More Post-Teslacon Natter, Plus Shopping

Nothing in the way of shipping information, or cleared payment, from Abbey Saddlery. I'm going to give it another day or so, then see what's up - if I remember the time differential right I placed the order in the wee hours of Veteran's Day, on that side of the pond. 

This weekend I'm planning on cutting out another prototype for loops to hold dees onto belts for Sam Browne belts. Ron's, which he's wearing here, has the dees permantly sewn in place, which causes problems when one, say, loses a bunch of weight after the belt is made:

(No, we did not make the very spiffy leather corset/vest. That's from The Artifixer, www.artifixer.com). 

Permanent loops also can cause issues getting the belt through belt loops on pants, kilts, or belt pouches. I'd made one floating-dee-loop prototype several years ago, but it wasn't successful. Ron had a suggestion for a different approach, that I think will work. If it does, I'll get dies made to cut out versions for 2-1/4" and 1-1/2" belts. 2-1/4" are what Ron's wearing here, and what we sell as "kilt" belts. 1-1/2" is a standard mundane man's belt. The shoulder strap buckle (in the middle of Ron's chest) and dees on the belt are 7/8", but that's an uncommon size, so I think I'm going to go with 1" instead. 3/4", which is the lighter-colored shoulder strap for his bag, is a little too narrow. 

This morning I ordered metal scales from The Ringlord, a big chainmail supplier (from Toronto, CA, so more international e-commerce). We'd talked about putting leather scales on a pouch flap, like the autumn leaves pouch. I'll probably still do that, but I think the metal scales will also be cool. 

Tails arrived last night. Usually the supplier puts each tail in a bag, with a label as to what it is. Most of the tails were packaged that way, but on the top of the box (with a layer of paper above, so no worries about tape sticking to it), were several loose ones. One of the advantages of tails-in-bags is that it helps protect them from inquisitive dog noses. As soon as I got the box open Pippin was investigating, more avidly that usual (the bags are only stapled shut, so they still have plenty of interesting smells). 

Tuesday I had the bright idea to take pictures of some of the pouches I've finished lately, to go ahead and post for sale on Etsy. The pictures were taken with my iWhatsit with a slightly wrinkly white chemise spread on a table as a background: 

Not as good as Ron would have done on the light table and studio lights and a camera on a tripod, but better to have things up for sale with thoroughly adequate pictures than not at all because of lack of Round Tuits. 

Paid for our booths for Anime Central this morning, which explains the loud "whoosh" noise you heard from the direction of Otter's bank account.  Check for Military History Fest has cleared, so I assume everything is good there.  No response from Boar's Head to my questions about seeminly-contradictory information on the website, so I think tomorrow I'll mail off a check and the form that is available.

New Bottle Prototypes

Below is a picture of the new bottle prototypes. From left to right are an cobalt blue apothecary bottle, a smoky blue genie and a vintage green ball bottle, a cobalt blue olive branch bottle, an aqua drop bottle, and a dark amber amphora. 

I got the apothecary bottles in clear and cobalt, the genie in smoky blue, balls in clear, vintage green, and red, the olive branch in cobalt, the amphora in dark amber, and the drops are an assortment of lime, red, fuchsia, orange, aqua, and amber.

Catching Up with ACTUAL PROGRESS

Looks like I last posted on the 6th. The 7th was devoted to a big plumbing project to fix the underlying cause of the plumbing panic on ACen setup day - see my personal blog if you want more natter about that.

Got some more doll clothing done, I'll see about putting some pictures in at the end.  

And finally, on the 13th I started cleaning the dining room, which is my workroom, and MY space. Most of the work was actually done on Sunday the 14th. Ron attacked the front entry and front entry closet, including putting up shelves that now hold a bunch of bins that were in the workroom. I worked on the actual room, with occasional help from Robin (during breaks in mowing the lawn). 

I have an ACTUAL FLOOR. Well, had. Then I went and got 10 dozen new bottles, which came in two big boxes. This time I ordered from a different source, who had colored bottles. Besides more spheres/balls and cylinder/apothecary bottles, I got some little ones they call "genie" bottles, tall cobalt blue ones with olive branches, and amphora-shaped ones.

Still have some old parts of projects to sort through, but I've gone through all the newer parts and figured out what I have in pieces, and made a list. Also went through inventory and figured out what we need in the way of pouches. I'll also do belts, when Ron gets a chance to help - that's easier with multiple people/devices/screens, for various reasons.

Saturday afternoon we figured out what we're doing with the amphora bottles - hanging from a loop that snaps onto each handle. And Ron determined that he could set snaps with pretty caps on both sides, so I had to order more caps Monday morning. 

Also ordered more long rivets, which we need the the bottle straps that also include belt loops. But we can work on cutting, marking, and punching while waiting for snaps and rivets.  I'd ordered snaps and short rivets on Friday.

Did some on-line browsing for Christmas ornament boxes for transporting bottles. Only one style of cardboard box listed at The Container Store. I know they had more last year, presumably they'll bring back more soon - will keep an eye open.

Genie, drop, and the big blue olive branch bottles will have a collar sewn around the neck, with a (snapped) belt loop riveted on. Going to do those in black only.

The ball and apothecary bottles are not quite the same as the older sphere and cylinder bottles, so we had to modify the patterns. Got the modification right for the ball on the first try, had to try a second time on the apothecary. However, attempt 1 turns out to be just right for Robin's Orangina bottles.

Got all the tails done, plus putting a swivel on one belonging to X2's friend, on Saturday and Sunday.

Sunday afternoon, before Ron and Xap discussed MuseCon Programming stuff, we went through the schedule, which I'd also looked at with Ron on Saturday.

Tentative plan is to do Boar's Head, Kollision Kon (early Jan., Rosemont), Military History Fest, investigate Kitsune Con and Stonefield Wild West Steampunk Weekend, Geek.Kon, and Ramen Con.

