Maltese cross in black, and the edging is a motorcycle chain. Although about half the time I see it as a four-petaled silver flower on a black background, with a silver edging, at least in the picture.

I also put some fabric I had pulled out or purchased for doll clothing into a couple bins, and did some other cleanup.

Miniature Pouches:

Then I went to work on pouches - the two pocketwatch pouches for the customer to choose from, and when I got as far as I could before needing an answer on the conchos.

Sunday morning I had the answer from the customer (he liked the antique brass fleur-de-lis, which I had pointed out would match the rotary latch). So I continued work on those, while Ron and Robin did a shelving project that I'd decided was more useful to got done than building the cart for merchandise bins.

Here's the three little pouches, ready for assembly - the center one is for a harmonica, the others are pocketwatch pouches. For an idea of scale, the outer sides of the square are eight and twelve inches long.

The harmonica pouch will have the sides and bottom folded in and gets black lace. The pocketwatch pouches have soft gussets; the black one will be laced with red, the other one will have black lace on the red front and red lace on the flap, the customer can choose which he prefers. I'm not worried about the other finding a home, red and black is a popular combination.

The pouches are binder-clipped at the bottom to help keep the flaps shaped until they're laced up - they're all lined, and the lining was glued in with the flap curved, to help prevent wrinkles. It's a pain-in-the-tuchis step, I don't usually do if I'm lining a larger pouch/purse flap, but on these little guys it's pretty much necessary. It's especially a nuisance when (re-) punching the lacing holes while keeping things curved. Since I think I'll be keeping pocketwatch pouches in stock, I'll probably have Ron use his new router with a quarter-round bit on both sides on some scrap one-by lumber. Square-edged lumber works, but a rounded edge would help.

Yesterday I got the harmonica pouch done. As I expected, I had to go back and forth doing a few stitches on each side frequently - it's front width is narrower than the length of a lacing needle. I used pliers a lot.

This morning Ron was eyeballing the harmonica pouch for his multi-tool (can't remember if it's a Swisstool or Leatherman). It's a bit snug, and too short to fasten over it. For the multi-tool I'd probably just lengthen the flap, and Ron thinks leaving the lining out (the front is self-lined with another piece of green) would loosen it up sufficiently. So I'll probably be making another one. But not in green, probably brown.

Last night I also got the gusset laced onto the front of the red-and-black pocketwatch pouch, and about halfway around the back/flap. I'm planning to finish that one and do all the lacing on the other one today, so I can put them and the harmonica pouch up on Etsy tonight, and hopefully ship them out tomorrow morning if my schedule and the customer's align favorably.

More Pouches!

After I got the pocketwatch pouches as far as I could Saturday, I got worked on the three shield pouches Ron had waxed the fronts of New Year's weekend, and got them ready to lace up. So I've got those and three other smaller pouches to sew and/or lace together this week. That sounds like a lot, but when I get on a roll I can finish one or two pouches a day (provided I'm not doing other work on merchandise).

Yesterday Ron waxed the seven pouches we molded last week. I was going to go through inventory and look at what we did and didn't have for black/brown, but then I decided to just make half black. I actually dyed pouches without getting any black dye on my arms! I'm amazed. I'm not saying I didn't get any dye on the apron I was wearing, but since it was black to start with it's hard to say if I did or not. And the nitrile gloves didn't degrade, which the vinyl ones sometimes do. So you can't tell I dyed yesterday. How odd.

Happy Accident:

One pouch we debated about dying was this iPouch front (shown after being waxed - also upside-down hanging from my anvil). The stripes are a result of an accident, the details of which I'm going to keep to myself for the moment.

We weren't sure if we wanted to dye it black to hide the stripes, or leave it and wax it and let it show. We decided to go ahead and see how it would come out, and we're glad we did.

I couldn't try to replicate it with the pouches we molded last night, but the next round I will be trying to get the effect next time. Which should be in a day or two, I've decided we're just going to keep molding pouch fronts until we use up the double shoulder I cut up last week. The molded leather keeps, it just takes up a little more space than the flat pieces, but since molding can be the bottleneck step in making hard pouches, getting ahead is a good thing.

You Have to Spend Money to Make Money:

Saturday afternoon Robin was rooting through the box stash to find one to ship a little square soft pouch in, and coming up empty-handed. So I bit the bullet and ordered some smallish boxes.

While I was at it I added some paper to wrap around things when packing. I decided against tissue paper (although I picked up some white tissue paper in the half-off holiday section at Ace anyway), and got white butcher paper. Part of me revolts at the frivolity, but it will look nicer to have merchandise wrapped neatly inside the box instead of just dumped in. Even though I know there's no need for it, it's that whole looking-professional thing.

I also need to get more of the self-adhesive shipping labels I've been using - half the sheet is the label, the bottom half is just plain paper, with a perforation between, so you can print the shipping label and customer receipt on one sheet. Unless you're doing a USPS label, because USPS saddles you with a half-page of instructions below the label, grumble.

Some Progress, Some Static

2012-01-06T10:34:00.000-06:00

The only work done on pouches last night was taking Tuesday's set off the molds and molding four more. My excuse is that I had a new toy to play with. More natter and pictures on my personal blog, once I'm done here.
On the other hand, I did decide on and sign up for (relatively) cheap credit card processing.

A couple people suggested Square (squareup.com). I wanted to go with Square, I really really did. But there were just too many comments about bad customer service - the only way to contact them is via e-mail/web form, and wait for return e-mail. Some people have managed to find a phone number, but it just goes to an answering machine and it sounds like calls aren't answered.

That's ungood behavior.

I also saw some comments about needing to re-swipe cards more often, and the annoyance of the little square Square reader spinning in the audio jack, but it was the customer service question that pushed me over the edge.

So I (reluctantly) looked at Intuit's GoPayment service. (http://payments.intuit.com/products/basic-payment-solutions/mobile-credit-card-processing.jsp)

Both Square and Intuit (on the low-volume - less than $1K/month in charges) offer free readers, no monthly/annual fees, and almost identical rates. But Intuit has their customer service phone number(s) on their website, reasonably easy to find. I think I saw that they prefer GoPayment customers to use chat, but that's still reasonably-live. Intuit won.

Intuit charges a flat 2.7% for swiped transactions (3.7% for keyed in). That's higher than than what traditional merchant accounts are paying (AFAIK), but that's the tradeoff for no other overhead fees. To compare, PayPal charges 2.2% plus 30 cents per transaction, so depending on the total of the charge the rates are reasonably comparable.

So, for face-to-face transactions, Otter Necessities can now accept credit cards again.

Making Progress

2012-01-05T11:12:00.000-06:00

Getting back into the swing of things.
Tuesday I did fire up InDesign and worked on revised business cards, bookmarks, and an ad for the Capricon book for MuseCon. I also updated the door banner for parties that I did in Illustrator, and almost stymied Ron in the process: I had an outline font that I wanted to fill in, and It seemed like something Illustrator should be able to do. It was, it just required zooming in enough to see how the letters were constructed.

I think I needed a break after being done with the fall semester of classes before doing graphic design stuff again. I'm not sure I'm going to take any more classes, there doesn't seem to be much that Harper has that I want to learn (or that I already haven't figured out) in the Graphic Design curriculum.

Tonight I need to take another look at the things I worked on Tuesday, and get them to the Capricon people and get them up on my MuseCon publications web page.

Yesterday I got holes made in pouches, but although I could have started putting things together, I didn't.

My rather large hardware order is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. I'm kind of waiting on the pocketwatch cases until it comes in, as I'm down to only one belt clip, and I want to make at least two pocketwatch cases using belt clips.

Tuesday night we molded 3 pouch fronts. Pulled the fronts off of the molds this morning to let them finish drying, and soaked more leather to mold 4 tonight. Those should be dry and ready to wax Saturday (pouch fronts are waxed on the molds, to help keep them in shape), then we can mold another round. Yes, I'm pushing to get lots of fronts molded, it tends to be the bottleneck step, as it's a 48-72-hour process.

We are confirmed for Festival of Maidens. We'll see how much we can get done by then. Which reminds me, I really need to check belt inventory vs. leather and see if I need to order more leather.

Which then reminds me another step further out, I need to post some belts to ArtFire, and more to Etsy.

In the last couple months PayPal has been particularly egregious in their screw-the-seller policy. First it was a kerfluffle with the website Regretsy, about a charity drive they were doing. This week it was a story about the PayPal-ordered destruction of an antique violin in an authenticity dispute. Unfortunately, there are no strong contenders. None of my Etsy customers have used Google Checkout, nor have I for that matter. But I may start trying harder to remember it as an alternative. Dwolla is rumored to be good, need to investigate it more.

I also want to look at credit card readers for my iPhone. I've heard rumors of service(s) that don't have monthly/annual fees, only transaction fees. If the fees aren't too horrible that would be a viable alternative for in-person events. I liked being able to accept credit cards, it was the overhead monthly and annual fees that killed it.

Accomplishments!

2012-01-03T12:18:00.000-06:00

The person who ordered the miniature Lace Mania pouch (which shall hearafter also be known as a pocketwatch pouch) shown in the December 22nd post liked it. He's ordered another, plus a pouch for a harmonica.
I've got the harmonica pouch cut out, lacing holes punched, all I have to do are stitching holes, then I can get on with assembly. I'm having my usual fears that I've made it too small. But I figured out that I can do a test-fit with Ron's multi-tool, except for length (which is not where I'm worried about fit anyway). Assembly should be . . . entertaining, it's in the style of the soft pouches, with lacing up the sides; but it's only going to be an inch and some wide, so I'll have to do only a couple-few stitches on one side, then a few on the other side.

The customer asked about doing a fleur-de-lis or Maltese cross design, which would be fairly easy on a larger pouch, but on the little mini-LM's, not so much. But today I ordered fleur-de-lis and Maltese cross conchos, so I can give him that option.

I also ordered a bunch of other hardware-ish things today: more belt clips, rivets, both sizes of rotary latches, hardware to hold the straps on purses, and more. I expect to get a relatively small, but heavy, box.

Over Christmas weekend I made another pocketwatch pouch, black with red lace, for Wash. I screwed it up and cut the front too tall, but apparently that isn't a problem, as it hasn't come back. I also need, still, to make him a black kilt belt. I just have to get some stuff out from in front of the big sewing machine.

Didn't get much accomplished during the week last week, or Saturday (too busy playing with dolls, and Ron was busy Saturday with Legos).

Sunday Ron got pouches waxed. We couldn't find the new heat gun, and the hair dryer was taking forever (which is why we switched to using a heat gun many years ago). Happily, Ace had a basic one for just over $20. Unfortunately, Ace was closed. But Menard's was not, and they had an almost identical Wagner for about a dollar more than the Ace house-brand. He finished much faster with the heat gun - 2 iPouch fronts, 3 shield fronts, and a hard front about 6" wide and 4" tall, the first one of its kind.

The new pouch will be stitched together, no lacing on the flap, two small rotary latches. I'm intending it to go with the other "Sam Browne Project"/Steampunk-ish stuff. I'd already cut the back out and done stitching holes for the prototype, but I'll consider lacing future ones, and doing more in all-black (which I've been studiously avoiding, except for a cartridge pouch Ron did).

Sunday felt like I was flailing around a lot. I got started laying out and cutting the second pocketwatch pouch the customer ordered - actually two, as I'm waffling which combination of red and black leather and lacing will look best, so I'm just going to do both and let him choose. I also broke down a couple gorgets (retired due to changing SCA Midrealm combat rules) into parts for three more pocketwatch pouches. I'm rather pleased with that effort. And I poked a bit at the pouches Ron had waxed fronts for.

However, the only thing I actually made progress on were sheaths for my new head knife and skiving knife - the sheath for the head knife came out of another gorget, and the one for the skiving knife out of bits from the scrap bin. And I finished them up by bedtime. Not that those are bad things to accomplish, but I could have spent less time on cutting up and thinning down leather from gorgets and more on the ordered pouches or the hard pouches.

And Ron dropped my head knife, when he picked it up in the glued-together sheath, and tested gravity. It landed blade-down, but fortunately not on any living thing or the metal frame or step of the workmate. It did land on the new rectangular mold I mentioned earlier, and took a chunk out of it - nice sharp blade. Robin filled the chunk with Green Stuff last night and trimmed it this morning, we'll see how the patch holds, molding on it tonight.

Yesterday was better, I got the harmonica pouch cut out and almost ready to assemble, as mentioned. I also got the new smallish hard rectangular pouch ready to assemble (stitching holes for the belt loops left), as well as a two iPouches, one black and one brown (only stitching holes left).

I also took one of the double shoulders down to the cutting table that Robin cleared over break, and cut into 10 or 12 hard pouch fronts. Robin assembled the C-clamp army, and so tonight we'll mold a large and medium hard square, and one of the new horizontal rectangles. Drat, I should have also soaked the front for another iPouch, we have enough clamps to do one of those, too. Oh well.

Why didn't I get around to doing stitching holes last night? Laziness. My cork pad and awl are in the living room, and it was too much effort to clear off the table in front of the couch to do holes. Guilty guilty guilty.

Tonight, unless I fire up InDesign and do some things for MuseCon, I should get stitching holes in pouches.

Best Laid Plans, Etc.

2011-12-23T14:18:00.000-06:00

Got none of the things I meant to try to do last night done. In my defense, it's because we went to Williams-Sonoma where we got pie weights and cheesecloth for the brewing of mead, tagine seasoning for use in the tagine for dinner tonight, and I resisted an egg-waffle pan. Temporarily.

(egg waffles, I am given to understand, are a Hong Kong street food. They look yummy.)

Some More Progress

2011-12-22T13:59:00.000-06:00

Monday at lunch I finished up the miniature Lace Mania pouch.

That's one of the small rotary latches on it. The pocket watch it's intended to hold is 2-1/4" wide and 3-1/4" tall, which should give you and idea of the size - small and disgustingly cute.

It went off in the post today. The customer was very pleased with it based on this picture, and although I was worried about it being wide enough, experiments with my iPod and iPhone indicate that it will be ok. Ron thinks I should make some more, and I'm thinking the same.

The chestnut-red leather thing its leaning on is the cartridge pouch that Ron finished up. All that's left is for me to cut the shoulder strap for it. I'll try to get a picture of it soon. Still not sure what I'm cutting out for Ron next.

Last night I was poking at my shipping label/receipt template. I've been using an InDesign document, but I recently figured out how to make a fill-in-able PDF, so I've converted it to that form, we'll see if it works the way I want next time I have an order going out FedEx. USPS generates a page that prints as-is, FedEx generates just the label image that I paste into my label/receipt. I actually prefer the FedEx method, because the lower half of the USPS-generated page is unnecessary instructions, so I end up printing the receipt on another piece of paper.

On the missing tool front, I ordered replacements for the stitch wheel, edger, head knife, and I went ahead and did get a stitch groover. I also succumbed to ooh-shiny-itis and got a skiving knife (skiving is shaving down the thickness of leather). I can skive with a head knife, and I have a skiving knife that needs sharpening, but as I said: ooh-shiny.

The new tools arrived Tuesday, and today I took the skiving knife back - the edge of the blade was not the straight line it was supposed to be. I'm not blaming the people at the local store, it's a quality control thing farther up the line. And they had no problem exchanging it for me.

The missing tools haven't shown back up yet, I expect they're waiting until I actually use the new tools.

Monday I got in leather that I'd ordered. Two were for making molded pouch fronts, they're pretty much what I expected, maybe a bit nicer. The other, a black, is meh. I won't bother returning it, but I won't be buying it again, either, unless it turns into a swan when I start working with it. It's a little stiff, which is ok, but it also feels like it's going to be hard to cut. And the finish is glossier than I prefer.

Robin has been working on cleaning up and rearranging parts of the basement; so hopefully this weekend he and Ron can build me a cart for merchandise boxes, get the rest of them in, and I can do inventory.

My goal tonight is to list the small purses on Etsy, maybe a couple more pouches, maybe start getting belts up on ArtFire.

I've also been thinking about the design for a small pouch for a class for MuseCon. When I make pouches I mark the stitching holes on the body only, then punch through the glued-together body and gusset together. It would be simpler for a class to have pattern pieces marked with the stitch hole locations and let the students punch each piece separately, rather than having to glue together and deal with the resulting pieces that don't lay flat politely. My first attempt at a pattern made that way wasn't wildly successful, but I've got a couple ideas on what to change.

I'd like to poke at pattern creation/modification again tonight, but besides work on Etsy and possibly ArtFire I have some more bookwork to do, recording the latest sales and purchases. Boring, but I've been keeping up with it better than some years, which makes me much saner come tax time, which is careening closer by the minute.

Belts on Etsy! Etsy Coupon Code! And General Natter!

2011-12-19T09:39:00.000-06:00

First off, I've finally gotten belts posted on Etsy! (is that "thunk"-ing noise the sound of you fainting? I thought so...). Not all the styles, and I haven't gotten any up on ArtFire, but it's a start. So far I have two styles of 1.5" wide "mundane" belts, wide belts with rings, and narrow belts with rings.

To celebrate, I've created a coupon code: BELTCELEBRATION, which is good for 10% off everything, including pouches, frogs, etc. Good through at least the 26th.

I wanted to do a coupon to mimic what I do at events, which is if you buy two items you get $5 off, but Etsy coupons can only be for free shipping, or X% off. Grumble.

Yesterday Robin got the cutting table in the basement cleared off, and will be working on rearranging/cleaning up various things in the basement as a result for the next few days. I have a faint hope that once he's done I'll be able to move one of the leather carts from the dining room down to the basement, to hold the (large) rolls of leather that are likely to be cut into belts or otherwise broken down on the cutting table.

Thinking about the repercussion(s) of listing belts on-line, that means I probably should bring the bins of belts in the house from the trailer. And if I'm going to bring the belts in, (or rather, have Robin bring them in), I might as well have all the merchandise bins in the house.

So Friday night, when we were out getting shelving for the basement project, we also got some lumber and wheels to make a cart to stack the merchandise bins on. That way I can evict them from the dining room to the kitchen (or the front entry, if we ever get that doorway cleaned up) when I need/want space in the dining room to work. Cart construction is awaiting Robin to finish the rearranging, as it includes the woodworking shop-ish space in the basement.

