More New Things

At lunchtime yesterday I was sketching leather tabs to hold a pouch shut. As I remarked to Ron, I was a hard time drawing tabs that weren't . . . suggestive. Ron's old pouch has a fleur-de-lis shaped tab, which solves that problem, but I want something different.

Then I drew . . . a nose! A pretty good nose. Not a good shape for a tab, though.

After some silly ideas passed back and forth, I tried leaf designs. Several times. Then it was time to go back to work-work.

When we got home, we found some photos of leaves we liked, and Ron started trying to trace the first one (simplifying) in Illustrator, but his brain wasn't properly engaged. (probably distracted by bee-related things, see personal blog)

I took over, fired up my CAD program, and drew a couple not-suggestive tabs up, then tried a trefoil and quatrefoil. I e-mailed them off to a die maker, but I don't think I'm going to get the quatrefoil, and the trefoil is right out. I might get dies to cut those shapes eventually, but not for tabs.

Besides using a leaf-shape for a tab to hold a pouch shut, I have another idea for decorating a larger pouch. On the way in this morning, I kinda remembered getting a leaf-shaped die for the Sizzix machine. Ron thinks we might have, too. Must check tonight, although the Sizzix dies won't cut leather thick enough for a tab, they will for the decorative thing I'd like leaf shapes for.

Have preliminary designs for a pouch similar to Ron's old one. Although I don't want to hand-cut a fancy tab for a test-run, I can just make a simple oval or pointed tab, using our end punches and the appropriate-sized strap.