Somehow the depth adjustment on the red press we use for rivets and snaps got cross-threaded on its threaded rod and thoroughly munged up, so yesterday morning I ordered a new threaded rod and adjustment screw. Also ordered, for insurance, a new spring, set screws, and another cheap thing or two.

Sunday I finally got around to getting a new iPod. Yes, I can use my phone and/or iPad, but they have limited capacity, so I end up listening to the same few things over and over and over until I get around to synching a device again. With an iPod I can have a lot of different music. I also got a good set of speakers for the dining room. 

Took a sanity day today. Haven't done anything Otter-ish, other than submitting our application for Kollision Con. May putter around with leather this afternoon, or I may go take a nap. Because I can.

And now, some pictures of doll clothes and my nice clean dining room and front entry (before the big boxes of glassware came in last week):

Yet Another Busy Weekend Report

Another busy weekend. But this report isn't late - I was driving all over the lower Rock River floodplain on Monday and Tuesday. More natter about that on my personal blog. 

Saturday Ron marked and put stitching holes in the neck collars on potion bottles, and I worked on sewing them up. Once I got started it went fairly quickly. I got over half of them done before we left for the MuseCon meeting and a friend's party after that.

At the party I did work on lacing pouches while chatting. And Ron decided to make a holster for a teacup and saucer for (Steampunk) Tea Duelling . . . you'll have to Google it yourself - it is G-rated, just odd.

Sunday we went to Crate & Barrel and Ron looked and looked (and looked) at teacups and saucers. Finding nice rounded teacups (as opposed to squared-off mugs) was a complete pain in the backside. This plain one was a nice shape, affordable, and too big. These were pretty, and a nice shape, but way too expensive. We finally got a couple of these, with matching saucers. More than we were hoping to spend, but they're a nice size and look nice. 

Ron's still trying to decide the best way to make the holster. Probably molded. Its going to be a pricey set, as I've decided it needs to be lined, and got some nice leather that can be molded to line it with. But steampunk fans seem to be willing to pay for good stuff. 

Sunday I worked on some more bottles, and in the afternoon worked on the red and red & black pouches I'd cut out last Monday. There were a lot of them. Nine, to be precise. But I got all of them ready to lace. And then I convinced myself that I didn't really need to take all nine with me to Moline. Which was good, because we worked late, then went to dinner, and weren't in a hurry to get back to our motel, and by then I was ready to be a vegetable, so I didn't get any lacing done at all Monday night. But I did some yesterday morning, and finished one pouch and did belt loops and other bits on a couple more last night. 

The same day last week I was looking for, and ordered, leather for belt loops, I got the new Weaver Leather catalog, which includes leather that's a bit heavier than I usually use for belt loops (but still reasonable), for about half the price of the leather I'd ordered (from another supplier). D'oh! The belt loop leather arrived yesterday, will probably cut that down today, since I'm home with an upset tummy. 

Which brings me, via the new catalog, not the upset tummy, to the upcoming price increase. Leather prices are going up. I did the price increase in 2012 figuring the cost for the leather I use for black belts at $8.00 square foot, which I thought then would give me some breathing space, and now that leather is up to $8.56. And when I was at Tandy/Leather Factory yesterday, the manager said their prices are going up - the garment/upholstery scrap has gone from $7/pound to $5.mumble/half-pound. Ouch.

I was thinking of increasing prices after ACen. The new plan, I think, is to go ahead and put the new prices on all the new stuff, and either work on re-pricing at ACen, or do it after, and if somebody notices and asks, tell them what's up - prices have to go up to cover our costs, get this before it goes to the price on that. Maybe we can even move some older inventory to new homes that way.

Yesterday we were contacted by Indy PopCon, a new pop culture convention in Indianapolis. It's their first year, hoping for 10,000 people. I think that may be optimistic (although they're on the ginormicon model, so that attendance goal may not be completely irrational). But they're only two weeks after ACen. And Ron may have to go to WisCon the intervening weekend to work the MuseCon party, because of reasons that have happened to other people. Robin has pronounced it a bad idea, at least for this year (as in, next year we could plan for it), but I have asked Ron and Xap's opinions. I suspect we'll pass.

Paper and Piggies and Other Things

We got the colored paper I ordered. The green I ordered is very very pale, more so than I was expecting from the approximation in their utility guide book. I'd been debating buying a sample pack of almost all of their paper, both weights and colors, so on Saturday afternoon I did. I also ordered what should be a darker green, Pop-Tone "Limeade". I waffled a bit about the green, but I decided to go for it as it didn't increase the shipping, which is a consideration when buying paper. They're out for delivery today.

Going back a couple blog entries, prior to my thoughts on the Chi-Fi thing, I talked about getting some Bisley filing cabinets from The Container Store.  After googling and determining there are no other good options for small flat file drawer units, on Sunday morning Ron and I got two of the smaller 5-drawer units (in orange) for the letterpress studio. The price of the 10-drawer unit had gone up by $20, so it was cheaper to buy the two 5-drawer units than the 10-drawer. The Container Store didn't have the wheeled base unit, and the casters on the base for a larger Bisley filing cabinet were craptastic. We discussed getting a small furniture dolly from Ace Hardware, but ended up being seduced by The Container Store's annual Elfa sale. We got the parts for a small wheeled mesh drawer unit, "cabinet size" (shallower), 4 drawer units high. 

The Elfa base we created is just about a perfect size, but it has one problem - the combination of base and Bisley cabinets is too tall to sit between the big bench and the composing gate-leg table, which is where I was thinking of putting it. So we put it between the paper cutter and creaser. 

When we got home from that shopping trip, we sorted blocks and put them away. IIRC we have 1 drawer for polymer plates, 2 of Christmas blocks, 1 of chickens (Ron's) and pigs (mine), 2 of other animals,  2 of "everything else", and one empty. Which only adds up to 9 drawers.  Oh, I remember now, there was one of frames and bookplates. So, we'll probably be getting a couple more 5-drawer cabinets and a small furniture dolly to put where I'd originally thought. Because we keep buying blocks.