I didn't get as much work on making new pouches done this weekend as I would have liked to, since Saturday was pretty much a loss. However, Ron did get a Civil War-era cartridge pouch done (I just need to make the shoulder strap). I asked him what I should cut out for him to work on next, but he hasn't answered yet. :)

Yesterday I worked on a miniature lace mania pouch - I got an inquiry via Etsy for a pouch to hold a pocket watch, and that's what the customer decided on. It's disgustingly cute, pictures to follow once I finish it up (probably at lunch today). Ron and I are thinking it's not going to be a one-off. We use good rivets that aren't likely to scratch things inside a pouch, but since I know this one is for a watch, I decided I'd rather do the job right and line it.

I think that it's probably time to do inventory again, very likely in the next week or so. It's not a big fat hairy deal, but it is a nuisance. I do reasonably well at keeping track of things, especially since I started numbering and tagging pouches as they're made, but errors still creep in and the inventory on paper can drift from the real thing, especially with hardware and belts. (Yes, I know, it's probably a requirement for tax purposes, but I'm talking about a for-my-sanity inventory check here).

I'm also perturbed about missing tools. I'm not sure where my 5- and 6-stitches/inch stitch markers are, a stitching groover, and or two of my good head knives. Or maybe just one. I checked (and cleaned up) around one end of the couch where I thought they might have fallen, but there they aren't. I may just bite the bullet and order new stitch markers and maybe a head knife from Weaver - and then once I do I'll find the ones that are hiding. Having duplicates of the stitch markers is ok, especially since I plan to teach at MuseCon again. Not so much another head knife, but my sanity is probably worth getting one. I've got another acceptable groover, and don't think I'll need a third, so I'll take my chances it's with the other tools.

A similar circumstance is why I have duplicates of some end/slot punches, and a different style knife, so I know whereof I speak on the reappearing. Although they'll wait until I wouldn't feel right in returning the head knife, sigh...

Even More Flailing

2011-12-13T15:45:00.000-06:00

Last week ended up being completely made of flail, as Ron was checked into the hospital Wednesday evening, and was there until Saturday evening. I did end up with an order from the phone message that Ron took, and got that shipped out. But my evenings were spent at the hospital.

Saturday morning I did get a little work done - I found the parts to a Civil War-era cartridge pouch that we'd started on, found the pattern and instructions, confirmed that I had all the necessary parts and hardware, and packed it up with the necessary supplies for Ron to work on sewing it together.
Except I didn't get to the hospital, after dropping Robin off at Cookie Lab, after karate, until almost 2:00, and we figured it wasn't worth bringing it in, as he was hoping to get released soon.

I should have brought it in, the doctor probably would have shown up much sooner if Ron had started sewing! :D

Saturday morning I also looked at what pouches I have in various stages of completion, and worked on three of the smallest soft pouches I had cut out. . . and set the latches an inch too low on the fronts. Which is not a disaster, it just means I have to cut three back/flaps with flaps an extra inch long, and new fronts to replace the ones I messed up. But it was annoying.

Sunday we were both pooped, so nothing happened. Monday night was more recovery. Tonight I have the final for my Graphic Arts class, but I can take it on-line from home, so I might possibly be able to accomplish something. Except that we've started keeping the dogs in the kitchen during the day, with access to outside via the new-ish dog door, so I have to make sure I do dishes every night. And I'm thinking by the time I do dishes and take my final I'll be ready for bed again. Sigh...

But I have good intentions, dammit! Maybe tomorrow...

Monday and Tuesday Not as Planned

2011-12-07T11:27:00.000-06:00

For various reasons, Monday evening and Tuesday were pretty much a complete loss.

On the other hand, during Monday night's or Tuesday's flailing about, I got an Etsy order for a little square soft belt pouch, and last night while I was at my current Graphic Arts class (Variable Data Technologies, aka Junk Mail Production), Ron took a message from someone who phoned with questions about a possible order.

Also, the zip ties and zip tie gun arrived yesterday, as expected.

This morning, no longer being at the end of my rope, I dug the little black belt pouch for the Etsy order out of the bins, and located a couple possible items for the phone customer. While doing so I pulled out the garb, and found the receipt books.

I pulled the things off of Etsy and ArtFire that sold at Boar's Head, and figured out how to do a US Postal Service shipping label with postage. I'd tried once before, but their helper application is Windows-only. Although this morning I figured out it's an unnecessary app, you just open the file the web site generates in Adobe Acrobat and print from there. Yay me!

I did have a space cadet moment and set it up to mail from the office (even with home as the return address), instead of just sticking it in our mailbox at home - with is plenty big enough for the box in question. Duuuh. Oh well, it didn't change the postage, just caused an unnecessary carrying-about of an 8-ounce box this morning. Oooh, the tragedy.

So, I still need to wash some garb and put other stuff away, and do books, but the more pressing post-event business is taken care of.

Festival of Maidens Probable

2011-12-05T11:33:00.000-06:00

I called about Maidens, and sent in my information. It was a teeny bit frustrating, as they don't break the merchant space up into spaces, they ask how much space you'd like. Err, um. I finally said I was happy with the 10' x 20' space at Boar's Head, but I can also work with just about any space and/or configuration I end up with - straight line, corner, along a wall, in the middle of the room, whatever; and that I usually ask for two spaces when merchant space is broken up into space units.

I wasn't told that the merchant space was full (not surprisingly - SCA merchants spaces tend to fill up much later than SF con dealer spaces in my experience), but I'm also not assuming at this point that I'm guaranteed space, in part because I hadn't seen a response to my e-mail as of this morning.

But, I went ahead and made a hotel reservation anyway - the event as at the U of I Union, which has hotel rooms in it, and that's where I made my reservation - why drive to and from another hotel when we can just stay there? If something happens that we don't get merchant space (which I figure is unlikely), I can cancel.

Interestingly, the information for merchants says that they're looking for an emphasis on handmade items. No problem, the only things that don't count are the little bit belt-related hardware (which all goes on one one-foot-square-ish display board), and the alpaca fleece/roving and knitting patterns we get from Ron's parents. Pedants might also include the machine-sewn satchels and belt satchels, but that still wouldn't be a big deal to not put them out, although I expect the dividing line is more along the lines of "handmade" vs. factory-mass-produced.

Of course, for some of the things, satchels, belt satchels, and soft pouches in particular, I do engage in small-scale assembly-line-ish or mass production - cut out a bunch at once, then do various steps on all (or a bunch of them) at a time.

Maybe tonight I can get the bookkeeping done from Boar's Head. I lacked sufficient brainpower yesterday. Which reminds me, I need to pull two pouches that sold Saturday off of Etsy and ArtFire. I also need to unpack garb and get things into the laundry pile and/or put away, as well as putting back away the stack of garb we were rooting through Friday night finding something for Xap to wear.

Yes. Ages. I Know, I Know!

2011-12-04T11:45:00.000-06:00

Yes, it's been ages. No, still no belts on Etsy or ArtFire.

That said, there's been progress elsewhere in Otter Necessities -land.

Yesterday was Boar's Head (SCA, north of Milwaukee). Friday morning I realized we haven't re-built the frame for the folding scaffolding, which is what we've been hanging belts on. And we need a (better) way to display belts.

Gridwall. We've debated it before. Robert Ham has a warehouse south of Chicago, but that's a haul. I googled. Well what do you know, a store fixture supplier in Des Plaines! I called and ordered 4 panels, then since both Ron and I were home (see my personal blog for more natter about that), off we went.

When we got to Specialty Store Services, we looked around their showroom. And added on to our order. We ended up with 8 gridwall panels (2' x 6'), 4 quarter-circle hanging bars, and two sizes of shelves - 3.5" deep with a front lip, and 6" deep.

In the afternoon I did the packing up of tools, etc. that I didn't get to do Thursday night because of the low-stress but horribly long ER trip Thursday night.

Got up at 4:45 am yesterday, and hauled up to West Bend. We'd rented a small U-Haul instead of taking the big trailer, which was nice. (Robin loaded it Friday night).

Xap went with us, and had many helpful suggestions on setup with gridwall. We had two 10'x10' spaces end to end, and two of the site's 8' tables. Those were in a line, pulled back from the font edge of our space, with our 4' tables making a very wide very shallow U on the ends, opening toward the front. At each end we had an L of gridwall, with two of the quarter-circle bars on each, where belts were hung. In the center of the two big tables was a T of gridwall, with the stick of the T between the two tables. The last piece of gridwall was grafted to one of Vees holding belts. We had shelving on the T and the extension to the one V. It worked out really well, I'll have to get copies of Xap's pictures.

We had about 24 linear feet of table space, plus space on the gridwall, so I put out everything: Alpaca fiber, knitting patterns, even the steampunk-ish merchandise. And we sold bits of everything. We did get some teasing about the wrist-rockets, but nobody was snarky. One set of wrist-rockets tried to grow feet, but Ron nicely chased them back. Hopefully it was a moment of extreme (pre/early-teen-) stoopid, and not a habit.

Xap also suggested curtains for the quarter-circle hanging bars, so you can see the belts better - less distraction from the tails hanging down behind. I'm going to make 4, all the same length - the ones for the top bars only need to go down a bit below the lower bars, not all the way to the floor. And if I make them all the same, we don't have to worry about grabbing the wrong length. In a happy coincidence, about a week ago I got 30 yards of unbleached pre-washed muslin.

Xap was also a very good salesperson. I don't even have my price list memorized any more, so all she had to learn was what the various things were (some of the names I use for things are not always obvious), which was mostly belts, as pouches are pretty well tagged.

The day started out horribly slow. Usually we sell a couple-few belts and maybe a pouch or two right off to people that forgot theirs, new people, etc.; and then people look but don't buy much until afternoon. Skipping that first little batch of sales made me really nervous. But it turned out to be a decent day. Not as good as some years, but that's when the economy was at a level I don't expect to see again any time soon (if at all). We paid for the day (fees, gas, food), the gridwall, and 3 days rental on the U-Haul (being used today to help Xap move some appliances), plus some.

This morning I ordered 2000 cable ties (1K each of two lengths), and a cable tie gun. We'd gotten some of the official gridwall connectors, and a bag of a hundred cable ties for connecting gridwall. Ron quickly decided to stick to cable ties, and we also used some for hanging things up once the shelves were filled.

The 3.5" deep shelves worked better than the 6" deep. We'll be getting more of those.

Once I'm done here I'll probably head out to Home Despot for a hundred or two S-hooks, and I'll raid the scrap bin for wide belt cutoffs to put nice ends on and holes in: thread a pouch or two on, and hang with S-hooks. Much like is done at the local SF conventions with gridwall.

Why yes, I am cheerfully stealing good ideas! I are S-M-R-T Smart!

I e-mailed the Capricon Dealer's Room coordinator yesterday, and there's still space at Cap. But, Festival of Maidens (in Champaign) is the last weekend in January, is cheaper, and we'll probably do better there. I'll give the person in charge of merchants there a call once I'm done here, and if there's space we'll go to Maidens instead of Cap.

We're still pretty good on soft pouches, but we could use more hard pouches (did before yesterday). And we need to re-stock belts. But I can do a lot of pouches in almost two months, and re-stocking belts is only a few hours work over a couple evenings. But I'm getting too old to cut on the floor, I need the cutting table re-cleared (currently covered in beekeeping equipment). Fortunately, Robin can be bribed to do that by reminding him that if he does, he and Marmaduke can use it for miniature wargames (which is part of the reason it's already gridded with 6" squares).

Pictures! We got pictures!

2011-09-18T18:51:00.000-05:00

Bwah ha ha ha ha! We took pictures yesterday! Lots and lots of pictures!

Belts, (except for kilt belts), and a bunch of purses and pouches. We started with Ron taking the pictures and me setting stuff up on the table, then I finished up while Ron took Robin to karate. It was a slower process doing it all by myself, but not too bad. Ron tweaked the exposure, etc. in Lightroom (correct one, apply to batch), then I cropped.

I exported to the proper size JPEG today, but haven't posted anything yet.

Also continued work on the steampunk cargo carriers today, after I finished up a knitting project. I got the lacing done on all three flaps for the pockets.

Now, I think, it may be time to go off to the tub. Besides doing Otter-ish stuff I've been on a cooking binge all weekend.

Progress! But Not Pictures

2011-09-11T15:12:00.000-05:00

Still no pictures. Still no belts on Etsy/ArtFire.

A couple days ago I was on the Tandy/Leather Factory web site and our attention was grabbed by a sale on "Bright Upholstery Hides". Friday I went to the local store and got a nice dark green one. A little while ago I e-mailed AltKilt and asked if 45 square feet would be big enough to make a kilt for Ron, and what she'd charge for the job. I could do it myself, but I'm willing to pay an expert.

I also got a bright blue hide. Again, about 45 square feet. These are the biggest individual pieces of leather I've ever bought - usually I buy sides, which are about half the size. I also bought several pieces of split that were on sale, so at well over 100 square feet of leather, it was one of the larger purchases in terms of square footage that I've ever made, too. I have, however, spent a lot more money.

I've got some nice red garment/upholstery leather already, and some nice heavier bright yellow, so I ignored the other colors.

Going back to the split that I purchased, it's what's left when you split a piece of leather down in thickness. It has very little strength (most of the strength in leather is in the grain, or "nice" surface), but it's useful for adding heft/stiffness to something like a cow's worth of blue upholstery leather. The "soft" pouches I make, for the most part, actually need something stiffer than upholstery leather. And I've got a lot of blue to play with now . . .

Yesterday I was feeling seriously anti-social and was having a rather bad attitude, so I stayed home instead of going to the MuseCon wrapup meeting/party. Ron had heard all my input already anyhow.

I did get the steampunk cargo carrier pocket flaps ready to lace, sew on, and the latches set. I still have to decide exactly how the whole thing is going to go on a belt, add loops/dees, and assemble everything - although I'm going to go ahead and start sewing/lacing the pockets.

Today I attacked the dining room mess. I emptied out some wire bins that were part of a couple shelving units many years ago, and the bins themselves are now at the curb. One big Rubbermaid bin has been slated to be banished to the basement, and another is holding the rolls of wierd/old leather I got really cheap last year. I've thrown out a large shopping bag of stuff. There's not much more floor visible right now than when I started, but I've seen the floor and can easily re-locate it. Getting the garbage and bin to go to the basement out of here will help too.

Time to go work on dinner: mexican chicken pot pie.

That Was the Week That Was

2011-09-06T12:05:00.000-05:00

Following on from our last installment, I did find ribbon and be-ribbon the Etsy/ArtFire merchandise.

The cutting die for the kilt/Sam Browne belt piece arrived last week (Thursday-ish, IIRC). I don't think it's as sharp as the dies I got from Weaver were when new, but it's probably sharp enough. I haven't actually gone down to the basement yet and tried it out, though.

Robin and Marmaduke took over the living room Saturday afternoon to paint miniatures, so I hung out in the dining room and started a new project. I also determined that the stainless-steel workbench does interfere with sitting at the big sewing machine. I'll try shifting the sewing machine over a bit before rearranging the whole room. I'd have drafted Robin and Marmaduke to move the sewing machine on Saturday, but there's mess that must be dealt with first.

My new project is something similar to the Steampunk Spare Pockets from AltKilt.com. My first pass at the pocket portion was constructed along the lines of a fabric pocket, and was a flop as it was too bulky in leather. And it would also be too much like the AltKilt pockets.

The second pass is going better - I'm going with a 2-piece pocket - a front and a soft gusset. I'm confident enough in this design that I went ahead and cut out the parts for all three pockets (1 larger center pocket and a smaller pocket on each side), the apron bit, and have some of it ready for sewing. I'm going to lace around the flaps for the pocket, but not the other parts, in part because the leather I'm using for the flaps doesn't cut as nicely as some, and lacing hides imperfect edges. And it's the thing I do.

Yesterday my plan was to cut out the flaps and doing other work on other flap-related things - setting latches, getting flaps ready to lace, etc., and then take everything with me to a friend's Labor Day party in the afternoon to work on.

Didn't happen. The kitchen porch ate the morning and part of the afternoon, and by the time we got home I only really had time to put dinner for today together. I'll go natter on about that on my personal blog, but it was frustrating. Probably more frustrating than it should really have been.

Still no pictures taken of belts or other new-ish merchandise taken. Blame the porch. Robin did reassemble the light table, maybe one night this week I'll go up and do some photography on my own responsibility, something I actually am capable of. If I don't keep myself busy working on the pockets.

Blah Blah Blah Stuff-Cakes

2011-08-27T15:17:00.000-05:00

As referred to over on the personal blog, today is working on the side (kitchen) porch day.

However, before Ron got home with X1 and X2 last night, Robin went trailer spelunking for me, we pulled out the merchandise boxes containing pouches, and I pulled out all the pouches listed on Etsy and ArtFire, all the little square black pouches, and all the frogs (all the little black pouches because they sell the fastest, and the frogs because they're small).

Last night I got the new flourescent-friendly fixtures for the dining room, and Robin put bulbs in them and put them up this morning (I'm not quite tall enough). One is defective, but haven't been back to Home Depot yet. At worst I'll stop at the HD near my office and exchange it.

I don't think I'm going to have to rearrange the furniture in the dining room. I may still move the big sewing machine over a couple/few inches, but that may not even be necessary.

I remember from using this workbench before that the shelf needed extra support if there was much weight on it - set screws in dimples in the legs just weren't up to much. We had an un-treated 2x4 that wasn't used for concrete formwork, so Ron cut supports for me.

Oops, I had him cut them a hair long. I had to put most of them in with the help of a mallet, and I'm pretty sure the proper bench legs are no longer weight-bearing. OTOH there's no instability (I have 8 chunks of 2x4 for supports) and when (I'm thinking it will be a when, not an if) the set screws give up the ghost it won't be a big drop.

Currently have my laptop set up on said bench, pretending to supervise the porch construction, also watching the neighbors move some furniture in, dogs, neighbor kids, etc.

And I've actually dined in the dining room!

Why yes, this is a rare and special event. I don't think it's the first time, though.

Sounds like construction is about done for the day.

Hmm. Maybe I'll see what I have in the way of ecru and aqua ribbon.

Partial Holding Pattern

2011-08-26T12:27:00.001-05:00

Payment for the die hasn't hit the checking account yet. I only placed the order a week ago yesterday afternoon, so I'm being impatient. I never claimed that I was patient.

No pictures taken. No progress on prototype pouch for MuseCon class. But I did re-sew two buttons on Robin's kilt this morning; one that fell off yesterday, one that looked iffy. Does that count for anything?

I had a message waiting for me this morning from a potential Etsy customer. To answer it means digging out one of the pouches for sale. I e-mailed the listing to Robin so he'd have a picture of the pouch he'd be looking for. :) I also told him to go ahead and dig all the merchandise boxes out. Time to sort out all the merchandise for sale on Etsy and ArtFire.

Although I'm not quite sure when my next live sales event will be (possibly the SCA event Boar's Head), I don't plan on leaving things for sale on-line at home, which means I need a way to identify them when packing up at an event. There are couple options that don't work:

Putting them together on the table. Except I rearrange things as the day goes on, or at least that's what happens when we have sales. Customers also move things.
Bring a list to refer to when packing up. This would work, but it would be a nuisance, and slow things down.

Not having a radio in the Kia means I actually think while driving. This morning my brain took on the above quandry.

Color-coded tags would work, as they'd be reasonably visible. But tags tend to come in lots of Lots and Lots. I'd also like them not to be in eye-catching colors that imply "On Sale", as red, yellow, and orange would do. Colors like green and blue would be better. I could color white tags (hah!). And new tags would mean re-writing and re-tagging, and I'm lazy. Finally, it would be nice to be able to differentiate ArtFire things from Etsy things, refer back to first consideration re: Lots and Lots.

Then "ribbons" floated to the surface of my brain. Hmm. The rolls of 1/8" wide or 1/4" wide satin from big craft places are reasonably cheap, but shouldn't look too cheesy. Comes in lots of colors. Can be tied wherever the tag is, without necessitating new tags, or implying special pricing, as a colored tag might. Ecru for Etsy and Aqua for Artfire (and one can take a very broad definition of "aqua").

I think we have a winner!

Tonight and tomorrow Ron, Robin, Marmaduke, and X1 will be working on framing for the kitchen porch. I'll probably be sorting through merchandise (must check weather to see if I must bring everything in for the night). Depending on my enthusiasm level I may also throw myself at the dining room, since we'll have several strong young backs to help move the big sewing machine if when I decide how far it needs to go.

Progress Lurches Along

2011-08-22T17:31:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I found a bin of new(ish) merchandise in the living room, and inventoried it. It included the new(ish) smaller purses. I thought we took pictures of those purses already, but either:
(A) I'm hallucinating; or
(B) they were never pulled off a memory card and are now lost

The original plan for the weekend was to take pictures of the stuff in the bin (mostly pouches), and belts.

Didn't happen.

Saturday was pretty much a write-off, for reasons including Robin's midday karate class, lack of sleep, and other not-particularly-germane things.

The "one of everything" belt bin did get in from the trailer, though; and I've just sent it upstairs to Ron's room.

I did not go through all the bins in the trailer and pull out the stuff for sale on-line, because Marmaduke was over yesterday and he and Robin were busy gaming, and today I just wasn't up to it, and I don't think Robin was either.

I did cut out a prototype for a small stitched pouch to possibly make in a class at next year's MuseCon. It's currently stalled on needing to be taken out to the dining room and having a stud put on it. Then I can do the last seam and it will be done. More natter about that later, probably.

We also added another piece of furniture to the dining room. Ron remembered that we ~~have~~ had a stainless-steel workbench in pieces in the basement. Yesterday morning it was brought up and re-assembled, to be used for lampworking and whatever else one could use a table/workbench for. It sits right in front of the window in the room that opens, so we could even rig an exhaust port for wintertime lampworking.

Unfortunately, I think the addition of said piece of furniture is going to lead to rearranging more or less of the rest of the furniture, so that we can use the big sewing machine. If we're lucky it'll just be moving the sewing machine over a bit. Or maybe swapping it with the shelving unit (with wheels!) that holds the splitter and other things. I considered attacking it yesterday when Marmaduke was over to help Robin move heavy things, but decided that was too much like work.

I've decided that I'm going to get new fixtures for the track lighting in the dining room. The halogens we've currently got out there are just too [expletive] hot. And unlike the track lights in the living room we can't just switch to flourescent bulbs - I'm going to have to get new flourescent-compatible fixtures (the current ones hold onto the rim of the halogen bulbs, so it's a form-factor thing).

So that's where we are - a little progress that I can see, but not that's particularly visible to anyone else.

To Die For

2011-08-18T15:33:00.000-05:00

I got the third quote on the die today.

I sent the requests to:

Tippmann Industrial, who also makes clicker presses, sewing machines, and other stuff, much of which is for leatherworking. I don't own anything from them, but their reputation is good.
Weaver Leather, which is where I buy most of my leather, and where I bought the set of three dies for satchel parts and the armor scale die; and
Ontario Die, a Canadian company with an office in Port Huron, MI. I don't remember how I found them originally. IIRC somebody there was helpful in a general-knowledge kind of way, so I've remembered them.

Tippmann's quote was X. Weaver's quote was X+20 for a die with bracing in the middle, or X+40 for fully-braced plus ejection foam. Ontario Die's quote was for just shy of 2X.

I got Tippmann's quote first, then Weaver's. I called and asked about bracing, and the guy at Tippmann said that once a die gets over a certain size they brace it, they don't want to get it back for straightening. Ejection foam is nice, but not a big deal. If I feel I really must have it, I'll get some closed-cell foam and DIY.

I ordered the die from Tippmann. The e-mail quote I got said that they have about a week lead time before starting production. I didn't think to ask how long it would take to make the die, but I don't think it's a terribly long process. So I'm guesstimating that I'll have it in a couple weeks.

Now I must be patient . . .

. . . and think of what other creative uses there are for the piece it will cut. Jumbo key fob, anyone?

Belts and Dies

2011-08-16T11:29:00.000-05:00

Let's go back to my comment yesterday about getting a die to cut a part for kilt/Sam Browne belts. (although modern Sam Browne belts for military and police don't have the shoulder straps, I've gotten into the habit of calling the ones without shoulder straps kilt belts. And it's my blog, so there you go.)

These belts are 2-1/4" wide, and use a double-tongue buckle *and* a hook. You can see the buckle and hook, as well as other hardware needed to build a Sam Browne belt here.

The hook goes at the end of the belt where you'd normally expect to see the buckle. The billet end of the belt (the end with the holes) is buckled through the buckle, which stays there. You fasten and unfasten the belt by hooking onto the buckle from behind.

Now, if you get a belt from a certain utility kilt company out on the left coast, they use a Sam Browne belt buckle, but use it without the hook, treating it like a normal belt buckle. And that's what I did with the "kilt belts" that I made for sale. But because of the small size of the outer rectangle of the belt buckle, this doesn't work very well, there's really not enough room for two layers of leather to go through the buckle neatly.

With the Sam Browne belts I've made, and Robin's kilt belt (which is eventually going to get the rest of the hardware for shoulder straps), I made them properly, using hooks. And I've been meaning to go back and retro-fit the hookless kilt belts I have for sale. The problem is that it's not a pleasant shape to cut - two ellipses with a center narrower part, and the whole thing is curves. It doesn't show when you wear the belt, but I wanted it to look like all the other parts, which are also curvy and ellipse-based. (And also a pain to cut - but I don't think I can justify dies for them).

Therefore, I finally got around to sending out requests for quotes for a die to make cutting it out easy. I sent them to three firms last night. I've gotten one back, and the profits from three belts would pay for it. Looks like I'm going to be buying a new die, once I get the other two quotes and decide who I'm buying from.

One of the outstanding quotes is the company I buy most of my leather and hardware from, and where I got my other dies (satchel parts and armor scale). If they're competitive in price I'll probably stick with them, but I thought it would be sensible to find out where they fall in terms of pricing.

For Ron and Robin's belts I sewed the hook piece on by hand. But I've got this big sewing machine that does this kind of job much faster and with less stress on my hands and wrists. So I think kilt belts for sale will be done by machine.

Brain Back from MuseCon!

2011-08-15T11:37:00.000-05:00

Woo hoo! My brain isn't being consumed by MuseCon any more! And although I did the WindyCon Progress Report this weekend, WindyCon hasn't eaten my brain yet. And probably won't as badly as MuseCon, since I only do Publications for WindyCon.

My next Graphic Arts class starts a week from tomorrow. I'm taking Variable Data Technologies, which teaches you how to get data from Excel into InDesign - like creating "personalized" junk mail. It sounds interesting. So that's where I'll be Tuesday nights until, IIRC, December. Different instructor than the first two classes I took, which I'm kind of looking forward to, also.

So, what, specifically, has been up with Otter Necessities lately?

Not a whole lot, as you might guess. But I'm trying to get back into harness.

Etsy/ArtFire
I de-listed everything on ArtFire and I'm re-listing one or two every day or so, to try to help with search results since the default is showing most recently listed first. Etsy now default-sorts by relevancy, but I'm doing the same trickle-listing on Etsy. I figured out how to the "how to measure a belt" diagram on ArtFire in the gallery, don't see a similar function on Etsy, so it looks like it'll be something I post as a secondary picture with each belt listing.

Still no ArtFire sales, only Etsy. Maintaining both isn't a lot more work than doing one, though, so I'll give it some more time and attention.

Books are caught up, except for one transaction I forgot - the book cover I made for one of the staff at the high school, so it didn't have an Etsy/PayPal/FedEx paper trail.

Where was I on This, That, and The Other Thing?
My plan to see what I had in production was simplified yesterday by removal of The Saw, which has been eating up dining room space for the last few months, to the back porch to build formwork for concrete related to side porch reconstruction. Ron said I had an unholy gleam in my eyes when he told me it would be outside for part of the day.

I'd already found a bin of finished but un-inventoried merchandise, to which I added several half-done items, some paperwork-ish bits, and made a list of what was cut out but otherwise not very far along in assembly.

I got all the finished and mostly-done things tagged and inventoried, and also finished lacing up a lace mania purse and sewed the back on a small Sam-Browne-Project-ish pouch. That pouch and another one of the same style just need minor finishing work now. All the finished items were sent up to Ron's room to have their pictures taken. That includes five of the newest smaller purse. Which I also figured out a price for. And updated the price list.

And as Bob as my Witless we WILL get pictures taken of belts!

Marmaduke (friend of Robin's, who has adopted us) came over in the afternoon, so I didn't dragoon Robin into helping me sort merchandise from the trailer - I want to put all of the stuff that's listed (or inactive) on Etsy/ArtFire into one (or a few) bins, so that it's easy to find.

Events:
Fox Hunt is next weekend, merchants will be outdoors. Passing on that, especially since Ron's back has been crabby since MuseCon.

The Palatine HS fall craft fair is either the weekend before or the weekend after WindyCon, so that's Right Out.

The SCA event Boar's Head is around December 10th. We're used to do well there, before the economy tanked, and since we haven't been in a couple-few years it's probably worth the drive.

The weekend after Boar's Head is the Fremd HS craft fair. I get the impression it's bigger/better than PHS's. Only second-floor spaces are left, and those cost about what we grossed at the PHS spring fair. Ron says no, I'm waffling. Maybe I'll go scope it out and if it looks like a better show than PHS's see about the spring show. The vendor list looks better, anyway.

Sorta-Kinda Meta Stuff
Considering, again, getting a bunch of templates cut out. I have a bunch of patterns I'd like to get made, but we don't have enough Round Tuits. This place, that a friend had found, will laser-cut almost as much as you want out of an X by Y size piece of acrylic for a set price, which includes shipping - I say "almost as much" because there is language that implies if you have zillions of tiny pieces the cost goes up, but for my templates I highly doubt that clause would kick in.

I'm also considering getting quotes for a couple more cutting dies for one part of Sam Browne/kilt belts, and cutting the rounded end for those belts.

MuseCon Class
Circling back to MuseCon, the leather sewing class (key fob) went well. I've already told Xap I'd like to do it again, and will probably have more project options. The basic key fob would remain free, the options would probably range in the $5-15 range. I'm also looking at taking orders for a basic stitching kit - a book I like and basic tools.

This year class registration went live in May. The goal is to have it available even earlier for next year, so I should get my prototypes for possible class projects made soon-ish, and decide which ones I'm going to offer.

The options for additional projects are:

A little flat envelope-like pouch
A small pouch with a gusset (need to come up with or tweak existing design)
Paperback book cover
Belt

And just to make the admins' lives fun, I can offer color options (brown or black) for each! Hmm. The flat envelope pouch is made out of fairly soft leather, which widens the color options even more. But I probably won't do that to the admins. The gusseted pouch, book cover and belt would definitely require pre-reg, the envelope pouch less so.

Still on the To-Do List (not in order)

Pictures
List belts and smaller purses (and other items)
Sorting Etsy/ArtFire merchandise out of the main mass in the bins
Kilt belt for X2
Shoulder straps for Ron and Robin's kilt/Sam Browne belts
Retrofitting the kilt belts for sale
Checking to see if I have an outstanding e-mail order
Fixing the pouch with a broken latch I found, which I think belongs to X2.
Get the one book cover I forgot into the books

MuseCon Class Registration On-Line!

2011-05-30T08:15:00.001-05:00

Class registration for MuseCon is up and running! Point your browser at www.musecon.org and you can register for the convention and classes!

Yes, some of the classes have pre-registration: either they have a materials fee, or they are limited in size. Yes, we have the schedule that far along.

AFAIK none of the classes *require* pre-registration, but it's certainly a good idea.

If all the official slots in a class fill up, you don't really want to make the widget, or your budget is tight, you're always welcome to attend and listen.

And finally, if you know you'll be staying at the hotel, please don't wait to make your reservation.

Why yes, I *am* promiscuously cross-posting. I'm in charge of Public Relations for MuseCon, it's my job...

- Posted using software from hardware

That Thing I Hinted About A While Back

2011-05-18T09:51:00.005-05:00

A couple weeks ago I hinted about something amusing I'd be sharing. So here it is, me playing with a scam artist (or group). I've put the conversation in order for reading simplicity, and done a little editorial cleanup. I'll refer to the scammer(s) in first-person singular by the name presented, for simplicity. (green background is my e-mail, pink is his)

Michael Swanson to me, Apr 26
Hello , i'll like to order this items listed from your store to my location in Fiji. However i want you to provide me a total quote to this items including the shipping fees to the location provided.So i can effect payment and get them shipped to my address in the
Address: Winina Arcade,
Main Street (Opp. New Rups),
Nausori Fiji Island
So i will place you my card info so you charge fees for the items including shipping fees.So get back to me as soon as possible.

Ok, I did salvage this from my Gmail spam folder, but there's a reason I check it daily for false-positives. It didn't come through our website contact form, the spelling, the lack of actually, y'know, mentioning a particular item, etc. were danger signs, but I thought I'd give it a response.

But, Fiji? Wouldn't Australia be closer/cheaper? Ok, I did have an inquiry earlier this year via Etsy from Singapore, but that was about the shipping cost for a specific pouch (ouch, pricey, was the answer)

Liana Winsauer to swansonmichael7, Apr 26
You will have to specify which item, what colors, hardware, etc., and how many you would like before I can give you a price quote.
Once I have given you a price, payment can be made via PayPal or Google Checkout, and I will not ship until the funds have actually cleared the process of withdrawl and deposit to my account. I do not accept traveler's, cashier's or third-party checks for international orders.

But I'm not stupid, I know the cashier's/third-party check scam.

Michael Swanson to me, Apr 28
Your site wont open from my side please send me a product and price list.

Liana Winsauer to Michael, Apr 28
Our business is small, we do not have a catalog. I have belts, belt pouches, purses, wallets, checkbooks, and book covers, and some costume accessories. What types of items are you interested in? Please note that we do not offer wholesale pricing.

I am curious how you found my contact information if you cannot access my website?

(Actually, if I had a real customer with a large order, there would be a price break)

Michael Swanson to me, Apr 28
Please help me with a price list on the listed items below
purses, wallets, belts

Ok, fine, but I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it...

Liana Winsauer to Michael, Apr 28
All prices are in U.S. Dollars.

1" wide belts start at $15.00
1.5" wide belts start at $30.00
2.25" wide belts start at $35.00
Purses are typically $50.00-$80.00
Wallets start at $25.00

Also, I would appreciate answer my previous question about how you came by my contact information.

Michael Swanson to me, Apr 29
Thanks for the response to my mail, However the items needed are listed below in the mail.

1" wide belts start at $15.00..............................40qty
1.5" wide belts start at $30.00...........................25qty
2.25" wide belts start at $35.00.........................15qty

Address: CELTIC TOUCH
Winina Arcade
Main Street (opp. New Rups)
Nausori
Fiji Islands
So i want you to provide me the total quote to the items .And for the shipping i will prefer you to contact an agent who handles my shipment, you can to get them via , they have been handling my shipments quite sometime now .All you need to do is provide them adequate information of the items or package and they will be able to quote you based on the information provided.So get back to me with the quote to the items and the shipping quote as well .And if these quote have been confirmed and suitable i will place you my card information so you can charge for the fees.I look forward to read from you soon.

Hey, his English is getting better! And this is starting to just scream scam: stolen CC number, trying to over-pay me to pay the shipper, shady shipper, take your pick. I did file a report at that point that should have gone to local law enforcement and/or the FBI, but since I wasn't out any money and didn't have any contact information that struck me as legit, I'm not surprised I never heard back. But it would have been cool.

Liana Winsauer to Michael, Apr 29
What color(s) of each type of belt would you like? I have black, dark brown, reddish-brown, and golden-brown. For hardware for the 1" wide and 1.5" wide belts I have stainless-steel with black accents. For the 2.25" wide belts I have nickel-plated and brass buckles.
Before I can give you a price quote you also need to specify if you want the belts un-trimmed and without holes, or if you would like them trimmed and holes punched, what length(s) you would like to order.

Please note that because this is a large order for my company, I will require pre-payment before beginning production. I do not have quite this many belts on hand.