A little bit ago I won an eBay auction for a herd of 6 piggies grazing. I think it needs to be an invitation or some kind of card, but I'm not sure exactly what.

No, I don't know why I've got a thing for pigs, nor can Ron say what's up with his chicken thing. I'll blame my maternal grandmother, she liked pigs too.   

Saturday afternoon I updated the banner designs I'd come up with in the past to use the Parsnip font I talked about earlier this month, and ordered two new banners, one 2' x 4' long, and one 2' x 2'. Yesterday I got e-mail that the file for the square one got eaten by the printers' system, but we got home from the funeral (see the personal blog) at a reasonable time and got it sent.

Did I mention Saturday was busy?  It was. Another Saturday accomplishment was finishing up the design for the new business cards, and sending the files off to get polymer plates made. I had time after the funeral and before the luncheon started to call the company making the plates and confirm that the files I sent would work, as this time around I sent images with shading. They were made today and I should have them before the weekend, so I could have some made for Military History Fest.

I think it was Sunday that we brought the proofs (sample prints) we have for most of the letterpress blocks downstairs and Ron scanned them. I started to try to come up with a business card order form yesterday afternoon after we got home, but I was just to tired to think straight. I did get an InDesign set of paragraph styles made of the digital stand-ins for the metal type we have. Yes, that was an accomplishment, after not sleeping at all well Sunday night/Monday morning, and then getting up at 5 am to go to Michigan for a visitation and funeral. 

Hopefully I can make some progress on making a business card order form tonight. I think I've pretty much given up on getting any new leather goods done for Military History Fest. I meant to at least try to get the valise I started finished, and it isn't a completely forlorn hope, but I'm not holding my breath. I'd hoped to at least lay out some signs to print (prices, "we do custom work", etc.), but we went shopping for the filing cabinets and organized blocks instead. Oops. 

Coasters!

Monday I got to work, was at the office for about a half-hour, and then went home, when the governor closed down State offices due to the weather. Tuesday morning I got to work, the office was cold because the boilers were broken and off (1 in each state), so we were sent home at noon. Yesterday the assistant director of awesome went into the office at about 6 am, determined that it was still freezing cold and e-mailed us to stay home. And didn't leave the office for the night until sometime after 9 pm (at which one of the boilers had been replaced and the office was back up to reasonable temperatures). Hopefully she got home for a while in there somewhere. 

Monday afternoon, the photopolymer plates arrived. Well, plate - it was one big sheet, as shown in my previous post in the low-resolution facsimile of the PDF we sent to have it made. The plastic is relatively soft, easily cut apart with scissors.

I started printing the first pass of coasters for the Capricon Cafe, which MuseCon is sponsoring. 250 coasters later, I called it a day. Tuesday I did the other 250. The first pass looks like this:

This is one from Monday: Monday I started out with this pale green, and kept adding (evil messy) blue until I finished up with a dark pine green:

 

Tuesday I started with orange, and either orange is stubborn, or I was being restrained when I was adding red, because there isn't much change (these are from the end of the day's run):

Monday and/or Tuesday evening (I forget exactly what we did when) Ron did the backs of some business cards he'd made over the weekend for advertising the cafe:

Tuesday night we set up the text and on Wednesday I did the words on all 500 coasters. I started out with light blue, darkened it up, added red to make burgundy, then added yellow to make light brown, then black to make bronze, although these are the light blue and burgundy:

The coasters are soft and porous enough paper that that we could stack coasters as they were done. Ron came home in the early afternoon, and then we did 250 more coasters, for the MuseCon party at Wiscon. He did the words, then I grabbed stacks and did the logo. Except when we switched places, because my shoulder and back got tired, because my press is a lot bigger and heavier to run. I'd left the bronze on his press, and I loaded up mine with (evil) blue:

Then Ron did some sample business cards. Those are in the slinky-board on the left in this picture. The other 3 slinky-boards are holding about 250 coasters (if you count the ones laid on top):

Why do I keep referring to the blue ink as evil blue?  Because it is. The can got packed upside-down for shipping, but even now that the ink has settled back to the bottom of the can (its really thick), it still gets everywhere. We've wiped the outside of the can off countless times, and you still can't touch it without getting blue on your hands. And it leaps off the press onto you like no other color does. The blue is evil. Pretty, but evil. 

This post is probably long enough. I have another whole string of pictures documenting the printing process, I think those will be a separate post.

New Font/New Look

One of the things we want for letterpress printing is a "Boxcar Base", which is a slab of machine aluminum, on which you mount photopolymer (fairly thin plastic) printing plates to bring them to the right height for presses designed for metal type. Its called a "Boxcar" base because its made/sold by Boxcar Press. The minimum order of photopolymer plate is 50 square inches, so Ron has been working on packing images that we want plates of to get our first plate run made.

One of the things we definitely wanted was an Otter Necessities logo, with the O-Otter for the O. In the past I've used Papyrus font for the words, which is a font that gets a lot of scorn. Last year I used this font, which is I like (which is good, since its one I bought), but the knockout inside the letters could be iffy to print letterpress, especially at small sizes:

 
As mentioned elsewhere about letterpress, we bought a font of Parsons in metal type. Its Art Deco, but not too over the top. A digital revival of Parsons is Parsnip NF, which includes the cool swashy capitals and italic text. Which looks like this for the basic font:

(the gray background is an artifact of generating sample text from the Linotype website) 

So, when Ron discovered that Papyrus wasn't installed on his laptop, I decided to switch to Parsons/Parsnip, and bought Parsnip. And now we're blaming MS for not installing the font in any rational way so that you can get to the cool swashy alternate capital Ns. AAARGH!

Anyway, we're also planning on having photopolymer plates made of "Letterpress printing by Otter Necessities" and our URL. Because I am feeeelthy merchant scum, yes I am. 

Ron's currently got a bunch of Christmas gift tags half-done. They fold up to about a 2"x2" square, with a picture on the outside and "To:" and "From:" on the inside. IIRC he's done 3 or 4 Santas in red ink, and a Christmas tree in green, and the insides will all be green. Now we just need a hole punch to put holes in the corners. 