I am not clear why you want me to contact your shipper to get your quote, as that would be a transaction between you and the shipper. Can you please clarify your understanding of the shipping and payment process for me?

For a shipping quote, I am located in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. Until I actually have the belts made, packed, and packaged I cannot supply accurate package dimensions and weight, but as a rough estimate two boxes, each between 25 and 40 pounds, approximately 12" x 12" x 18" in size.

I actually did go to the trouble of measuring a copier paper carton. Then made a SWAG of 1 lb/belt.

Michael Swanson to me, May 1
Please mix all available sizes, styles and buckle and then provide me a quote.

Liana Winsauer to Michael, May 1
A mixed lot of 80 belts, various colors, widths, and hardware,
untrimmed with no holes, will be $2500.00
A mixed lot, trimmed to various lengths and holes punched, will be $3000.00

If you do the math for my "starting with" prices and the numbers he requests above, it comes out to $1875. And no, I don't normally charge for cutting to length and putting holes in. Plus my comment above for a large order. I've dropped any thoughts I may have had that he is a legitimate customer and am having fun!

Michael Swanson to me, May 1
A mixed lot, trimmed to various lengths and holes punched is preferable, however i am okay with the quote for the order, however i want you to make contact with the shipper i referred you to in previous mail regarding the shipment and their email is (deliveryinaflash@rocketmail.com). Once i get the shipping quote and i find it suitable, then i will proceed with the payment providing you my Master card information so that you can process the order fee including the shipping fee. So please get back to me as soon as possible regarding this mail.

Apparently I was doing a good job acting stoopid. So time for another shipping question. I didn't want to scare him off, though; nor did I want to actually tell him where I'm at (although IIRC our PO Box address is in plain text on our website. Which he *claims* he can't get to. The end result of my pondering had me cackling like a demented thing.

Liana Winsauer to Michael, May 1
As I said previously, I cannot provide exact weights and carton dimensions until the order is completed. I have, however, provided an estimate to you, as well as my general location. This will allow you to get an estimate from your shipping company directly, all you have to do is copy and paste. When ready I can drop the packages off at a Chicago-area terminal, or arrange for pickup at my facility in the industrial district of Long Grove, Illinois.

I do not understand why you want me involved in paying your shipper, please explain why this complexity is necessary.

"my facility in the industrial district of Long Grove" I like to just hold that gem up to the light and admire it...

Oh, yeah, for those not from 'round here, Long Grove is a very tony little 'burb, with high-cost housing and a quaint downtown shopping bit. No industrial district there!

Michael Swanson to me, May 4
Please let me know when the order is complete.

Liana Winsauer to Michael, May 4
As I explained previously, I require pre-payment before beginning to make the belts, nor will I ship the order until all moneys have completely cleared the payment process. Please let me know which you prefer: PayPal or Google Checkout, so that I can send you an invoice from the correct account.

Not that I was going to give him a live account. But I wanted to keep my little fishie on the line and play with him some more.

And his English has been pretty decent for a while now, nu? Wonder if the bad stuff at first was a front to try to convince me he was a non-native speaker from Fiji, or just somebody else at the keyboard?

Michael Swanson to me, May 4
I will send you my master card information to process the fees on you POS merchant terminal.

Oh hell no. I don't want some poor sod's stolen CC number. Hmm. Wonder if he's still going to try to over-pay me so that I can pay the shipping fees. Which I'm pretty sure would violate my merchant service agreement, if I had one.

OTOH, even though I've omitted time-stamps, the May 4 e-mails were forming an almost real-time conversation. In the morning. And did I mention Fiji (yeah, right) is 7 hours ahead of IL?

Liana Winsauer to Michael, May 4
That is not an option. DO NOT SEND YOUR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION TO ME. I do not care to be part of a transaction with significant risk of identity theft.

As you prefer not to use on-line payment services I will open a new account at my bank and provide you the information necessary to do a wire transfer. If this is acceptable, I can open the account during the midday, approximately three hours from now, or this evening.

Please note that I will not accept over-payment for shipping fees.

Sadly, I apparently showed that I wasn't stupid, and scared him off. Sigh.

So, should I send him one more e-mail asking if he still wants to place the order?

Update, 25 August 2011:

Wow, 9 responses here and IIRC I had another one on my personal blog (where I'd posted a link to this post) in the last 3 months.

Just to help along anyone else who is approached by this scammer, a couple commenters have mentioned that the name Michael Wilton is also being used, and at least one used a different address (LOT 1 KINGS CROSS ROAD, MINISTRY LANE, MANOCA, NAUSORI TOWN).

I haven't responded to individual comments, but I'm glad I've been of some help to people.

13 September 2011:

Now reported to be using the name Gabriel Wilton, and an address of: Celtic Touch, Shop 3, Honson Arc, Suva,Fiji Islands. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer, eh?

13 December 2011

New variants!

Gabby Levuka
Lot 1, Kings Cross Road, Ministry Lane, Manoca, Nausori Town
박윤환 " Y H Park
Linda Kappler, who claimed to be from "Wayne Impact Store" out of Oakland, MD, still sending to Fiji
Elizabeth Locke, Oakland, MD, to Fiji via UPS or DHL
Linda Wayne Kappler, whose IP address was traced to Nigeria

back to Gabriel Wilton, this time in Ukraine Islands

No, not quite dead yet!

2011-05-04T09:03:00.000-05:00

Not much leatherworking getting done lately, although I did ship a couple pouches out last week. Finished my final project for the class I'm taking this term, which is a promotional folder for Otter Necessities Design Services. Linky goodness showing you what it looks like over on my personal blog:
http://www.dracos-otter.com/otter_blog/?p=753

I will probably have some more news soon, most likely of a more amusing (and less productive) nature.

Why yes, that is a teaser!

I...am...a...tur...tle...

2011-04-17T20:19:00.002-05:00

So, last time around I said I was going yo do taxes next day and Robin was going to deliver the book cover. And....

...both things happened as planned!

Then the customer asked if I could modify the cover to fasten shut. And add her name. Repeat previous post comment about book covers going slowly.

So, yesterday I spent significant amounts of time doing the closure modification badly, while Ron tooled the name piece (with breaks for grocery shopping and a MuseCon meeting). By bedtime I was frustrated, I'd accomplished nothing useful, and Ron had the name partially done.

This morning Ron finished the name piece, and I started over on the flaps to hold the cover shut. They went much better, and I started sewing.

Then I finished a pouch, started pot roast,and did dishes while waiting for the name to dry.

Eventually it was declared dry enough, and I got it ready to sew on.

It wasn't too late in the afternoon, so I made a (box mix) cake to celebrate the impending book cover conclusion. Then I went back to sewing.

I finished by dinnertime! Yay! I'd been worried I'd be up stupid late tonight finishing it. After dinner Ron got pictures. Hopefully to be posted tomorrow.

Yes, well, about those statements in the last post...

2011-04-02T15:38:00.000-05:00

I did finish the book cover. Yesterday. As Bob as my witless, I don't know what it is about book covers, I cannot do one quickly. Anyhoo, the customer works at Robin's school, so he can deliver it. To the discipline office. Snicker.

No progress on Etsy/ArtFire, either. Yes, I are a slacker. Taxes will get done tomorrow, insert expletive here!

But at the moment, it's time to go retrieve Robin from the local Games Workshop store.

Accomplishments, or Lack Thereof

2011-03-18T15:19:00.000-05:00

This week I've been fairly distracted by spinning, as evidenced by the volume of spinning natter over on my personal blog.

I could claim that my hands and wrists were tired of hand-sewing and lacing, and I've been giving them a break. There would even be some truth to that statement. It would not, however, explain my lack of Etsy/ArtFire updates (insert guilty look here).

I did get an order directly attributable to the craft fair, so I'll be starting that (and finishing, with luck) this weekend. I just need to find a book of the appropriate thickness at home so I can figure out how much leather wrapping a cover around it will take. Oooh, I dunno, finding a book in our house . . .

I also need to do the books from the craft fair (which shouldn't take long), and do the inventory update and price-tag new-ish finished things (a larger job). Which I'm not making any promises on.

On the Design front, this week we started our big project for the term in GRA102 - Graphic Arts 101, but more so. (yeah, I'm just a liiiitle bored, I'm not sure we've done much new yet, except for things I already am familiar with in InDesign. Sigh). It's a folder, business card, and inserts for a business or organization. Can you guess what business I might possibly do?

When we were supposed to do sketches of several possible logos I asked if I really needed to do that, since I have an established logo. The instructor said no, but please sketch what it is. Thank Ghu she's wasn't expecting a good sketch.

My plan is that the overall package will be for Otter Necessities Design Services. I'll include not one, but two business cards - Otter Necessities Design Services, and Ron's photography business cards. We have an option of doing a set of 4 insert sheets in stepped heights, or a mumble-page insert stapled into the folder. I'm thinking . . . both. The stepped sheets in the left-hand pocket of the folder, and then making the stapled insert a mini-portfolio. Yeah, I think I can generate that much content, especially if I include things like retouching work Ron's done on old family photos, and re-purposing old advertising posters I've done for MuseCon, and custom leather presentation folders/binders. The only hitch may be time.

Also been poking at Publications stuff for both MuseCon and Windycon. A week after MuseCon I get to put the Progress Report mailing for Windycon. Wheee! Nothing like a packed schedule!

I've decided not to take any Graphic Arts classes over the summer, still waffling about fall. But I can wait on that.

Craft Fair Report

2011-03-13T11:37:00.000-05:00

Sorry about disappearing again. Besides getting ready for the craft fair, I had to do a presentation at the floodplain managers' conference pre-conference workshop last week, and I kept getting distracted by a new spinning wheel in the house.

I still haven't gotten ArtFire and Etsy updated, and I'm not sure I have sufficient brains tonight. It was a long week - Tuesday morning I left for Normal and didn't get home until Thursday evening, then had the craft fair yesterday. Fortunately, Ron and Robin did most of the packing, all had to do was mark straps for the last three new purses, and assemble tools.

The craft fair was at Palatine High School, so it was nice and local. It opened for setup at 6:30 am, but we didn't get there until 7:15-ish, since it didn't open until 9:00. We were set up by 8:00. Yeah, we're fast, but we also didn't put out all the pouches or belts.

I'd only gotten one 8' x 10' spot, so I only brought one 6' table, and two 4' tables, and figured one of the small ones would stay in the truck. But we got lucky, and got a corner! Woot! So we had a nice L, and the person on the other side wasn't crowding, so we had comfortable space to get in and out, and for Ron to play with his spinning wheel.

I only put out a selection of buckled belts, and a couple (black) tied belts (just in case...), so I didn't bring the belt rack. I did put out all the purses, satchels, book covers, and a selection of belt pouches. I didn't bring the alpaca or knitting patters. I probably could/should have.

Last Saturday was Fremd HS's craft fair, and they did a *MUCH* better job advertising. We're about midway between the two schools, I saw lots of signage for Fremd's fair, nothing for Palatine's, until yesterday, and only right near the school. Robin said he didn't see any signage at school. This may explain why Fremd can charge more. Fortunately, there was a gymnastics meet, a concert, and at least practice for lacrosse and swimmers yesterday, which probably brought a few people in besides students directly involved.

I wish I'd gone to Fremd's fair, to see what their spaces and vendor selection was like. A good half the vendors yesterday were re-sellers. And not re-seller's of somebody else's handmade goodies, resellers of Longaberger baskets, Tupperware, ugly but fashionable purses, and Ghu knows what other carp. Which explains why people seemed so pleased to see me working on purses, and/or when we responded that yes, it's all our own work. The only other vendor I spent any time looking at was a couple guys with very nice woodworking.

Our neighbor was the one selling Longaberger baskets. She was nice, and I must say that her table looked nice, too. Grumbling about resellers aside, I'm glad we were next to her than some of the junk that was for sale.

Sales were not great, but since there were no travel costs to speak of, not bad. All those purses? Sold none. Belts? None. A belt pouch, and two satchels. OTOH, the belt pouch and the fabric satchel covered booth costs, and the fabric satchel was one I thought was never going to sell. The third sale was a leather satchel, so in the end it was a day that would have been decent when I was a new-ish SCA vendor. And considering that I only had out limited stock, that's a fair comparison for sales levels.

And I think I did generate some more potential business out of it. One lady was very interested in a custom-size book cover. The lady that bought the fabric satchel for her daughter said they were very into Etsy when I mentioned that I'm local and have an Etsy shop. There's also possibility of a couple belt sales, etc., especially since I'm local.

I'm thinking a couple of the high school craft shows per year might not be bad for business, especially if this one seems to result in after-business. I'm quite willing to lay credit for after-sales to the worth of attending a show.

In any case, we need to re-build parts of the belt rack. The bits in question are 2x2s with 3/4" diameter holes near the ends, and they're suffering chipping around the holes from years of use. I'm not sure if we want to just replace, or go with a partial re-design.

I'm also considering if I want to come up with a smaller belt display option, especially I do decide to do "mundane" shows more often. I'm mulling over the idea of some grid panels, like the ones Windycon owns and loans/rents to Capricon, Duckon, etc.

Progress Progressing

2011-02-27T17:22:00.000-06:00

I cut out two more smaller purses Thursday, one in chestnut (red-brown), and one black, both to have black gussets.

Then while I was working on them yesterday I made what may have been a tactical mistake. I put the chestnut back/flap with the black front, and the black back/flap with the chestnut front. They look really good that way, but that's not what I meant to do. Ron said I should go for it. They're ready to stitch/lace.

So yesterday I tried again at cutting out a black new small purse. All that's left to do with that is the stitching holes, and the actual stitching and lacing. I forgot how little time one thing takes, I've been doing mass production so much.

This afternoon we finally got pictures taken of the newest purses and some pouches I'd finished. Here's a picture of taking a picture:

Sorry about the funny vertical bars, Ron's guess is that they're caused by a strobe effect from his flourescent photographic lights.

Yes, the pouch is levitating. Kinda. No, there was no photoshopping, rotating the picture, etc.

Magnets, however...

Cutting cutting cutting

2011-02-24T19:34:00.001-06:00

I went ahead and cut out two more of the new smaller purses tonight: another black one, and one with a chestnut (red-brown) front and back/flap, and a black gusseted. That one will probably get a black strap.

Ron doesn't think I'm crazy for starting these with the intention of finishing them for the craft fair. I have 2 weekends plus weekdays including 2 nights away from home.

But now, off to the tub.

Sticker Shock

2011-02-24T15:11:00.001-06:00

Last night I investigated overseas shipping prices.

To a large far-east city, FedEx would be $90 or $170. Ouch!

Then I checked UPS: $215. Aaaaiiiieeeee!!!!

I think I ranted something at the computer about not needing fast service.

Not expecting much better luck, I tried the Post Awful.

A medium-size flat-rate box, limit 20 lbs: $45.

Blink blink.

Pricey, but not completely barking mad, and 8-10 days (presumably not including Customs) isn't slow-boat to China-slow, either.

Now we'll see what the customer thinks.

Planning Natter

2011-02-23T09:13:00.001-06:00

I did some poking sbout yesterday, the default search result order on both Etsy and ArtFire appears to be by most recently listed. I can see from that listing bunches of items at longer intervals is not optimal. Listing one or two items at a time more often is going to be better for search result placement. It's also probably better for getting people to check your shop on a regular basis.

So, I think the plan for listing belts is going to be one style every day or two or three, probably starting with 1" buckled, 1.5" "mundane" buckled, or the kilt/Sam Browne (w/out shoulder strap) belts. I have a picture of the 4 colors of harness leather/latigo I use for belts, and a measuring diagram (because clothing size is abso-stinking-useless), I just need good shots of some of the hardware, and some finished belts.

Last night I was debating cutting out a couple more of the new smaller purses, since I'll be away from home and bored for 2 nights at the annual floodplain managers' conference. And this morning I was thinking that it's about time for another web sale.

From my mouth to the FSM's noodle appendage. This morning I had a message from a customer about a custom order. To the far east. Erm. Must check shipping options & rates. And design a pouch big enough.

iPouch Pics Plus

2011-02-23T08:52:00.001-06:00

First up, the iPouch, sticking it's tongue out:

And here is my iPod, standing in for my iPhone (which I was taking the photo with) in a shot showing the lift strap in action:

Ron had a splitting headache last night, so I didn't ask for any photography. I did do dishes and got the Lace Mania purses ready to lace, and I think I have a plan on how to list belts for sale, so that was sufficient accomplishment.

Posty Nattery Thingy

2011-02-22T14:14:00.001-06:00

A week ago (that long?!?) we tried waxing some pouch fronts, and discovered that the heat gun was dead. At first Ron thought it was being crotchety about running on a 20-amp circuit, but it wasn't any happier on a 12-amp.
So Ron finished up the iPouch front he'd started and did the pouch front the order with the hair dryer, which is slower, and noisier. And has a broken on-off switch, making it a pain to use.

Thursday we went to Berland's House of Toy...er...Tools and got a new heat gun.

Friday night and Saturday morning I worked on the ordered pouch, and laced it together before and after Saturday afternoon's MuseCon meeting. We made the belt yesterday morning, and shipped them off (we all had the day off). The pouch is brown with a havana (dark brown) harness leather back/flap and dark brown lace that almost matches the havana, and the belt is also havana. The pouch has an added pocket, which came out pretty well. I've done pockets in purses before by making them just a bit wider than the back of the pouch, but the customer wanted a larger pocket, so I worked out where and how to accordion-pleat the pocket to add space and leave margin for lacing it in. It came out rather nicely, and I should have taken a picture. Oops.

Saturday evening I finished the large black purse I was working on last week, and yesterday we made shoulder straps for it, the two new smaller purses, and the two Lace Mania purses that are in progress, and put the straps on the purses that are done. The other straps two have all the necessary holes, and just have to be riveted on once I lace the purses up (mass-production for the win). I got the lace mania purses glued together last night, I have to do is mark/punch the lacing holes in the gussets and finish installing latches, hopefully tonight, then I can lace them together.

I also finished my first iPouch. It was designed for old Nokia N810 devices, which are a little different in size than iPhones, but I'd taken iPhone size into account in the design. The iPouch is a little deep, so I added a lifter strap to go under the phone to help pull it out. It's a snug fit with the cover I have on my iPhone, but not as bad with a naked phone. I still have to trim the end of the strap, currently it looks like the pouch is sticking out its tongue. I'll try to remember to get a picture tonight.

Didn't get pictures of the new purses or belts this weekend, I may send Ron upstairs to do that while I work on the Lace Mania purses. I'd like to get belts posted to Etsy and ArtFire. Which reminds me, I added sales tax handling to my Etsy and ArtFire shops. Hopefully it doesn't cut into sales, thankyouverymuch Todd Stroger, I just looooove 9.5% sales tax. (Yes, I'm charging my local sales tax on non-local purchases, although I explain on both sites that I will adjust for other Illinois rates if contacted pre-sale. I'd rather not perturb the Illinois Department of Revenue, thanks).

Downloaded a blogging app, Blogpress, to my phone. I'm typing this in mail on a real keyboard, then I'll try posting via cut and paste through Blogpress. Initial poking at the app looks promising.

A Quiet-Ish Day

2011-02-14T19:36:00.000-06:00

We took today off as a post-Capricon recovery day.

Worked on the new smaller purse in brown yesterday and today, now it just needs the shoulder strap. Also figured out how much they cost to make, and I think the selling price will be $35-40.

Got another internet order today. A belt and a custom-ish hard pouch (particular colors, and adding a pocket). Fortunately, I have a front for that size pouch molded, which cuts the time needed to make it. The front does need to be waxed, which we'll probably do tomorrow.

I'm wondering if my Etsy store is generating non-Etsy traffic. You have to join Etsy in order to purchase through Etsy, I'm wondering if there's some people who don't like that "feature", and look for the same vendors outside of Etsy. I suppose I could add an optional box to the web contact form/verbiage on the website "contact us" page asking how people found us.

I have a bunch of other pouch fronts needing to be waxed, too. We haven't done that job in a while. Did some trimming prepartory to waxing. Also went out and dyed some of said waiting-to-be-waxed fronts black this evening.

Today I also worked on lacing together the large purse I'd gotten ready for working on at Capricon. I thought for a little while today I'd lost the gusset, which would be a royal pain in the backside, but I found it - if it had teeth, it would have bitten Robin when he didn't find it.

Also drew up a hard pouch back in CAD - IIRC I'd originally done it with pencil and paper, and I'm not sure where the original is. But I had one cut out of leather, so I was able to reverse-engineer it.

Sounds like I did a lot, but it didn't seem like it.

New Purse

2011-02-13T12:05:00.000-06:00

Here are a couple pictures of the new purse. The body is about 5" tall, 7" wide, and 3" thick; with a wider flap, and with the curve in the flap it's actually about 5-1/2"-5-3/4" tall. I wanted to pull the flap down a little farther, but I screwed up and punched holes in the flap for the larger rotary latch. Oops.

Yes, I know my backdrop has dog hair all over it. It isn't a backdrop so much as a chunk of fabric left over from a mending job, propped up on a water bottle and a pile of other stuff that was sitting within reach of my seat on the couch. And the pictures were taken with my iPhone camera (which really isn't a bad little camera).

Once the purse has a shoulder strap it'll go upstairs to the light table and have a proper portrait taken under the for-real photographer lights with a DSLR.

Still Not at Capricon

2011-02-13T10:45:00.000-06:00

Still not at Capricon, but feeling better. I think I may be pretty much done with the fever nonsense. On the other hand, I'm tired and crabby. I tried to go to bed about 8:30, but I didn't get to sleep until some time after 10:30, and then didn't sleep well. Hmm. Part of my problem was comfort temperature-wise, maybe it was a fever thing. Anyway, I think the tired and grumpy is related to the not-sleeping part.

Got the 2011 books started. I think I've figured out record-keeping for mail-order (ie: internet) sales that will actually be useful. We've had 4 already this year, which is at double what I've done in previous whole years. And as I said previously, I'd like to increase the volume of internet sales.

I did realize this morning that there is some more internet-sale record-keeping that I need to deal with: membership and/or listing fees for ArtFire and Etsy. Artfire charges a flat monthly fee, Etsy charges listing and sales fees. I'll can roll the Etsy fees for items that sell into the sales record-keeping, but I need to account for costs associated with items that don't sell, and the ArtFire fees. Must think about how best to do this.

Trying something new this year to keep paperwork from floating around the house. I've got one binder for all my paperwork from purchases, and another one for on-line sales paperwork (in-person sales don't generate as much paper, and I've been dealing reasonably successfully with them for years). Hopefully the binders I got are too small, at least for the sales paperwork.

Yesterday in the afternoon/evening I put away some patterns, and then printed out and put away some of my own designs and binderized them, too, to hopefully limit the re-re-re-printing from the CAD files because I mislay them. A few months ago I got one binder to store my bought patterns, now there's a matching one for paper patterns of our own design. Lexan/plexiglass patterns have a drawer of their own. Which reminds me, I need to get some more plexi and get Ron and/or Robin to make me some more templates for things I'm still using paper patterns for, but I make with some regularity.

And now, Ron says I need to go see if more food helps my temper. And then I think I'll finish sewing the body of the small black purse prototype. Then I have to decide if I want to rivet the shoulder strap on, or sew it. I'll probably rivet it.

The Not-At-CapriCon Report

2011-02-12T13:53:00.000-06:00

As I whined over on my personal blog, I'm not at Capricon this weekend.

I had two little pouches, the two new smaller purse prototypes (two prototypes of one design), and a large purse ready to work on while hanging out at the Cafe and various places, as well as some pouches. I got the flap laced and most of the sewing done on one of the new purses before I came home yesterday. After I got home I was too out of it to work any more.

This morning I figured I'd work on pouches and purses, since I wasn't all better. But then I remembered the pile of Otter paperwork that needed sorting, so I've sorted that, and been poking at the books. I've got the last bits of 2010 transactions entered, but I left checking my aggregate-all-numbers spreadsheet formulas to make sure they're pointing at the right places until I'm a little more clear-headed.

Now working on 2011 transactions - I've been procrastinating on putting the internet sales in until I decided what I was doing for record-keeping (mostly format thereof), and making sure I was doing sales tax on internet purchases correctly.

Making progress there.

However, I think once I finish the last couple spoonfuls of my yummy yummy Avgolemono soup, I'm going to chase the dogs out for a few minutes then go sit in the tub.

And I'm afraid that the eye infection from hell I had a couple years ago, which took months and months to clear completely away, may be trying to make a comeback. This distresses me even more than missing Cap.

State of the To-Do

2011-02-06T12:41:00.000-06:00

Went in to my Etsy store, picked a half-dozen-ish items, and re-listed them, and realized I need another picture or three to list belts. I have one picture with most of the hardware, but not our "mundane" belt buckle & keeper set or our kilt belts.

In the process of responding to an inquiry from the website, I went to the basement to see what leather I had down by the formerly-cutting table (lately a beekeeping equipment table - must figure out how to rectify that).

While I was in the basement, I had Robin bring me the leather and dies to cut dee holders for the purses. And then I put Robin to work cleaning up the basement workshop area (since much of the mess is because of his not putting things away), and started die-cutting scales out of the great big bin of scrap I sent down during the dining room cleanup. Like most of us, Robin works better with company (and encouragement and suggestions). He found a significant section of floor! Woo-hoo!

OTOH, I don't think I'm getting around to further paperwork sorting today. It's a fair tradeoff for getting some basement cleaning and scale cutting done. Now I really need to market said scales. It would also be nice to figure out some other product for small scrap, but haven't come up with one.

I finished the Capricon Cafe and Musecon party signage and flyers yesterday, just need to be uploaded for printing. I also did a new business card design for Otter Necessities, which has the current e-mail address (otter at our domain). The old cards had my old e-mail address on it. I also need to consider pointing the web contact form to the Otter Necessities mail address instead of my personal gmail as it does currently. I check my personal gmail more often, but pointing it at the other would make some sense, and I can get into the habit of checking it more than once per day.

Oops, rather a digression there. Anyway, the new business cards have the "new" e-mail address, I cut down the amount of verbiage on the front, moving a line or so to the back and also referring customers to Etsy and ArtFire. I decided to spring for full color, and Ron said get glossy. So in a week or so I should have 250 shiny new pretty business cards.

Now, off to do dishes and then work on purses. So, even though the paperwork sorting doesn't appear to be happening, I'm doing pretty well on the to-do list.

More Current than Catch-Up

2011-02-05T11:17:00.000-06:00

I have, IIRC, 5 purses cut out now: 2 of the new smaller purse, in brown and black; a black large rectangular purse; and 2 lace mania purses, again one brown and one black. I also cut out replacements for the little pouch I sold this week, and finally got to FedEx yesterday - a brown one and a black one of that (although I'm mentally classifying that one as Steampunk/Sam Browne Project, which is Not-Black, but brain said "make black" and I did).

The little pouches are in final assembly, still working on getting all the parts made, etc. for the purses. I was waffling about the purses on stitching vs lacing; I decided to stitch the bodies and lace around just the flap. I do have one concern about my design, but if it turns out to be valid I think I also have a fix.

My Etsy listings have all fallen off due to length of time, so I have to either re-list and/or list some new things.

This morning I sorted through various mixed bills, statements, and paperwork, making one pile of Otter's stuff. Later today or tomorrow I'll go through that and sort it. This is the first part of closing the books for 2011 and doing taxes.

OTOH, I did my sales tax filings back in December. Yes, there was a small risk of internet sale(s) after I filed them, but there is a process for filing an amended return if that had happened.

The schedule for this weekend is to work on purses, finish up signage for the Capricon Cafe and flyers for the MuseCon party, and to continue on with paperwork/bookkeeping.

More Catch-Up

2011-02-03T08:51:00.000-06:00

Our next event is the Spring Craft Fair at Palatine High School, Saturday March 12th. Yes, our previous craft fair attempts were failures, but the last one at the HS was, I heard, awful for all the vendors, in part because it was the same day as the Fremd craft fair, and one at, IIRC, Arlington Park. Fremd's is a week before this time around, so we'll give it a try.

The Palatine craft fair is $55 for one spot, without electricity or tables. I looked at the information for Fremd's, IIRC the spots start out at about $80. That was over my mental limit. Maybe another time, if we do well at Palatine.

Not sure when the next SCA event will be, I don't see the one that's been held at Glenbrook North HS the last couple/few years in March-ish - around Mardi Gras, I think it was.

We're also looking at doing fewer events, and trying to do more web sales. Ron's back appreciates that business model, and one of these years Robin will be moving out (although the current plan is for him to live at home and go to Harper for his first couple years of college). And since Ron cleaned up the spare bedroom to use as a photography studio, he can keep his light table and lights set up, which makes getting pictures of new merchandise a simpler thing. In theory.

I haven't had any ArtFire sales. I had one sale of two belts on Etsy, but I haven't actually listed belts there yet (need pictures - that theory with getting pictures is still not working perfectly), it was a friend of a friend.

Besides those two belts, this year already I've gotten (and filled) an order from a previous customer for a cover for an artist's spiral notebook; and from new customers for two belts, and a pouch. The pouch has been boxed up and ready to go to FedEx since Tuesday night. But the cars only got out of the driveway far enough to get the driveway plowed yesterday, and I'm stuck home with car trouble today. I called to see what a pickup would cost, but it wouldn't be until tomorrow, so I'll drop it off tonight or tomorrow morning, and save the fee.

Yes, I like FedEx. I've been content with their service, they have tracking, and I can do all the shipment hoo-ha and even print the label from home, and the 24-hour FedEx/Kinko's office on Roselle is on a reasonable alternate route to work. UPS is #2, tied with FedEx for reliability and tracking, but not quite as convenient. USPS is close to home, but fails on tracking, and I think they're slower than the other two, but not particularly cheaper.

Monday I picked up some spiffy Avery sheets - top half is a sticky label, the bottom half is plain paper, with a perforation between, so you can print your shipping label and a packing list/invoice in one go. Got that set up Tuesday night.

Looking ahead to the craft show, I designed a new purse last night. It's gusseted, debating if I'm going to lace around the flap or not. I have one cut out in black, I think I'm going be be brave and cut a brown one out also, before I do the black one. I also need to make a big rectangular purse in black, and some of the "Lace Mania" (rounded, laced) purses. Once I find my pattern. In cleaning and rearranging the dining room to be a usable workshop again (see the "cleaning fits" tags on the Otter Blog, I seem to have mislaid some patterns...

And now, off to do work-like things. Besides the purses, I also owe Ron and Robin some Sam Browne belt parts. And since I'm home today, I can do something not-so-quick for dinner.

Another Hiatus

2011-02-03T08:18:00.000-06:00

I did it again. Another long period of silence.

Part of the problem is (or was) that Blogger wasn't playing nice with my iPhone. I should re-check and see if that's been fixed and/or if there's an app for that which works politely.

The other part is that we haven't been doing much with Otter lately. As in only one event all of last year.

No, we won't be in the Dealer's Room at Capricon. Ron is exapno's second for running the Cafe, aka Caffeination Station, so he'll be busy with that, and doing the tables by myself is not fun. I'll probably be unofficial cafe staff.

I have been doing design stuff. I had one discussion about a possible document-layout job, and even put together a quote, but I suspect it exceeded the customer's budget. I also did Publications and kept Ron (the Chair) sane for MuseCon, which was in August, and Publications for Windycon, which was in November. I also said I'd do Windycon again this year. We'll see how doing Pubs for an established convention not starting late goes, I took Windycon over on the late side last year.

I had joked that by rights I should end up doing Capricon's book this year, so that I'd have bailed out Duck (2009), Windy (2010), and Cap in consecutive years. OTOH, I'm not complaining that it didn't happen.

I was asked to work on the Publications team for Chicon 7 (WorldCon 2012), but explained that my first loyalty is to MuseCon, and they're too close together to work both. The Publications head at the time did point out that they'll be needing people for plenty of stuff earlier in the schedule, but I didn't give a definite answer, he had to step down due to work reasons, and I don't know his replacement.

Most recently, design-wise, I've been doing flyers for the MuseCon party at WindyCon. They're old advertisements from Dover books, edited and re-built into flyers. It's been fun.

In the fall term at Harper College I took Graphic Arts 101, Introduction to Graphic Arts, and this term I'm taking GRA 102, Desktop Publishing, aka GRA 101+. I'm learning a bit about Photoshop, Illustrator, and Quark XPress, but mostly these are prerequisites.

OK, I think this is long enough now. I'll call it done for design-natter, and put leather-natter in another post.

Otter Necessities on Etsy and ArtFire

2010-10-03T12:33:00.000-05:00

Oops, looks like I wandered off again and didn't post for a while.

I did get Ron the shooting table, and he's been taking pictures. He also talked me into a ring flash so he could take better ones. Yes, that is a "sucker" stamp on my forehead. OTOH, we paid for most of it with bank card reward points.

My Etsy and ArtFire shops are not only up and running, but now populated. OtterNecessities all squished together as one word on both.

If any of you, gentle readers, have accounts at either place, please let me know and perhaps a hint on how to do a friends-linky type thing?

Off to work on the WindyCon program book. Also a block party this afternoon. Making a couple turkey breasts for that. Initial plan was to do them on the grill, but we decided the weather was a little too chilly, so they're in the oven.

Not Quite Day Off

2010-09-17T14:46:00.001-05:00

Too many nights up past my bedtime this week makes for a very tired Otter. Tired enough that I didn't go to work yesterday. Ron said I could stay home as long as I came up to his office to go out to lunch with him. Seemed like a plan to me.

After breakfast I checked Google Reader, which is how I follow a bunch of blogs, and found a post with information on a special at an Etsy-alternative, ArtFire.com. If mumble people sign up for special deal, they get a Pro account for only $6/month for life, instead of the usual $16/month, and you can cancel any time after the first month.

This inspired me to take a look at both ArtFire and Etsy.

Etsy is the better-known, at least for me, but does not have a "leather" category, although you can search for "leather". No monthly fees, they go with a listing fee and percentage. ArtFire, OTOH, has the flat monthly fee, and there's a link to a "leather" category - I think as what material. But not as well known.

Well, what the hey, neither of them are exactly expensive, we'll try out both and see where I do better. OtterNecessities on both, although neither one has anything actually up yet. I also started the process of getting a GoogleCheckout merchant account, although I'm not sure Google is any less evil-empire-ish than PayPal. But it's a choice for people that absolutely can't stand PayPal; and I can't blame those that feel that way.

Ron, obviously (?) agreed to this experiment, and made an offhand comment about not doing events. Not unless on-line business really takes off.

Ron also said he might petition for this very spiffy shooting table (http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/rm1018/) which we've drooled at before. The surface is transparent, so you can get diffused lighting from below. Nor is it outrageously expensive.

Well, something must have been very soft and smooshy inside my head, because I called Calumet, then set off. After coaxing Eowyn upstairs to her crate: she did not want to wake up and climb up the stairs, dammit. Shooting table procured, along with two shot bags - those are for something completely different, I've had the shot to make some for a year or two, and decided $10 each for Calumet's were worth mumble month of further failing to find Round Tuits to make my own.

Road construction made the trip down to Oak Brook slow, and was spotty on the trip from there back up to Vernon Hills. And some back down to Palatine after lunch. 'Nuff said.

The table comes in a nice sturdy carrying bag, with a second lighter-weight bag to contain all the hard bits, which fit inside the rolled-up white semi-flexible tabletop. The angle of that back bit adjusts, too. So now Ron's agitating for a ring flash, sigh...

Anyhoo, after I got home I started doing the books from Saturday's event. Finally, that is. I'd meant to start them right after checking Google Reader, see way back above. I hit some snags:

Our cost for the black cartridge pouch (see the relevant SB project posts for pictures). I'd never figured it out.
An entry for a "brown belt" in Ron's handwriting. That . . . covers a lot of territory.
An entry for something unspecified sold with a pouch, in my handwriting.
An entry for a pouch that we sold last year.

#4 I've dealt with a couple times before. Usually it's an oops in either the tens or ones place, sort the inventory list by price and scan for likely suspects. It was the tens place, this time.
#3 I decided was a plain black belt, based on price, and the color pouch.
#2 we decided was a havana belt - havana is a brown-brown, the other two are a golden brown and a red/burgundy brown. Price and memory supplied hardware details.