Definitely working on taking orders for Victorian/Steampunk calling cards for Military History Fest. It would be cool to bring Ron's little press, but the problem is the solvents used for cleanup. Even Goo Gone/citrus oil has a certain fragrance to it. Hmm . . . Goo Gone does make "paint clean-up wipes" that could be useful. We shall see what happens.

Oops, Been a While

Sorry, I didn't mean to fall off the face of the blog.  I think I'll play catch-up in bullet points (Oh nooooo! Not bullet points!), which are not necessarily in chronological order:

• Click to embiggen pictures.
• Found a contact for what appears to be Anime Midwest's parent organization, and poked that. That finally got me a response, but not a very useful one, essentially "we've got some apps we still need to review, don't know when we'll get around to it".  I poked again as they completely ignored the question if they had our app, and finally got an answer that they do. Feh.
• Poked the grommet supplier, poked them again, and finally a third time. They showed up this week, a month after they were ordered. The excuses are plausible, although the delay was certainly annoying.
• I finished the map case in time for Boar's Head. Its very nice:
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• I've started on a black (saddle) valise from the same leather. So far I only have ends, so there's not a lot to say about it. This one will be simple - one-piece body/flap, no inner rain flap, no liner. It'll be a lot like this one:
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• I also finished some pouches. Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but I discovered that the construction is good enough to hold water:
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• I was actually soaking them so they could dry stuffed with newspapers, so they'd hold their shape better, instead of wanting to bow in, because I store leather rolled good side in. The wetting and drying were successful.
• One of the pouches I finished is based on this replica of a WWII-era Japanese small map case. Mine, which I forgot to photograph, seems taller, and I didn't add the pencil/pen pockets on the sides.
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•  I also dyed it black, because black sells, and prototypes sometimes have the odd bug that being black can help overcome.
• The book-keeping?  Don't ask.
• Working on a new product line, letterpress printed cards. Because on the mumble-th time of being tempted by letterpress I mentioned it to Ron and we both failed:
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• The bigger press is mine, the smaller one is Ron's. See my personal blog for lots more letterpress natter. 
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• I also have plans to print signs (prices, etc.).
• And steampunk calling cards. 
• Boar's Head went pretty well. We sold a little bit of everything. I don't think the map case got a lot of attention, but it wasn't displayed as well as it could have been.
• The weather was cold for Boar's head, but clear and dry. So I didn't complain about the snow on Sunday.
• Sunday we got new rollers for the small press with some of the Boar's Head proceeds. 
• Regarding Boar's Head food, the lunch sounded like it was going to be pretty much inedible for Ron and I (hard to swallow/digest), as well as high-carb and pretty questionable in an overall attractiveness, but we didn't check that until Friday evening, at which point it was a little late to contact the group running the event and try to get a medical pass on the "no outside food" rule. So we went to the grocery store, stocked up on meat and cheese, and took turns going out to the truck to eat lunch.
• The very cold weather was a bonus, as we left the food in a cooler in the truck overnight both Friday and Saturday nights with no worries, and the cooler only acting as food containment. 
• The Pippin containment measures mentioned in the last post continue to be effective. 
• On the other hand, last night while Ron and I were out running an errand and Robin was upstairs, he stole a jar of printing press roller cleaner. Fortunately, he was either distracted or decided it didn't smell very interesting once he got it outside, so there's only some superficial teeth marks on the outside. 
• Plans for this weekend: Belt piece that I ordered the grommets for, printing Christmas cards, Cookie Lab. 
• I probably should be working on pouches, but, oooh, shiny, printing!

Successes and Progress

I think we're finally making progress on some things that have been issues.
 
Finally got notice that I could pay for our ACen exhibitor space, and have done so. (You may have noticed a giant sucking sound from the direction of our bank). That should mean that we've finally completed the registration process. If we want to get services (pipe & drape, electrical, etc.) from the convention center, which I don't plan to, that will be handled a little closer to May. We do still need to figure out if there's anywhere nearby we can park the truck & trailer Thursday and Sunday. 

The check for our Reenactor Fest spaces has been cashed, and the check for Boar's Head is listed as "in clearing", so I'm comfortable with where we are for those events.

Still haven't heard back from Anime Midwest, but I'll give it until at least Sunday afternoon/evening, if I don't hold out for a solid week. 

Pippin got out of the yard again yesterday. Robin called me just as I'd arrived at work. As I arrived home he was down the street, and happily came when I called - he's happy to go exploring, and he's happy to come home. Ron and Robin procured 6x6 landscaping timbers, a new chain for the chain saw, and we think we've got the problem areas dealt with - except for a couple small spots Robin is supposed to deal with . . . any time now.  

Last night I tried to order some clear sheet vinyl for one or more additional new projects, but the web site in question was not playing nicely with my iWhatsit. This morning I tried again with better success. 

The pebbled black leather that arrived Thursday is very nice. I don't think it's going to last long - besides the small project I ordered it for, I'm going to make it into sporrans, belt satchel, and satchels. Still waiting on the grommets to finish the small project. Had a "duh" moment on the way to work yesterday (the first trip) about a simpler way to put dees on pouches for use as sporrans. Which means more shopping. Its been a busy month for shopping.

Not sure the piece of black leather I got a couple weeks ago is large enough for both a map case and a valise. I'm going to do the map case first, as I think it'll sell sooner. Ron suggested a slightly smaller valise, which is an option, as they don't seem to have been standardized like some accoutrements. 

I probably could/should work on the books some more, but I'm going to start the map case this afternoon. Dammit.

Busy-Ish Weekend

Ron and I have spent the last week looking at/for pictures of various map cases and other pouches, mostly from the WWII era. We have a bunch of ideas, and one Russian example on order. 

One that we both liked is a reproduction of a Japanese map case, which isn't obviously for maps:

It's about 6" tall by 4" wide, and hangs from the belt by that brass hook. 

I decided to make my own version. I started converting the dimensions from centimeters to inches, then realized that was stupid, and set my CAD program units to centimeters. 

I've come up with a design and cut out a prototype, which is going to be dyed black, because the selling power of black will overpower any imperfections in the prototype. The belt clips I have are black, need to see if I can find some brass ones similar to the ones in the picture.

I also cut out three Civil War-era belt pouches while I was at it, also to be dyed black. If I'm really ambitious, I'll get several things ready to sew together and can work on them at Windycon (not vending there, though).

I didn't get as far as starting a new tubular map case, although I got my thinnish-wall PVC in last week and meant to. I've decided how I'm going to construct it, though. I think this version will be more successful than the first one. And black, because . . . you know.

Saturday we went to the local Tandy/Leather Factory store, with Xap, who hadn't been there before. Some dark teal heavy garment/upholstery leather followed us home, as well as some more . . . interesting colors: metallic purple-ish that called to Ron, and screaming sparkly metallic magenta. It isn't a large piece of magenta, but big enough to do several soft belt pouches, because I think it may go at anime cons. 

I also got some black button studs, a couple steampunk-ish belt buckles, and nickel hardware to use on the black map case. And then we got home, and I ordered some shorter button studs, and footman's loops. The loops are to use for making a saddle valise/portmanteau, as is the ticking material I ordered last week. Nice sturdy twill-woven blue-striped old-fashioned pillow or mattress ticking, with an honest-to-bob woven-in (not printed) stripe. That will be the lining for the valise.

Ordered a couple books on WWII German cavalry from ABE, turns out from the same seller. Today a book I ordered last weekend, "Art Nouveau Designers at The Paris Salons, Volume VI: Textiles & Leather", arrived. From a quick flip through, most of the leather is in the form of bookbinding. 

Still waiting to hear back from Anime Midwest on my initial application, and ACen on my contract/payment information. Its been over a week since I chose my ACen space, my opinion of their process is not improving. Trying not to make any judgements yet on Anime Midwest. 

The shutdown of our ArtFire store is completed, as of October 31. I think I got all of one sale on ArtFire, it definitely was not working for us.

Back in the Saddle Again

Windycon Publications

Wednesday I was very tired, so I stayed home. Programming Ops had let me know that the programming schedule was ready to go, so I finished up the pocket program. Which I then revised slightly on Thursday, and then uploaded to the printer. Got the program book Friday, which has already been returned for the press and bindery staff. 

Schedule

Friday I intended to send off our registrations for Boar's Head and Military History Fest, but I forgot that I didn't have stamps with me. So those went out Saturday morning. Also e-mailed about a couple conventions next year, have to let Ron and Xap know what I found out.

At some stupidly early hour Saturday morning I chose our spaces for ACen next year. Suffice it to say their process continues to annoy me (although the stupidly early hour part wasn't their fault).

Paperwork

Finding stamps led to cleaning a bunch of Otter-ish purchase receipts from my wallet, which I scanned Friday night. And then Saturday morning I had Robin fetch me the big pile of paperwork that needs to be recorded/dealt with, and found all the receipts to scan in that were in that mess. 

That, in turn, led to sorting said paperwork. 

Shopping

Saturday morning I went to The Leather Factory, and indulged myself in some (slightly pricey) leather I've been admiring for a while. My plans for it are a new map case, with a different and hopefully better design that the first one, a saddle valise/portmanteau (cylindrical/oval-ish hand/saddle luggage), and a music roll/portfolio/satchel.

After I got home and messed about with paperwork, I did some on-line shopping: I got thinnish walled PVC for the new map case, and some plastic bottles - a taller (also possibly larger diameter) cobalt blue bottle (8 oz), and a clear oval with round shoulders (12 oz):

For reference, the small cobalt blue glass bottles I have are 2 ounce, and the glass bottles are 7-8 ounce. 

Actually Making Stuff?

Nope. Didn't get that far. But I did look at/find pictures and some old patents for reference. Hoping to come the weekend (although I also have some outdoor work around the house in the plans, too).

Still need to get Ron or Robin to make me a mold for the bottom of the small glass bottles.

Also need to talk to Modelmaker about a fancy rod for this style of music (or whatever) satchel:

It occurs to me now that there's no reason that the bar-over-handle closure has to be just for a music portfolio. Now I'm thinking tablet bag. 

I think the new map case and valise/portmanteau will be probably be black. I like brown for steampunky things, but black will probably sell faster. The music case(s) will be brown, though, dammit.

Which reminds me, I need to get some striped ticking material to line the valise. An excuse for fabric shopping!  Woo hoo!

Catching Up

Maneki Neko Con could have been better, sale-wise. We're not sure if there were fewer people there, or if they were off doing more than hanging around the building atrium, or what. Friday night sales were better than I expected, but Saturday only equalled Friday because of one last sale (of an item that really needed to find a new home, so that's another plus). 
  
Numerically I think we sold more test tubes than tails, but I'd say tails were the must successful type of thing. We also sold two potion bottles with lots more looking. So we got proof of concept for potion bottles and test tubes (especially since I didn't have any holders for the test tubes, was just selling the tubes).
 
They're working on moving Maneki Neko Con to a hotel next year (the one we spent Friday night at, as it happens), I'm thinking we'll probably give at least one more go. 

One of our Klingon customers (they had a fan table) suggested that we'd do well at TeslaCon (Madison, WI), and one of the local costumers agreed. But not this year, as its between now and Windycon, and only a couple weeks after surgery. Xap was investigating their website with an eye toward next year.

Setup was, once again, made of flail. We had a triangular space, and all the new gridwall to play with. We really really need to sit down and draw up some layout ideas. Packing up was fast, we were out in about an hour, thanks in part to help from Pen, and the logistics crew who took all the gridwall out on their big cart and pushed the Things and the Grinch. Yay for Pen, and Taz and his Logistics crew!

Working on the Windycon book. The goal is to get it done except for final proofreading by the end of this weekend, as I have surgery a week from tomorrow. 