#1 is still not completely resolved:

Robin and I couldn't find the original pattern, or the photocopy that was cut up for actual use. We have the pouch made in two colors of brown, at worst, but measuring an assembled pouch is not a fun way to figure costs, especially one that complex. And we want to make another one. Aaah, the problem with using Someone Else's pattern.

I checked the Tandy website, but no luck. It isn't standard Tandy stock, it was something GDI manager Bill carried because he liked it (as I thought). Sadly, Bill has retired, and when I was last in the new manager is toeing the company line. Then my google-fu was not helping. Lots of hits, but all for completed pouches, and the designer's website is really deficient.

Finally, I had the sense to ask Robin to check the other patterns we have by the same designer. Distributed by Hide Crafters (who I don't normally shop with, since the first few times I tried over a couple/few years I experienced found not-low prices, when I could even get their website or PDF catalog to work at all). Success! I went ahead and ordered the missing pattern, and three more (different) patterns (tries to look innocent).

My logic? The missing pattern is, at this point, not going to show up unless/until I replace it. I could prolong the process, but by ordering a new one ASAP I can get on with finding my old one sooner.

Robin suggested that the missing pattern would show up last night. We explained no, not until the new one ships, at best. Probably not until the new one arrives and is opened, and maybe not even until it's in use. If it had shown up last night, I could have called first thing this morning and cancelled the new one. Murphy's Law does not work that way.

Anyhow, except for the cost of the cartridge pouch, the books for Saturday's event are done.

Back to Etsy and ArtFire, my plan is not to spend much time rooting through merchandise bins. I think we'll start out with new pouches, etc., as we get them done. I think I'm going to keep comparable selections on both (some items can be identical - like X-style all-black pouches or belts) for a while and see where the best return comes from.

Back in the Hunt at Fox Hunt

2010-09-14T11:08:00.000-05:00

Friday and Saturday were mostly successful.

I got out of work a little late Friday afternoon, and thus didn't get
home until about a half-hour after Ron and Robin. But I'd sent Ron the packing list, so they had started packing the truck. I went through some of the bins in the trailer and the bin of finished pouches from in the house, deciding what to leave home and what to take, and consolidating where I could. Taking the 2 Easy-Ups meant that much less space for other stuff. Truck packing was accomplished without incident, or even snapping at each other.

Then we moved inside, and I started packing up tools and the other things in the house, like price list sheets, receipt books, etc. I once more went through some bins of odds and ends that had been going to events and decided what we really needed and what we didn't, and consolidated. Still no snapping. We must be growing up or something.

Robin took the results of the indoor packing out to the truck, and then we went off in search of dinner. On the way home we stopped for snacks - getting up at 0-dark-thirty AM generally means the hungries before what most people consider lunch time.

Up at 5 am, and off for Earlsville, IL. The site is waaay out in the boonies, a place called Stonehouse Park, which bills itself as being a dedicated site for re-enactors. From a very quick glance at the a month or two of their calendar it looks like LARP groups use the site about half the weekends, also saw this SCA event a WWII event, and an Airsoft event. Some things the park is closed for, it looks like others it's open, altohugh I'm not sure what exactly they mean by open. Website is stonehousepark.net

We weren't too far from the front entrance, across a dirt road from a big old barn, which was used for morning court, A&S, and feast. Down said road was a house/cabin where I think feast was being cooked. Down a little further was the bathhouse with flush toilets. There was a port-o-let by the barn, which was taken away presumably for cleaning, and returned Saturday about mid-afternoon. Some areas were paved with cobble-ish pavers, and on the way in there were several pallets of additional pavers and retaining blocks. Nearer the entrance was a shed-ish building with windows (think farmstand) that had a "Troll" sign, although the SCA group wasn't using it. Looking at the website there's also an old inn/farmhouse on the property, but I missed it.

The campsites where merchants were had water and electrical taps. The water tap by the breakfast/lunch pavillion was marked as non-potable, but it appeared I wasn't the only one who used it for hand-washing. There was no hand-sanitizer dispenser in/on the port-o-let, which I've gotten used to seeing. I didn't get any farther than the bathhouse, can't comment on the various fields.

All in all, it seemed like a decent site.

The morning was drizzly, but the out-and-out rain held off until we were set up. Happy happy. We discovered that a mouse had nested in one of the EZ-Up bags. In 20/20 hindsight, leaving dog betting and rope toys in the trailer in folded-up wire crates was pretty stupid. (They were sent to the garbage or washing machine as appropriate on Sunday) The rain and later sun and wind seemed to have quickly eliminated the bit of mouse-funk. Turned out we could have left the handtruck at home, we could pull right up to our space and the ground was not squashy.

After morning court everybody seemed to head out of the barn and across the way to the merchants. Specifically, to us. I'm not complaining, but I wouldn't have minded people browsing at other merchants or otherwise spreading out the busy-ness time-wise, so I could pay more attention to everybody.

Packing, it turned out, had been deficient. I grabbed the small bin that looks just like the one that holds hole punches, even though it's clear and you can see that it does not. Nor did I pack the rotary punch, or a mallet. So we may have lost a couple sales of buckled belts, since we had no way to put the holes in them. Although we did still sell a couple, to people who had or could borrow hole punches. We also forgot to put out the dog leashes and collars, which was a D'OH moment, as the Queen had said she wanted hounds at the event.
Note: a half-grown Borzoi has a wonderfully soft wavy/curly coat and is very good at the "nobody loves me" face.

By lunchtime the sun came out, and in the afternoon the breeze picked up. By mid-afternoon I'd taken down the walls we'd hung, because of the wind. The scaffolding/belt rack attacked Ron in the afternoon, because non-centered loading (intrinsic to how we have the actual belt-rack part of it), gravity, and wind pressure are like that. A nice customer helped stand it up and hold it while Ron made the short walk to the parking area for stakes from the truck.

I had a minor fail and bought some "butter" amber. Need to take it with me tomorrow night and see about getting it re-strung with a clasp, currently it's on two separate bits of fishing line.

Very tired when we got home, but happy.

Sunday Ron supervised Robin unpacking the truck, while I ran out for more small bins, to re-pack some of the things that are in big bins, which just get too heavy when full. We also retired our very first merchandise bin, which is about the size of a footlocker trunk, but maybe 2/3 as tall. I remember the days when it held *everything*, sniff sniff. It's still in good shape, just has that heavy-when-full problem, and it really isn't modular with the rest of the bins. Now we're down to two heights of Rubbermaid Roughneck bins.

I didn't update inventory with the new pouches before we left, but I did print out the list of pouches, so once I got everything else put out, I went through the new stuff, and got it on the list. Ron and I had the price list and sales tax cheat-sheets as PDFs on our phones, but I also need to remember to bring a paper copy of the price list, in case of low batteries, etc. And pack the hole punch and a mallet.

Haven't done the books from the event yet, but I need to get working on making more stuff. Some of the types of pouches were looking rather sparse by the end of the day...

Waffle waffle

2010-09-10T13:44:00.000-05:00

My incentive to work on the pouches kinda fell off - I think finding the stash of finished ones had something to do with that. So did the whole truck question, even though I had a contingency plan (and friends offered a contingency plan to my contingency plan). Most of the pouch cutting-out binge is still unfinished, never did look any more for the frogs, and I didn't even go through the finished pouches (both recent and the found stash) and update inventory.

But we did get the truck back in time! Wednesday afternoon. There was much happy. I think Ron was secretly disappointed not to have it totalled and try to replace it with a big pick-em-up truck. But there we are.

And even once we got the truck back, there was more waffling:

Who would go, who would stay home?
One-day, or stay tonight? Where and how stay, if so?
One person stay, other commute?
Whole big damn trailer, or just a truck load?
Weather
Ron and I don't actually like spending our weekends apart

The staying home question is dog-related, in part. Too long a day for them to be home alone, and taking them requires either taking both vehicles or the big damn trailer, provided they're even welcome. I'm not assuming they are.

At one point my preliminary plan was to take Robin and a truck-load of merchandise and two easy-ups, and leave him overnight. Then I looked at the travel time - closer to one hour than two. Plus the weather thing: easy-ups are not good when it comes to wind and any but straight down plain rain. Leaving Robin alone overnight to deal with weather could be Bad. Hotels can get expensive. Ron and I are getting too old for this camping shit. Yadda yadda.

And we still haven't packed the truck, or even started hauling stuff out of nooks and crannies and sorting. Although we finally did decide that Ron and I would do a get up ghu-awful early daytrip and leave Robin home.

Yesss, precious, it's gonna be an interesting evening around the Otter den, oh yes indeedy...

Workitty Work Work

2010-08-16T12:03:00.000-05:00

Much progress made on pouches over the weekend.

It was too [expletive] hot on Saturday to do much more than hide in the air-conditioned bedroom, and although yesterday was cooling off to almost-comfortable temperatures, we still spent a fair amount of time hiding in the cool room.

However, I did find the various pouch parts that were scattered around the house. I set up a synchronization rule to keep Otter’s books up to date on my laptop (they’ve been living on Ron’s desktop the last couple years), and checked inventory. Fortunately, before I started cutting much out, I found a stash of finished but not into the inventory spreadsheet pouches. Revise list of what I need to make.

Cut out about a dozen soft pouches, or pieces thereof, and got a half-dozen to the point where the lacing is the only thing left to do. I also made a bunch of belt loops, since my stash is hiding (glares around the room waiting for them to slink out and show themselves). I probably did too much, my wrists and hands are grumbling at me today.

I failed to find the belt frogs that are in various stages of completion. I wasn’t particularly looking for them when I was rooting around the dining room, so another pass through should bring them to light.

I need to check the weather forecast and see when it’s likely to be cool enough to get the pot of wax out and work on the stash of hard pouches I’ve got – a good half dozen of those.

Haven’t checked the belt inventory yet, but IIRC it should be in reasonable shape. Also need to check on where we are with book covers, checkbooks, etc.

Is this thing still on?

2010-08-11T21:52:00.003-05:00

Umm . . . rather a long hiatus, eh? Since mid-April . . .

(Writing this in bits and pieces through the day, to be posted
tonight, since blogger doesn't play nice with my iPhone and I haven't
migrated to WordPress - a painless process, but I haven't poked at my
personal blog to figure out customizing colors, etc.)

Well, Otter has been napping since then. Suffice it to say that
MuseCon ate my brain, and Ron's. Ron was convention chair, I did
publications, signage, and (theoretically, anyway), public relations.
MuseCon Zero was this past weekend, August 6th through 8th. I'm
recovering.

At some point in the last month or so I'd started to feel guilty about
neglecting the business, but realized there was no hope until after
MuseCon. So I decided that I'd wake Otter back up once MuseCon was
over. I've succeeded so far, yesterday morning I dug out some soft
pouches in progress and finished not one, but two; they're just the
half-soft size, and one already had the flap done, but I'm pleased
with myself.

We'd done a presentation about "Leather for Costuming" at MuseCon,
which had helped the waking-up, because I had to root around and find
a selection of tools and materials, so I knew where to look for the
bits I didn't take to the convention. Last night I dug out the rest
of the soft pouches in progress, tonight I may see what I've got going
on with hard pouches. And I may see if I can get a couple more soft
pouches ready for assembly - I've got three or four cut out, but no
farther. Heat and humidity provided, or by moving up to the
air-conditioned bedroom.

A month from now is the Fox Hunt and Ayreton Investiture event - most
of the greater-Chicago-area groups are amalgamating into a Barony, and
that event is the official investiture. I figure it should be a good
event - Fox Hunt is usually decent, and there should be plenty of
extra people for the investiture. Plus it's a bit south-ish
(Earlsville, IL), a direction we only go lately for Fox Hunt.

The problem is, on the way home from MuseCon Monday morning the
Durango had a close encounter of the crunchy kind with a semi truck.
Specifically, the rear end of the durango and the nose of the semi did
not successfully share space/time. The passenger side rear quarter of
the Durango is a mess. A big mess. Hopefully the frame is not. No
humans were damaged, only the semi, the Durango, a cooler, and a
cardboard box. We are very happy with that state of affairs, as it
could have been much, much worse.

If this was a small fender-bender I wouldn't be worried about getting
the Durange back in time for Fox Hunt. As it is, I have concerns.
Yesterday I checked on the list prices of cargo vans from Enterprise
(where we've currently got a rental car from) and U-Haul. $200-$225.
Unless we can swap out the rental car for a van for that weekend, or
otherwise get the rental of a van covered, I don't forsee doing Fox
Hunt. But I'm trying to wait and see what we hear from the shop (had
the Durango dropped off by lunchtime Monday - no point in waiting) and
the trucking company's insurance company.

Going through my Weaver catalog I've found a couple new hardware bits
I'm drooling over - a 1-3/4" strap keeper, and a T-junction piece used
in creating the ear loops on bridles. Both are the fancy engraved
stainless steel with black accents like some rings and buckles I get
from them. The T piece is caaalling to me, I need to figure out
something to do with it. There's also some very inexpensive harness
bellies on the odd lot list that I'm trying to ignore, that would be
great for pouches, if they have any left. But I have to at least wait
until payday, probably best to wait until September. But I don't
wanna! Want to shop and play with new bits and pieces!

More Grumblies

2010-04-15T09:26:00.000-05:00

We've got a "contact us" form on the website. It's supposed to be set up so that just hitting the "submit" button on a blank form doesn't do anything, but blank e-mails keep coming through. I suspect some automated annoy-a-tron is filling in spaces or something. Although heaven knows why, there's no "respond-to" address attached to them.

Today, however, I got one with an e-mail address and this message:

"We are interested to increase traffic to your website, please get back to us in order to discuss the possibility in further detail."

Riiiiight. I know there's some interesting little quirks between UK and US English, such as the construction "difference to" being normal on the other side of the big pond. However, I don't think the above "interested to" construction is one of those quirks.

I am tempted to respond that I'm not interested in hiring someone to promote my website who doesn't have a firm grasp of English grammar. I am also reminding myself that responding to spammers just confirms your e-mail address is valid.

Credit Card Grumbles

2010-03-29T11:10:00.000-05:00

Saturday night I decided that accepting credit cards was more expensive than it was worth: at minimum it costs $280/year, and I don't think being able to accept credit cards has brought in that much in additional sales, much less profit.

Growf. It's only been two years since I started taking them (seems more like three). My contract has a three-year term, with a $295 early-termination fee. I was thinking it was two years, but the paperwork says three. And the salescritter that assured me that insufficient sales to support the cost would be an adequate reason for early termination of the contract was apparently incorrect. My bad for not getting it in writing. At least I think I don't have that in writing, I do have to dig out my notes and double-check. But I'm pretty sure it's only in my scribbled notes.

The customer rep. I talked to did offer to take back my terminal in lieu of the early termination fee. That's a possibility.

There is one possible out, which I need to the paper copies refer to my latest statements about - last year about this time I argued my way out of an extra $100/year fee for security hoo-ha. If they try to push that one through again, I will be canceling, I was thiiis far from canceling over it last year (as in, I told them to cancel my account, and they managed to get me exempted so I wouldn't).

Event Schedule

2010-03-03T10:33:00.004-06:00

Yeah, I know, there isn't much of an event schedule. I was looking through my e-mail for a couple invitations I'd gotten to SCA events, and it turns out both are on the same day, which is also the same day as the April MuseCon meeting. Which is also the day of Robin's 2nd-degree Black Belt test.

It's been several years since Robin last tested, and it's pretty certain Master Villari will be there. You can guess which we're going to. :)

New Website Branch - Under Construction

2010-03-02T13:18:00.003-06:00

I think I've finally figured out what I want to do when I grow up. Is there a problem with the fact that it took me until age 43 to do so? Hope not.

Anyway, my current day-job is not it. I want to Design Things. I'm not, I'm reviewing other engineers' work. I suppose I could try to break out of my rut and jump over to the design side of Civil Engineering, buuuuut . . . I'm so not up on Structural issues. I wouldn't know a Finite Element if it walked up and bit me on the backside. I haven't cracked open a design code book since I graduated. Yadda yadda yadda.

So, helloooo typography. Hello publications design. I like you. You're fun. I like putting words and stuff on a page and making them look good. And maybe someday Otter Necessities Design Services will actually generate some money.

Except that the page looks like carp. I can do page-layout for print, why is website design so hard? It's still just words, I don't get it . . .

Backup Options

2010-02-19T15:11:00.003-06:00

Last week the Drobo not only lost one of its drive (the first batch we bought for it turned out to be a set of lemons, although they did make it out of warranty). It should have been able to recover gracefully onto the other three drives, except that the power supply went wonky, making it look, for a while, like it was losing a second drive, power cycle, and otherwise lose its marbles.

No problem, we thought, we backed all the important stuff from the Drobo to an on-line backup service.

Sunday Ron ordered the DVD restore. It didn't arrive until today, and Ron has started the movement of data back onto the Drobo.

If/when we determine we have actually got our data back in usable form, I'll vent some more. It hasn't been a pretty process.

At this point, I suspect our new backup scheme will be a pair of external drives to be sneaker-net rotated between home and one of our mundane offices.

Taxing Taxes Taxonomy Tacks Tachs Techs Tacky Tackle

2010-02-16T10:47:00.003-06:00

Why yes, I am babbling. On top of less than 4 hours sleep for the period of time known as Saturday night/Sunday morning and still being tired yesterday, after cleaning up some of my mess around my end of the couch, I closed out the books and did taxes yesterday.

I still do the Otter's taxes "by hand" since Otter Necessities is a partnership, and if you want a version of TurboTax that has the partnership forms you have to pay for the expensive business version. Most of the work in filling out the partnership forms for us is filling in zeroes in all the not-applicable boxes, so paying for the software to walk me through that is just not worth the cost. And fill-in-able PDFs, simplify it a bit more than writing all those zeroes by hand.

I did have some cursing and swearing about trying to save the completed PDFs in Preview, Mac's native PDF application. The fix was to take over Ron's machine to do them, while he installed Acrobat on my iFruit.