Which meant that I did Maneki Neko Con on days 2 and 3 of icky protein shake starvation diet. Ron and Xap did most of the customer interaction, because low blood sugar is not good for my attitude. And I succeeded in staying nice for the customers. 

But I digressed. The Windycon book is being the Windycon book. Tuesday night I realized I was pretty much at page count, with about 10 pages of material to add. Ron suggested I e-mail the chair and co-chair. After sleeping on it, I did. The solutions were, in retrospect, fairly obvious, and mostly carried out last night (change to a couple more space-saving fonts, do additional compressional things, blah blah blah). Apparently I just needed someone else to make the suggestions to me this time around.  

Need to get our registration in for Boar's Head, which is the next event I expect we'll be at.

Progress, but Not Quite Planned

I had been sorta-kinda planning on working on more potion vial (test tube) carriers and/or a bandolier this weekend, as well as a way to put the little cobalt blue bottles on a belt.  

Didn't quite happen.  The grommets and grommet sets I ordered hadn't arrived (not entirely surprisingly), so I didn't get as far as poking at the bandolier.  I was going to pick up drill bits Friday evening for the bottle project, but on-line shopping meant that I Ron picked them up for me, and for various reasons we didn't get to doing anything with them Saturday morning. 

Saturday afternoon we went to a friend's, where she and Ron worked on the MuseCon website, and I worked on a cartridge pouch.Sunday I worked on the cartridge pouch some more, and Ron had fun with stained glass. 

Yesterday Ron had picked up the rest of the narrow gridwall we'd ordered, which had come in to the supplier much earlier than I expected (not that I'm complaining, I thought they wouldn't be in until after Maneki Neko Con). Now we have a recycling wheelie bin full of tall cardboard boxes, and front entry full of of tables and gridwall.

And yesterday the self-centering punches I ordered (and ordered and ordered) last week had arrived. The small set starts at 1/4" and goes up to 1" in diameter. The set with the big red handle goes from 1-1/8" up to 1-1/2". 

The small set is in a plastic case with nubs to hold things in place. The big set is in foam in a cardboard box. A larger-than-expected box, but the handle is bigger than expected, too. I need to find a case of some kind for it, hopefully a little smaller than the box it came in. Or the same size would be ok, if I could also work in the small set. We'll see.

Worked on the cartridge pouch yesterday, at this point there's one side of one side piece to sew on (which you can't really see here), and the tab to hold the outer flap shut.

I hadn't quite realized how much work there is in one of these, as Ron had done all the marking, stitching holes, and assembly on the ones we'd made previously. That would be why we charge $90 for them. 

I tried to order more of the black buckles (which hold the shoulder strap) that you can kind of see on the bottom of the cartridge pouch yesterday. They're replicas of ones from the Civil War, an are nice, but the supplier is out of them either again or still.

The pattern calls for 3/4" buckles, and the ones I used on this pouch were 7/8", as I'd decided the 1/8" was Plenty Close Enough, Thanks. I can get non-replica black roller buckles in 1" from one of my more usual suppliers, and I suspect the only significant difference is the weight of the tongue. I was looking at pictures yesterday, and I think I can
justify, at least to myself, going to 1" buckles. In fact, 3/4" looks like it would be on the small side. I just haven't quite convinced myself to do it. Maybe I'll exercise my Google-Fu one more time before I decide.

If nothing else, it would distract me from the fact that I've been fasting since 8:30-ish this morning, until after an ultrasound at 4:15 this afternoon. Yes, I know, that's not really a very long time, but OTOH, low blood sugar makes me cranky. And I have a Windycon meeting tonight. Yes, Ron is making sure I get fed between the ultrasound and the meeting. He doesn't want me arrested for murder . . .

Potion Vials

I have made another new thing - a prototype holder for potion vials (aka test tubes):

Unlike the potion bottles, this prototype has/had some issues.

It started out with just the upper strap, and the bottom shelf was supposed to be a pocket. Unfortunately, I made the pocket too shallow, and it flops open. Also, if the back flexes at all, the tubes can go right on past the shelf, and they have no lip to catch on the upper loop.

The last loop on the left of the lower strap is not in line with the rest of that strap. Not sure what happened there. 

The loops are snug enough that the whole lower pocket/shelf idea is probably unnecessary, and I'll probably just go with two sets of loops. I like the look of the wider upper one, I'll probably go with that.  And the corners will probably end up rounded off. Not sure if I want to stick with rivets for the belt loops, or go with sewing. 

Crunching the numbers, a piece like this for holding 5 vials would probably be $15. The test tubes, with nice black rubber stoppers, would be $1 each, either for the colored ones or for clear ones. Smaller tubes (not shown) would be $0.75, again with stoppers.

I used the slightly frosted translucent tubes for test-fitting, as they were kind of an "oops" purchase - I meant to get the transparent ones, but they weren't worth the cost/bother of sending back. Debating if I want to knock some off the price for those, which would come with the plastic stoppers shown for the larger sizes. I'm thinking $0.80 for the larger size, and $0.60 for the smaller, which I don't have stoppers for.

The next new project is a holder for small potion bottles - I have some very pretty small cobalt blue glass bottles with screw caps (root root root . . . yes, I do have a picture): 

These are 2-ounce bottles, about an inch and a half in diameter. (The larger clear glass square bottles I did over the weekend are 7 ounce and the spherical and cylindrical ones are 8.5 ounce). 

I think for the little cobalt blue bottles will have one strap, a bottom socket, and either a belt loop or a belt clip - I'm inclined toward the belt clip just for something different. 

Robin and I have been consulting on how to do a bottom socket, probably stopping at a woodworking store on the way home tonight as part of that project. Ron also offered input.

Getting out the test tubes stimulated Robin's creativity, he was coming up with a design for a pouch to hold his share of the test tube stash. I think I understand what he's planning, but this morning I asked him to cut the parts out of paper. Not that his drawings aren't clear, but I'd just be more comfortable seeing a mock-up. Contra-wise, he'd probably have similar issues visualizing from one of my drawings: your own drawings are always easier to understand that someone else's. 

Yesterday I tried for the third time to order a large set of self-centering punches, as the place I ordered from Wednesday night does not actually have them in stock, and I wouldn't get them for 4-6 weeks. I'm not entirely confident in this place, as I still don't have an e-mail confirmation/tracking number, over 24 hours after my phone order. I'll be calling them this afternoon to see what's up.  If this place fails I'll probably suck it up and pay more than I want to/what the punches were going for a few months ago.

OTOH, I do have the invoice for the grommets and grommet sets I ordered yesterday from one of my usual suppliers. Those are for possible use in a bandolier project. More natter about that later, I think I've gone on long enough at this point.

More Bottles

I made another seven potion bottles yesterday: All three shapes in golden brown, and spheres and cylinders in red brown and chocolate brown.  I've got three more bottles, one of each shape left, I'm thinking of doing them with embossed straps around the bodies.

This set of bottles went fairly quickly, even though laying out the parts is a little fussy. If they sell well I need to make templates for the various parts, which would speed up layout.  

The bottles don't stand up nicely, because of the lump created where all the straps come together on the bottom. I may switch to attaching each strap separately to a bottom piece, so they'll sit better on a table. This set I'll probably display hanging, so their slightly drunken-looking leaning doesn't detract, since they are made to wear on a belt. 

Interestingly, although the square bottle is the shortest of the lot, that fourth side/strap means that its also the most expensive. Looks like prices will be $15 for the spherical bottle, $16 for the cylinder, and $17 for the square.

Did some shopping today: replacing a couple of undersized end punches that I've been grumbling about for several years, blades for my rotary cutter (rusted after Saturday night's shower), self-centering punches so I can make backing discs for conchos, a new on-off switch for the sewing machine, and some other odds and ends. 

I've been mulling over how to do cartridge loops or whatever for test tubes, but haven't decided on anything yet. They don't have an upper lip, so whatever I do has to have a provision to keep them from falling/being pushed all the way through.  I've also had ideas for a cartridge box type arrangement, which would be a larger/more expensive option.  Machine-sewing would be nice, or rivets.

New Things Made!

Saturday morning, with much help from Robin, I got the dining room cleaned! In the process, I made a bigger mess out of it, which spilled out into the kitchen. Mid-way through the process I had to get moral support from Ron, who pointed out that making a bigger mess is normal for cleaning up in here. 

Sunday morning I put a bunch of tools and hardware away that I'd piled up while cleaning. That wasn't too big a job, and didn't take too long.

Then I started rooting through the big bag of straps. First I pulled some that are the right width for belt loops, and too short for binding for belt satchels, etc. Those are set aside for use next time I need to make a batch of belt loops. 

Then I pulled out straps to make "Potion Bottles". Sorting, measuring, note-taking, measuring, note-taking, measuring, note-taking, splitting leather down, going out to Menard's to replace my square, measuring, cutting, measuring, later, I had the first one made. At first I thought I'd gotten the spacing on one thing wrong, but once I finished it, we decided I'd gotten it right. Then I made two more:

I did them with black leather because, as Ron pointed out, black sells. 

I did get the length of one piece wrong - the collars that go around the neck of the bottle. The length I originally meant to cut it would have been too short to sew it up easily, but on the first bottle I mis-cut it long, and went with it from there on. I also meant to have the seam on the collar on the spherical bottle back by the belt loop like the others, but that's minor. 

The new-ish press makes setting rivets very easy (not that it was difficult before), and much quieter. 

Next up, doing some more bottles. I'm going to do a set in one or more shades of brown, then I'm thinking of having Ron emboss and dye/antique the straps for another pass. Not sure about doing the collars. I'll probably do the belt loops, too, as that just means doing a bit more of a long strap. 

Slightly surprised that my missing square hasn't shown up yet. The new one was less than $5, so I wouldn't have bothered taking it back even if the old one had greeted us at the door. Maybe its waiting to see if the new one rusts after being poured on last night - I forgot to shut the dining room window when I was done working for the night, and the storm last night was blowing right in. OTOH, the new square is painted, so so I don't expect it to be an issue (and I dried it off). 

Nattering About Thinking

I turned off vacation mode on the Etsy and ArtFire stores last night. Etsy rather annoyed me, in that you can't see or do anything with your listings while the store is in vacation mode. What the flippity-flip-flip?!? So I had to turn vacation mode off, then go through and delete the hanging pouches that we sold at ACen. The stupid, it burns us, Precious.

The company I ordered the test tubes from is in Louisiana, but the order is actually coming from Seattle. Grumble. 

I've been looking at my book of "American Military Belts and Related Equipments" for bandolier ideas. Unsuccessfully, as there's only one bandolier in it. OTOH, I've learned that most cartridge belts were fabric instead of leather because early cartridges were copper, and leather cartridge belts had more issues with dampness, which led to formation of verdigris on the cartridges, which caused Problems, with a capital P, such as jamming.  

However, test tubes do not, under typical conditions, form verdigris, so that isn't an issue. Unless we stumble across a cache of copper ones. 

Thinking of getting a custom embossing roll made, so that we can emboss some gears on it and call it steampunk. 

I think my hands and wrists have pretty much recovered, and getting that antsy feeling to start working on things again. Maybe I'll start put together the pistol cartridge belt that I've got cut out, so that when the test tubes arrive I can see if we'll need to lengthen the flap or make any other changes to hold the smaller test tubes. 

Bottles and Test Tubes

Last night I ordered test tubes - a batch of colored ones, with a plastic stand (10 each of 5 colors), a batch of clear ones, and another batch of shorter clear ones, which should fit into the small Civil War-era cartridge belt pouch. Also got another batch of colored test tubes for Robin. Also black rubber stoppers for the test tubes.

Then this morning I ordered some more clear ones in both sizes. The clear plastic test tubes are available in two different types of plastic, and last night I'd ordered the less clear ones. It was too late to edit my order, so I ordered the more clear ones this morning. They're relatively inexpensive, and the supplier has a "no questions" return policy, if I decide to pay return shipping. 