The other problem I ran into was in TurboTax. Ran error-check and audit check, etc. Federal e-file is now free, but it would be $19.95 to send it via Intuit. I decided lazy trumped cheap for that one, and followed all the prompts to pay Intuit. Only after that did TurboTax say "oops, sorry, you can't e-file an IL return where your state tax withheld is over X% of your state taxable pay, please fix this." I contacted them, a refund of my fees should be in the pipeline.

Capricon

2010-02-11T15:43:00.004-06:00

We are not dealers at Capricon this year, we decided the other time-commitments we have Saturday and Sunday were going to make trying to be dealers on top be a gross over-commitment.

Saturday, you see, is the kickoff party for MuseCon! 8:00 pm until midnight or so. Room 1514. Look for the "Follow the Muses" signs. Full color signs. Pretty pretty signs. And bookmarks. Pretty pretty bookmarks. Admire the signs and bookmarks...

Why yes, I *am* doing Public Relations & Publications for MuseCon.

Sunday, 10:00 am until 2-ish we'll be at the MuseCon sale table.

Still More FAIL

2010-02-06T16:45:00.001-06:00

Bad photoshop in a graphic design book (see previous post for book details).

Headdesk, headdesk, headdesk.

Author/Illustrator/Editor FAIL

2010-02-05T12:57:00.004-06:00

Apropos of the previous "Design Fail" post,

The Rockwell typeface: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwell_%28typeface%29 is a serif font. (Serifs being the little sticky-outy bits on various letters in fonts like Times New Roman and, say . . . ROCKWELL) No wishy-washy maybe-serifs about this one, those are big chunky ones.

But "Graphic Design for Non-Designers", Tony Seddon & Jane Waterhouse, illustratons by Rick Landers, 2009, Chronicle Books, ISBN: 978-0-8118-6831-0 calls it a sans-serif.

Design Fail

2010-02-01T12:58:00.002-06:00

I followed a link from a humor website I enjoy to a site about web design, and then a link from there to another web design site. IIRC both sites were touting themselves as social-networking resources for web designers, and also sources of great ideas, inspiration, tutorials, etc.

You might think that I'd have found them interesting and bookmarked them. Nope.

Cool design is one thing, but if the content is lame, no amount of design fripperies will save the site. And I'm sorry to say that these sites failed on the content side of the equation in very very basic ways.

* Grammar
* Spelling
* Punctuation (and spacing)
* Capitalization

Look guys, if you can't get the basics right, I'm not trusting you on the in-depth stuff. I'll forgive the odd typo (Murphy's Law should ensure there's at least one in this post), but chronic disregard of or disinterest in the basics is not cool, revolutionary, or visionary. Why should I trust your tutorial if the introductory blurb is a mess?

Print vs. Electronic Print

2010-01-29T11:08:00.003-06:00

Over on a particularly geeky list, I put my two cents in on a conversation about the new iPad, ePub format for e-books, etc. It started when a couple people said, paraphrasing:

"The relevant Wikepidia article includes a statement that ePub isn't very good for content that uses "fancier" layouts and fiddly bits of formatting. Presumably that means newspapers, magazines, comics, technical journals, computer books and so on are going to be really hard to crowbar into the ePub standard." and another poster stated that they doubt all those really require than degree of control in layout.

I don't think they do, either. I'll put down my reasons why, since I've been cruising through all those layout books in the last few months.

Newspapers and magazines have multi-column layouts in large part because a column that's narrower than their full pages is easier to read, in that it's easier for your eyes to jump over to the beginning of the next page. If you're engaged with reading the item for a while, like a hardback book, you can do a longer line. If you're skimming, or reading short bits, a shorter line works better. Plus, short newspaper paragraphs and stories would both look silly on a wide column, and with lots of short paragraphs, a narrower column is actually more efficient.

I learned that one for myself when doing the DucKon program book. If you have lots of short lines or paragraphs, you can get more information onto your page if you have multiple/narrower columns. The experts probably have guidelines for the optimum column width given this type size and that typical paragraph length and whatnot, but that's neither here nor there. Look at print fiction books - I suspect the usual size of a hardback evolved partly because that's about a maximum comfortable line length.

If you look at (older) newspapers and professional journals that have very few illustrations, they still use multiple columns. It isn't something that's done solely to allow incorporation of illustrations, etc.

Now, for items like PDAs, E-readers, netbooks, and such, the screen itself isn't very wide, so you get away from the need for multiple columns in order to get a comfortable line length. And even on wider-screen displays, like a larger laptop or big desktop monitor, you can re-size your window to give you a comfortable line length - I do this if I'm reading something from Gutenberg on my laptop or desktop.

One of the other reasons for fancier layouts is, of course, getting multiple headlines "above the fold" in newspaper parlance. On the initial screen without scrolling, in web-blather. With hypertext(-ish) links, you can get a similar effect by having a list of headlines possibly with snippets so that you can jump to the rest of the story you're interested in. An RSS feed of the BBC news page would be an example.

Adding illustrations in increases the complexity. If you have something like a newspaper or magazine article where the illustration is relevant to the article as a whole, but you don't need to have a relevant bit of text and the illustration in useful proximity, you can put the articles in-line, at a convenient place like a chapter,
section, or paragraph break - I've got several E-books, I think mostly in ePub format, that do exactly that, and I think it works pretty well. It's like non-fiction print books that put photos or other illustrations in one section for production-cost reasons.

I think a lot of it is going to be the layout and design people adjusting their thinking to work with the single-column paradigm. Things that don't seem to be amenable to it now, like newspapers and magazines, probably will evolve and adapt. I expect they already are, IIRC some papers have on-line versions optimized for mobile, ie: small-screen, browsers.

Where I agree that ePub, and probably most e-book formats, are weak are the things like computer books and other technical publications, and probably some textbooks, where you need this bit of text and this illustration, formula, or whatever, and you need to be able to look at both at the same time. That's tougher to do when you don't can't control screen/page breaks, etc.

I also find electronic publications less useful for things where I use them by flipping around or back and forth a lot, not reading from start to finish, even with linking. That's why I like software that comes with paper, not just electronic, manuals. (although that's kind of a lost fight) It's why I can see e-books working for some textbooks, but not others: an example being my son's math textbook, where he's going back and forth between the problems he's working and the examples.

Hey, Where'd my InDesign Post Go?!?

2010-01-13T09:19:00.005-06:00

I could have sworn that I posted last night about fun with InDesign. But here it isn't. Grumble.

Last week I finished up a sample Program Book, laid out landscape format, left-bound, 8.5 x 11"-ish pages (so a spread is 22" wide). Part of the reason for that layout is that most people have their computer monitors in landscape mode, which is more condusive to landscape pages. I'm fairly happy with how it came out.

Then I decided to make something smaller. I decided to go with folded letter-size pages, and waffled between doing landscape layout with a top binding, or a normal (ie: boring) left-binding. I decided to go with the boring choice, for several reasons (not necessarily in order):

If you view it as a PDF as spreads, it'll match most monitors.
I don't have to make the decision for a top-bound book of having "up" always be toward the spine, or have it set up like a calendar, so everything on one spread is up.
Easier to wrap my head around arranging the pages correctly for printing, if I couldn't figure out how to get InDesign to do it.

I couldn't leave well enough alone, so I messed around with my style set for the new small book. Not sure which set of fonts I like better.

But I did cut and paste of content over from the big sample book. No, I couldn't just use the usual "Lorem Ipsum" filler text, I went and made up lots of silly content, or scavenged from things like my "Moose Hunt" SCA event ad from my "Writing Event Ads" article, and role-playing game backgrounds/characters.

Meanwhile, Ron converted some artwork he'd made for me to greyscale.

The next trick was printing. So far, I've only printed individual single-sided pages to fake book layouts, or I've shipped things off to professional printers who invoke technology to go from pages in numerical order to actual print layouts. I knew InDesign could do said magic, but I wasn't sure if a plug-in would be required.

Poking around, we figured out that it wasn't possible from my first method of creating the book (separate documents assembled into an InDesign "book"). Probably because that method is really meant for big long real books that you would send to a professional printer, not little short documents that you would actually consider printing as a booklet.

Cut-and-paste and manual entry of some items I'd made gratuitous use of technology to automate resulted in converting it to one document. Test booklet printing to a PDF and VOILA!

So cool! The software sliced and diced and put my pages back together on sheets of (virtual) paper in the right order! I was seriously amused by it, yes.

Today's task, poking around to see if there are any free/cheap InDesign plug-ins to do printing from an InDesign book document package.

Ron, who has access to a printer that can do double-sided printing, confirms my suspicion that I need to fiddle a bit with margins and page number locations.

Hey, one advantage of losing last night's post, this one is longer and probably makes more sense.

Drat, Boar's Head Cancellation

2009-12-04T13:42:00.002-06:00

I think both Ron and I have the flu. So last night we called the merchant coordinator for Boar's Head and cancelled. I didn't wait until tonight, because she'd sent e-mail a week or so ago with various useful information, and mentioned she had a waiting list. So I'll give somebody else a chance - I've been the beneficiary of waiting-list-dom a couple times, so I'd rather do unto others. And it's highly unlikely I'll suddenly wake up bright and perky tomorrow morning.

Oh heck, who am I kidding. I *never* wake up bright and perky. What a revolting state of being for first thing in the morning. Shudder.

Anyhoo, I'm also neck-deep in design geekery, as detailed over here: http://lonotter.livejournal.com

Sudden Website Progress!

2009-12-02T19:13:00.002-06:00

Yay! The new re-built from the ground-up website went live tonight!

Ron had gotten it to the point where I needed to do final proofreading and data-entry months ago, and then other stuff interrupted, and there it sat.

And sat.

And sat.

I stayed home from work today, cold (I thought . . . now I'm starting to wonder if it's the F-word) and recovering from an outpatient surgical procedure. Not exactly motivational conditions, you'd think, but apparently it was.

I sat down and slogged through all the pages, spending more or less time checking and updating. Also deciding that the color scheme needed a major change. There's probably a bunch of stuff I missed, I'll start looking at it again in a week or so for fiddly stuff.

And there's new stuff to add, once we get pictures. It never really ends...

Art Show Semi-Success

2009-11-16T14:55:00.003-06:00

We didn't do spectacularly well at the Windycon Art Show, but it wasn't really that bad. Although I had hopes, I didn't rationally expect to sell the Sam Browne belt - it had a somewhat narrow range of sizes it would fit, after all.

But, I did have hopes for the wrist-rockets in particular, as well as the map case and the pouches. Unfortunately, the only thing to sell was the small shell carrier with empty brass. But even though it went for the opening bid price, it was still profitable enough to cover all the entry fees (a whole whopping $4.50).

And I forgot business cards (headdesk headdesk headdesk), but I did give contact information to two different people who may order, one of whom sounds like I'll hear from shortly.

Progress, and Frustration

2009-11-11T07:53:00.005-06:00

One, just one, of the things we made for the Steampunk Project, has disappeared. If you go back to the March 4th "Steampunk Prototype Pictures" post, the bottom one shows two sets of shell holders. The one for the big red .50 caliber BMG shells has vanished.

We've been hunting it for almost a week now. Since I have the day off, I (re-) checked some of the bins in the dining room, which Robin cleaned for me a while back. No go. Robin and I are out of ideas where to look. I was starting to wonder if we'd been planning to make it but hadn't actually gotten around to it, so I went back through the Steampunk Project pictures here, and found the one referred to above. So it really does exist.

Ron has suggested a couple more places to check more thoroughly, once Robin finishes his homework.

The Mark II Wrist-Rockets are still on hold while I work on the map case. There may be progress on them today. And maybe I'll remake the 50 loops, dammit. I've figured out prices for everything, just need to fill out the Art Show forms.
The fun lengthwise seam on the map case cap is done, and all the holes are in on the body, off to sew...

Pictures!

2009-11-07T18:23:00.002-06:00

First, the repaired off-center pouch from a couple weeks ago. Yay me!

And this is all the parts, except for two end caps, for the map case, which is what I've spent a good chunk of the afternoon/evening working on. All the stitching holes have been punched for attaching the various pieces, and on the cap piece. Still have lots and lots to do down the two sides of the body section - that's tomorrow's job, after other parts are stitched on.

Making new stuff is hard during the week, for some reason - I can work on doing almost anything for pouches during the week, because I've done it all so many times. Stitching, punching holes that are already marked, no problem. But by the time I get home from work my brain is kinda mushy and its harder to get rolling on major work on new things.

That's why although I had all the parts figured out, I hadn't actually done much on the map case this week. The only major decisions made today were on lining (not totally, just put a lip on one edge), and Ron suggested a snazzy way to attach the shoulder straps.

Finished the Sam Brown belt, officially and completely, this morning. Ron identified a couple more errors I made with proportions and dimensions, but if I don't say what they are, I don't think anybody is going to notice (insert evil laughter here).

We've figured out a better way to do multi-sizing for wrist rockets than multiple rows of snaps, so I may try to get those started tomorrow, too. (see comments above re: what I can do on weeknights vs. weekends) I have Wednesday off for Veteran's day, which means I can get set up tomorrow for weeknights and Wednesday busy-ness.

On to the Map Case

2009-11-03T19:33:00.003-06:00

I've ruminated on the map case design for a couple days, and tonight I started something like work - laying out the pattern for the one non-rectangular or circular piece I decided I needed. Tomorrow I can continue cutting leather (so far I have shoulder straps and a the main body partially cut. Still debating if I'm going to line the whole thing or not.

Since we started doing the lampworking, we've been competing for the Black & Decker Workmate 225 I got to hold up my leatherworking anvil, but turns out to work quite well as a small workbench. The local Ace Hardware didn't have one in stock, so we ordered one, and it arrived today. So once I'm done here I'll clean off this plastic folding table, which is good for supporting things like dinner and laptops, and spreading tools and parts all over, but isn't as stiff and stable as I'd like for cutting-out-type work.

Belt Done, Bar the Shouting

2009-11-02T10:19:00.004-06:00

The Sam Browne belt is done, except for buckle holes and one stud. Although it entailed a lot of hand-sewing, it went surprisingly fast once I really got rolling. Ron had to cut out little fiddly bits, as I don't have proficiency in exacto knife. If I can't cut it out with my head knife, forget it. By Saturday night I had the various bits edged and glued onto the belt.

Sunday morning I discovered that the rubber cement I'd used wasn't going to hold much longer after punching the stitching holes. Holes which Ron had to do, as I wasn't strong enough. Once Ron finished I got one side of each of the four pieces on the belt stitched down (at that point the other sides popping loose would be only a very minor inconvenience), and worked on the shoulder-strap pieces.

While the shoulder-strap parts were drying after gluing, I went back to sewing the belt. By the time I finished that, the glue was dry enough on the other bits (less stress, didn't need overnight dry-time), and so I kept on working, and finished the last bit ofter dinner.

I did realize one potential problem Saturday night - we designed the belt loops on the pouches we did a few months ago to be relatively snug on the belt. But I forgot to allow for the dee rings on the edges of the belt. I think the dees will fold over enough to get pouches past them, I'll have to try it and see tonight. But even if not, oops.

I'm much more optimistic now about being able to get the map case made. And now I'm going to go e-mail the WindyCon Art Show to ask for space (I was holding off to make sure I did get the belt done).

Sam Browne Belt

2009-10-29T15:10:00.003-05:00

The belt proceeds slowly. It would be somewhat complicated to explain just what little process has been made, suffice it to say, it really doesn't look significant.

OTOH, it's a mental thing - now that I've made the decisions said small prograss has entailed and gotten this far, I'm more likely to accelerate.

After a discussion in which Ron and I reversed our usual roles, I ordered a store display hanging half-form (flat back), for about 1/12 the price of a dressmaker's form. I may have to twiddle the belt a bit for display, but I'll have no purchase-price second-guessing of myself, and it should be easier to store, until we get a Tardis and/or the McMansion next door.

Now, to re-remember exactly how some of the parts are supposed to go together...

Steampunk Project Poll-ish Thing

2009-10-27T09:59:00.004-05:00

I rooted around the dining room last night and found all the pieces I'd cut for the Sam Browne belt and map case. I didn't do further work because I didn't trust myself to do precise cutting (sinus headache), and didn't think of edging straps. But I did get two more pouches finished.

Anyhoo, I decided that I need to make the Sam Brown belt first - the whole thing is going to fall apart (literally), without it. BTW, here's a picture of Gen. Pershing wearing a Sam Browne belt, so you know what I'm talking about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Pershing.jpg
It's the kind of belt worn over a military-ish tunic, with a shoulder strap.

Now, the dees for the shoulder strap are going to be permanently attached to the belt (I've figured out how to make them sliding, but I have concerns that method is sub-optimal and will lead to slop - so I'm not doing it for this iteration). Also, given the way the belt portion fastens, one size will not fit all.

Question the first: Robin-size or Ron-size? (Robin is over 200 lbs and in the neighborhood of 6' tall at this point, so he's a not-beanpole adult)

IIRC I have a good half-dozen accessories to hang off of the belt. The whole ensemble could rack up to a pretty chunk of change, and I have absolutely no objection to selling bits on their own.

Question the second: Present as one ensemble, or offer the pieces separately?

Either way, the only way to display this acceptably (in my mind) is on a model. This is, then, the perfect excuse to buy a dressmaker's form. And a military-ish shirt that fits the dummy neatly, so it all looks good. Yeah, I are feelthy merchant scum. Guilty guilty guilty. The various pouches, etc., would be put on the belt. This does make it hard to affix the usual Art Show bid sheets to the actual items. Plus tape, even good low-tack masking tape *WILL* leave marks on leather.

Question the third and last: If I provide clear photographs of each item to be affixed to the actual bid sheets (and a couple clipboards to hang said bid sheets with pictures adjacent to the dummy), is it reasonable to say to an Art Show staff "Please do not use tape anywhere on the leather"?

Hmm. Also need to go find Mary's guidelines on Art Show price-points...

Return of the Steampunk Project

2009-10-26T10:12:00.002-05:00

Some of you may remember that, ages and ages ago, we were working on the Steampunk Project. We were rolling right along, and I had plans to enter the DucKon art show, as well as the WindyCon art show - WindyCon doing a steampunk theme this year.