I've had an idea for filling the (clear) test tubes, but I have to get materials and do some experimentation. Last night over dinner we were discussing pouch-ish things to hold and show off test tubes, need to do some more shopping for that, too. Also going to make a bandolier or two, right now I'm waffling about making the loops out of leather or cotton web, and if leather sewing them down or riveting. Lots of copper rivets is definitely a steampunk look, and simpler than sewing (even by machine), so may go with that. 

The nice thing about steampunk is that it's brown-leather friendly. On the other hand, Robin has plans for a dieselpunk outfit, which means black leather. I love you too, son. 

This morning I also ordered bottles. I got pretty cobalt blue cylindrical ones with a plastic screw cap, and clear ones with corks in three shapes: square, cylindrical, and spherical. I didn't get quite as many of the squares as the others, as I don't like the shape quite as well. The pictures of the clear bottles are to scale with one another, the blue bottle is actually smaller.

 Need to make a decision about Ragnarok Rampage (SCA event). It's moved a little farther away (used to be at Plowman's Park, with a good location for the merchants), and it wasn't a super-great event last year. OTOH, the house has demanded a sacrifice to The Plumbing Gods, which will be putting a significant dent in the ACen proceeds. Growf. 

Which reminds me, I need to go through the list of pouches sold, pull sold ones off of Etsy and ArtFire, and turn those back on (put them on "vacation mode" shortly before ACen). And get holders made for the two triangular bottles from the dining room, and get those put up for sale. 

ACen Aftermath

Picking up on the end of the last post, which is ideas and plans for next year:

Two booths. This year's gross covered this year and two booths for next year, and with better/more preparation we think we'll definitely have enough sales to make two booths worth the cost. 

As said, more tails. Tuesday morning I ordered a dozen more tails, which should be the first batch in a planned slow buildup to what would have seemed like Stupid Amounts a month ago. I only have a half-dozen swivels, and probably won't order a batch until next week, but since we're leaving for WisCon tomorrow, that's ok. 

Horn bows. A few years ago Ron made, and we sold, some bows using gemsbok horns as the limbs, with grips he carved extending into the horns. They look really neat, but have some issues related to actual archery use, so the last four horns have been languishing. But I think a bow or two made up for display/costume use has a high probability of moving at ACen. I just have to figure out an elegant way to keep the horns on the center grip when un-strung (the previous ones relied on string tension to keep them together, which was not a problem, but ACen rules require bows to be un-strung or to use obviously-yarn "strings").  

I have to admit that getting the horns out of the house wouldn't make me sorry, either. I'm eyeballing the Rubbermaid bin they're in for tails, for yet another reason. Guilty guilty guilty. 

Potion bottles, as in small bottles or vials in leather clips/cases/holders, for LARP and steampunk-ish costumes. We had several requests at ACen, and I think a couple at CodCon.  Tuesday Robin and I did some web searching, and came up with pretty cobalt-blue nice plastic bottles, plastic test tubes, and some nice small glass bottles. Robin is planning a dieselpunk costume (especially now that he got his hat, which looks kinda WWII German officer-ish), and wants a batch of test tubes, too. 

Robin and I came up with carrier ideas for the test tubes, and Ron has ideas for holding bottles. Previously we'd made bottles completely wrapped in leather, and had plans for fancier ones, so Tuesday I looked at the glassware stash in the workroom. I found a pair of small bottles that contained bath salts, one green and one blue, that we'll start with. They've been emptied out, washed, sat for a while with Simple Green in them, and now probably contain baking soda, in an attempt to deodorize them. Robin is also setting aside a couple few pear-shaped Orangina bottles, (that ad is . . . odd) and I expect I'll be ordering test tubes and more bottles soon.

Not steampunk goggles. Although we've had many requests at ACen and other events, they're not something that we have any interest in making.

More gridwall. On Friday Ron declared that if we're doing ACen again he wants more gridwall. If he can get it into the trailer, I'm not going to argue. On Thursday I noticed somebody had a very narrow gridwall panel, and subsequent exercise of my Google-Fu disclosed the availability of 1' x 5' panels (the panels we currently have are 2' x 6'). Debating if some of the narrow stuff may be useful. 

We also discussed better possible methods of displaying pouches on gridwall. I'll probably get some gridwall hardware/hooks so we can experiment. 

Bags. Several ACen customers asked for bags, and we get asked at least once a day at other events, so I'm debating if I want to get a small stash of bags. We could re-use grocery bags, but . . . meh. Should have had Ron check what sizes/counts of bags GFS has yesterday when he and Robin were shopping for the MuseCon party at WisCon. 

Printer, POS software, etc. There were a couple times on Friday that we used Ron's iPad in addition to mine to record sales, but overall we don't think we'll need a second printer, especially as we can e-mail electronic receipts from Ron's.  Ron ran into some bugs running his perl scripts to extract sales data, mostly related to things like apostrophes in the imported inventory records. He's also saved off pre- and post- ACen records so that not only can we check what we sold, we can see how that compared to what we started out with.

Power. Even if we get more sales next year, I don't think we'll need to pay for power. The only thing I had to plug in was the wireless hot spot; the printer got low but we have a spare battery for that, and my iPad didn't need to be plugged in (until we got home and I started playing games/reading), so the UPS was fine and I expect to be so next year. 

Different physical record-keeping space. We didn't use the small table we usually have, so I was using one of the drawers of The Grinch as a shelf for my keyboard, the top for my iPad and various odds and ends, and had the cash and coinage in various other drawers (at least three different arrangements). All made me twist and reach funny to greater and lesser extents. But with two booths we'll have space for the small table and ourselves.

So there we are. Lots of plans for next year. And I'm still feeling short of sleep. I'm not making a decision until after WisCon and I look at next year's dates, but I'm not sure both WisCon (even though we don't have dealer space there) and ACen are a good idea in the future.