Then DucKon needed someone to do the program book, and that started eating all my vast amounts (Hah!) of spare time. DucKon happened, other things happened, I've resigned from DucKon, summer happened, and still the Steampunk Project has languished.

Rooting around the dining room last week, I noticed a largish rectangle of dark brown harness leather. I set it aside, but didn't think about it much. Yesterday the brain idly noted that said piece of leather was for a map case I'd been planning for the Steampunk Project. Last night we were discussing shows and the usefulness of showpieces with a friend, and I commented that I really don't have a showpiece at the moment, I could use to make one.

This morning The Steampunk Project kept coming back to me. We've got a bunch of pouches done, as well as wrist-rockets and at least one set of shell-loops for a belt. The only thing I really have left to do for a complete ensemble is the Sam Browne belt and the map case-because I think that's going to be really cool, not that it's all that necessary.

Windycon is the 13th-15th, so I've got a good two weeks. Ron doesn't think I'm barking mad to try to get the belt and map case made by then. That means less time to work on all the pouches I have in the works for Boar's Head, but that's another 2-3 weeks after Windy, so I could/should still be able to get a reasonable amount done.

So the upshot is that tonight I'll re-start work on the map case, etc., and I need to go see what the requirements are for the WindyCon art show...

More Bookkeeping & Other Natter

2009-10-25T12:09:00.004-05:00

All purchases entered in. I even made sure the year-end total page was referencing all the right bits.

I've started on the repair of the badly off-centered latch pouch. Provided I can find my hand-sewing needles, which for some inexplicable reason were *not* in the box with all the other hand-sewing tools. But even if I don't find them, I ordered some more on Friday. Clever me.

However, Ron has determined that my smaller hand-sewing awl was being a pain to use not due to being dull, but because of a design-ish flaw. Too bad I didn't have him sharpen it earlier in the week, because then I'd have known to look at what I could get as a replacement when I ordered things Friday. Oops. But all is not lost, I have enough control with the larger awl to do the job.

Bookkeeping

2009-10-24T14:31:00.002-05:00

Thursday night-Friday morning was rather short on sleep, plus the weather was making my sinuses miserable, so I stayed home yesterday. My grandly ambitious plan was to work on the books and pouches.

Yeah, right. I did get the books mostly caught up. I haven't done them for the last mumble events, instead of doing them after each one. Baaaaad idea. I slogged through the receipts from all the events, although I haven't gotten purchases in.

Today is about a total loss, between karate, meetings, and some evening plans. I brought some pouches to work on, but forgot some semi-important things. Oh well, I can still do flaps.

Last Night's Accomplishments . . . And AARGH!

2009-10-23T09:49:00.003-05:00

Here's a picture of what I accomplished yesterday. One of the little black pouches I had pretty much done by the time I got home yesterday (after about 3 days of very slow progress), with only one side left to be laced up.

I finished the other two while Robin did homework, and while watching a movie. Ron finally got home, and embarked a round of customer disservice frustration with AT&T, so I started the fourth pouch, the larger black one. And with only half of one side to go, I realized what you might notice about the latch.

It's not a funny camera angle. The (expletive) latch is severely off-center. Carp. I wish I'd noticed before starting to lace the sides up, it would have made the fix easier to carry out. I checked the other half-dozen pouches I put this kind of latch on the other night, fortunately it's the only one I messed up (the others were the little ones, which are harder to mess up).

Coronation/Midrealm 40th Anniversary Report

2009-10-21T09:23:00.005-05:00

I was checking the tags on some recent posts, and realized I'd forgotten to mention how we did at the fall Coronation/Midrealm 40th Anniversary event back in the first week of October.

It went pretty well. The merchant coordinator was running late, but we still got set up in a timely fashion. We even had power to run the charge machine, woo-hoo! Quarters were tight, as expected, but we made it work - We did things in a U-ish shape, with a table on one side, belt rack on the other, and ourselves across the bottom of the U.

We'd have had better sales, but there was another merchant seriously undercutting us on belts. I suspect his customers will eventually become mine, but I can't blame people for wanting to save money in the short run. There was a third person with belts, but he does bright dyed colors that we don't, and AFAIK our prices and his are pretty comparable.

I also got what I considered a big compliment - one of the other merchants (our non-competitor in the belt market) was sorry we didn't have the bracers out, he wanted to show them to some people. And he's very big on authenticity, *and* all his stuff is very nicely done. Woot! I expect he likes our bracers because even though they may be iffy on authenticity, they're understated. Even the fancy red and white pair is not tacky, I think. Hope. Err, oops, there is that one pair on that page with all the spots. That pair is long gone, and won't be repeated unless money talks.

Which reminds me, I should make a couple smaller pairs of bracers in plain black. That rolled edge binding looks sooo nice, if I do say so myself!

More Tool Hunting

2009-10-21T08:54:00.005-05:00

I ventured into the basement last night in search of big C-clamps. I found three more, and it wasn't even a thorough search. That puts us up to 12 accounted for. At least three more to go, and Ron also thinks we have a total of 20.

Then I had to search for the aluminium bars we use for setting the rivets for certain latches. Looked it spot A, then B, C, and D. Returned to A, and there they were. Insert appropriate expletives here.

I need to check to see if I have latches stashed somewhere, the supply in the hardware bins is looking thin. I have a memory of ordering more, but I may have already burned through them.

So just how did all this misplacement occur, you ask? I took some time off, during which the living room and dining room were cleaned up with Robin taking care of the tools & supplies, and one of the dog got sick on/in the bag of commonly-used tools. At this point the only significant items actually missing (that I can think of . . . ) are the damn C-clamps. The rest of the stuff is just spread around locations A-E, and are being re-consolidated as I actually need it.

Anyhow, the end result of last night's work was two more pouches molded, a small soft pouch cut out of scrap from the stock for hard pouch fronts, and latches set on 11 soft pouches. Plus a bit of lacing done. This morning I looked at the significant piles of soft pouches waiting to be laced, and remarked that I probably should get some them actually *done* before doing further work on that pile of cut-out-only ones over there . . .

More Missing Tools

2009-10-20T10:29:00.004-05:00

And while I'm on the missing-tool subject, where the heck have the big C-clamps gone?!? We have 15, if not 20 of the things, so why is it that Robin could only find 9 on Saturday?

(Most of the hard pouch molds get 5 clamps, I know we've had 3 molds in use at once, and I want to say we've done 4 at once before).

I've looked around the living room and dining room, but since those have both been cleaned up in the recent past, I don't think the clamps are there. I suppose this means I have to brave the basement. I expect they're somewhere on the workshop side.

I'd really like to be able to mold more than one larger pouch and an iPouch (only takes 4 clamps) at a time. I've got leather casing for a third iPouch, but since I haven't even finished the prototype yet, and I'm not sure they'll actually *sell*, I don't want to go overboard making them. (although they're small enough they're damn near scrap-consumers). What I want to make is shields and the medium hard squares. I'm *out* of those. I have one shield molded and drying, and another piece of leather casing to mold tonight, but they're a consistently good seller, so I want more.

I don't think I've mentioned it before, molding is definitely the throttle-point in making hard pouches. I only have one mold of each style, and it takes about 48 hours of time on the mold for a pouch to be fully dry - if I take them off while still too damp, they'll shrink. And the leather needs to case for a good 6-12 hours before molding. "Casing" the leather before molding is wetting it down, then letting it sit in a zippy bag or Rubbermaid container that seals up tight, so the moisture level can even out throughout the leather, and the fibers soften up.

Back in the Saddle Again

2009-10-19T10:06:00.003-05:00

The particular synapses (finally) started firing again Saturday morning. I'm back at work at Otter Necessities!

I cut out about a dozen pouches, mostly soft ones, and have the majority to the point where they need the latches installed and to be laced together. Yes, that does sound like most of the work is yet to be done, but not really. In some ways there's more work involved in doing all the marking and punching of holes than in the final assembly. Lacing is something I do almost on auto-pilot, getting things to that point requires more thought.

Now that I've started doing further work on the pouches laid out with silver Sharpie, I realize that I should have done said silver marking on the back side of the leather. The solvents used in black and silver Sharpies are the same, so the black doesn't so much cover the silver as dilute it. Not a big, fat hairy deal, more a live and learn.

Working on pouches Saturday and Sunday was complicated by the fact that I had misplaced a bin of tools. A lot of tools, in a small bin. Saturday we searched high and low without success. Fortunately, I have another set of dividers, so I wasn't brought to a complete standstill. Yesterday I poked into a couple more places I thought it might be hiding. On the way upstairs to bed last night, I found the bin. On the stairs. Where it's been sitting for several weeks. In plain sight. We're all idiots.

This also means that I can continue with the two iPouches in the works, which are to be hand-stitched together - *all* the important hand-stitching setup tools were in the not-missing bin.

On a lesser idiocy front, a number of the pouches I cut out were from scrap, which Robin consolidated with some not-scrap when cleaning. But did I remember that I can run the pieces for the smallest soft pouch through the splitter, to make them thinner/softer? Nooooo, at least not until it was too late (all fiddly bits cut out and most holes punched - at which point they *might* go through the splitter ok, but they also might not, I'm not brave enough to find out if various holes, slots, and cutouts would tear out). Oops. This is what happens when you take extended time off.

Ron has made a set of beads that we think are good enough for sale, once they've been annealed (just need a kiln...). Half are doughnut-shaped, ivory with light-blue speckles. The other half are cylinders, light blue with ivory speckles. IIRC there's one more of one style than the other, so you can alternate them. Pictures forthcoming, hopefully.

Tomorrow's Challenges

2009-10-02T14:12:00.002-05:00

I thought that I'd mentioned that we did get space for the SCA event tomorrow. I took the "tentative" label off, but looking at older posts, I guess I didn't. Yes, we got space. One space. One 8' x 8' space. This ought to be . . . interesting.

I did finally get the belts inventoried and re-packed into a larger number of smaller bins. Bins which are not quite full, since I didn't re-pack everything. This means that I don't know if we can get everything in the truck. But since we are *only* taking belts and pouches (see previous paragraph), and maybe belt hardware, we may be able to do some on-the-fly repacking tonight. Not that driving both cars to the south side of Chicago would be a big fat hairy deal, but let's avoid it if we can.

Earlier this week Ron asked if we were taking Sprout tomorrow. "No room." was the essence of my reply.

"I thought we'd probably be taking both vehicles?"

"No space in our space!" Plus, the dogs will appreciate him staying home.

I can't say I'm super-enthused about tomorrow. I don't know why. Nor have I done any leatherworking in quite a while, except for a small fit of cutting out black leather a few days ago. I think it's because I work better under pressure, and even though the inventory of some pouch styles is sad, on the whole we've good. So I don't feel the pressure. Maybe once this event is over and I'm looking at Boar's Head approaching.

OOOh fire... oh, and glass

2009-10-02T07:59:00.007-05:00

Well yesterday we picked up a starter glass bead kit and these are my first attempts, in order starting at the top left working across each row. Had to call my sister for advice on getting some of the more stubborn beads off the mandrel. Maybe I can play some more with fire and glass tonight, after we get the truck ready for the event tomorrow.

Maybe if I get good enough we might start selling beads.

Yay for Silver Sharpies!

2009-09-26T16:03:00.003-05:00

The first batch of pens I found at Hobby Lobby yielded a silver paint marker. It probably would have worked, but in the next aisle I found Sharpies in light colors and silver, and another brand of silver gel pens, all less expensive than the paint markers.

The very-fine-point peach Sharpie didn't show up on black. The gel pens show up, but are smear-prone. But the fine-point silver Sharpie 2-pack, those are the winners. As long as I remember not to bear down and smoosh the tip they're fine enough, don't smear, and not outrageously priced. I'll have to go back with black to cover the silver in some areas, but that's a fair tradeoff for being able to *SEE* my lines. I may check around for ultra-fine-point Sharpies in silver, but I won't be upset if I don't find any.

I am such an idiot

2009-09-26T09:37:00.003-05:00

For the last mumble years I've been struggling, more or less, with soft black leather with a pebbled (textured) finish - it's murder to make markings on that show up. This morning I was having a particularly hard time, and kvetching about it. Sprout pointed out that Dick Blick has paint markers in colors like white and silver.

The absolute brilliance of this suggestion took a couple minutes to sink in, but now the leather is set aside until we take Sprout to karate and go to Hobby Lobby to see what they have.

BTW, we did get space for the Midrealm Coronation/40th Anniversary celebration next Saturday. Only one spot, so it'll be belts, and basic pouches.

Schedule Update

2009-09-04T09:47:00.005-05:00

So, the only two things on the schedule are tentative. Here's why:

I've been seeing stuff about the Midrealm 40th year celebration and fall Coronation for a while, but either didn't process, or deliberately ignored it. Finally today I looked up the details, and found out that merchants will not be in Ida Noyes Hall (Grey Gargoyles' usual site) - Ida Noyes Hall is beautiful from a visual perspective, but I hate it for merchanting. We've had a bad string of luck there - street level parking requiring steps to get into the building because the ground-level parking was closed, bad room choices within the building, a tiny elevator that broke too often for my sanity. When we had a couple 24" by 48" tables and only one small cartload of bins, it was do-able. Not so any more. So I gave up. Midrealm 40th is in another building, with good access, it sounds like, and could be a very well-attended event, especially by non-locals. Unfortunately, it's also filled. But we're second on the wait-list.

It doesn't look like the Boar's Head merchant space is filled yet, sending off my paperwork tonight. It's a haul, but generally worth it.

Not on the schedule:

Fall Crown Tourney is in Peoria mid-October. 3 hours is pushing it for day-tripping.

All Souls, by Vanished Woods, is quite local, and even though its the weekend before WindyCon, would be doable given how close it is and only one day. But I bailed on it last year or the year before - merchants were in the basement with only a teeny-tiny elevator (I suppose it meets ADA requirements, if the weelchair-bound aren't claustrophobic!)

Maybe:

12th Night, by Tree-Girt-Sea, January 16th. Irish-American Heritage Center, Chicago. IIRC the merchants are usually on the second floor, but the elevators are said to be trustworthy.

Fox Hunt Aftermath

2009-09-03T11:49:00.004-05:00

Let's see, where was I . . .

Oh yes, Fox Hunt Recap, interrupted by eye infection. Back on meds for that.

On the way home, I had an attack of "What did we sell?" This happens when you sell a little bit of a lot of things - no big holes appear in the tables, nothing really impresses you as selling well that day, and the end result can be a (pleasant) surprise when you total up the numbers for the day.

I haven't done the books for Fox Hunt yet, but it appears that it was a little bit of many things - more pouches and belts that anything else (of course) but also a pair of bracers, a couple belt frogs, some alpaca, and several bits of hardware (more than usual, that one I did notice).

A bunch of people took Sharon's business cards, I expect a couple lace-knitting pattern sales to result in the next week or two - not from us, I always tell customers to buy directly from Sharon if they're going to be buying in the future.

Bins have been procured for repacking belts. Currently we have belts in three bins - the "One of Everything" bin, a bin of black, and a bin of brown. The problem is that we have so many styles, and three shades of brown, that finding things in the largish bins has become a royal pain. Sprout declared this at the dog show, and we decided the best solution would be to break the belts up into shallower bins (other merchandise can go on top), re-packing to be done at Fox Hunt, when we'd be into the belts anyway.

Well, that didn't quite happen. Sprout stayed home, we didn't take the big trailer, and I didn't feel like trying to get extra bins there and back in the truck. But Sunday afternoon we picked up a half-dozen of the shallower bins (I really should buy stock in Rubbermaid...), and we'll probably do the repacking this weekend, along with inventorying belts.

My inventory of pouches, etc. stays pretty accurate; last time I think there was only loss/gain of one or two pouches after mumble years when I compared what I really had to paper. But belts need that paper vs. reality check more often - at least once a year. And that means completely unloading all the belt bins, and physically checking hardware, sizes, and counting. Repacking all the belts is the sensible time to do so. Not to mention that I'm not sure when I last did so . . .

Hardware (rings, dees, and buckles used mostly on belts) also needs frequent inventory, but that stuff lives in the house, so its easier to do. But I probably should do another pass through that, since I should have some momentum built up from doing the belts.

Fox Hunt Recap

2009-08-31T10:48:00.002-05:00

Fox Hunt was a success for us. The day started out very slowly, but it picked up in the afternoon, and we did better than I'd hoped (and better than Ron had expected). Add to it only about an hour drive away, and definitely a good day.

Except I think the damn eye infection is back, off to call the doctor.

Riveting Price Ruminations

2009-08-26T14:51:00.002-05:00

This morning was The Sprout's first day of school for the year, so I waited around to make sure the bus really did show up (it did). And since that meant that I was running late anyway, I detoured over to The Leather Factory store for a stop-gap supply of copper rivets.

Yesterday I ordered three pounds of #9 rivets and burrs from Weaver Leather, at (rounding to whole dollars), $9/pound. At the Leather Factory I paid $10 for 50 1/2"-long #9 rivets with burrs. Cue sticker-shock. According to the postal scale at work, those 50 rivets & burrs weigh 5.5 ounces. Which works out to 145 rivets per pound, which number I used in the calcs below.

We could also use some more #12 copper rivets, which Weaver doesn't carry. So I was exercising my google-fu to find suppliers. I found who I think I bought them from last time, but they sell the burrs ($15 - I think for a half-pound) and rivets ($17/lb) separately, so let's go with what was an average price of a couple other places that sell rivets + burrs per pound.

So, from Weaver, for #9

$9/lb
$0.56/oz
6 cents each.

from Leather Factory

$29/lb
$1.81/oz.,
20 cents each

other suppliers/Weaver for #14

$20/lb
$1.25/oz.,
14 cents each

Yeah, you might notice that I'm wantonly mixing the sizes there. The thing is, from most suppliers, the difference in price vs. size is small to non-existent. Not sure why Weaver has such good prices on #9s, I'm guessing that Weaver moves enough #9 copper rivets that they can buy them cheap.

Anyhoo, the most important thing for me to remember is DON'T BUY COPPER RIVETS FROM LEATHER FACTORY! And I get wholesale pricing at LF, which is generally substantially cheaper than their retail price.

BTW, #9 have a 0.161" diameter shaft, #12 are 0.137", #14 are about 0.1"