Extended Weekend, with EEK!

The weekend sorta-kinda continued into yesterday.

As some of you know, I have a thing about going to the dentist, for a reason which I am repeatedly told is quite understandable. My current dentist is one of the people who has said so, and has gifted me with a Xanax prescription to help deal with it. Yay Xanax!

So, yesterday morning I had the drilling and grinding part of a crown done, with attendant gluing-on of a temporary crown. Ron (designated driver) dropped me off at home by 10:30 am. I was loopy enough that I didn't do anything until after lunch. In fact, I was about ready to give up and take a nap to see if I could sleep off the last of the Xanax, when I got the call that the I'd called for earlier was on the way.

I decided that although I wasn't as bad as I'd been earlier in the day, I probably shouldn't be working on custom pouches. So I dug out soft leather and started cutting out soft pouches (tracing patterns and cutting on the lines requires fewer active brain cells than doing custom work). Rather a lot of pouches:

2 sporrans, a belt satchel, and a little tabbed pouch from a tan moose hide.
Ditto, from a dark green deer hide.
1 belt satchel in dark teal.
2 belt satchels in a slightly pebbly darker tan.
5 sporrans and a belt satchel out of black. 

That left only some palm-sized scraps of the moose, deer, dark tan, and one piece of black. I got 4 of the sporrans and the belt satchel out of that piece, which was surprising - I had remembered it being bigger, but also got more out of it than expected once I did see the size. On the up-side, in fishing blindly in a bin of mud-colored car-interior remnants for interior pocket materials, I found a good-sized piece of black.  

In the "Eek!" department, I just realized that I mis-counted, and there are only two weekends before ACen. Fortunately, the 17 pouches I cut out yesterday, and the 10 belt satchels and little tabbed pouches I cut out last week are all ones that I machine-sew, so they go together much faster than laced pouches. Getting them finished in the next two weekends is not an unreasonable goal.

Plus, I have the final crown installation late-morning next Thursday. If I decide that it's insufficiently scary to require Xanax, I'll also have time that day.

A Rare Weekend Post!

We've gotten a lot of things done this weekend, despite the fact that my only accomplishments Friday night were folding some laundry and picking Robin up from his D&D game. 

In happy news, the sold-via-Etsy pouch we needed to find was in Thing 2. So was the bin of odds and ends that I wanted to sort. Xap and I did inventory the belts in The Grinch, also. My inventory sheet was definitely incorrect, most likely cause is a batch of belts made and packed into The Grinch, but not recorded. There are worse ways to screw up inventory.

After playing with it, Xap concurred that the POS app, RingItUp, by PingySoft (.com) looked good, so I bought it. Ron has customized the receipt and done some experimentation with reports, etc. Although RingItUp does not synchronize things if you use it for one business on two iWhatsits, Ron has the power of Perl, and is plotting on how to crunch data to create unified reporting, etc.

Yesterday's accomplishments also include:

• Cutting out parts for the two custom pouches ordered at CodCon.
• Realizing I screwed a part for one up, and we also needed to mold the front for it, as I'd forgotten we'd dyed it black playing with the airbrush a couple/few weeks ago.
• Ron airbrush-dyed hard pouch fronts and some other pouch parts.
• I cut out backs for 6 hard pouches, main parts two lace mania pouches and two more belt pouches which I've made previously as purses. 
• Taught Xap to do the lacing for pouch flaps
• Saw a production of "Oliver" at Cutting Hall

Today was even busier:

• Molding the front for the custom pouch (had hoped to do it last night, but it needed more moisture)
• I cut strips for belt loops, which Ron thinned down and cut to size. Lots of belt loops.
• Robin cut strips for holding the dees on the back of pouches (for use as sporrans)
• Ron cut those strips and some others to length and punched holes. Almost 40 of them.
• The six hard pouches are ready to lace, which involved marking, gluing, trimming, more marking, making holes, taking corners off of edges, still more marking, setting rivets to hold latches on, more marking, more holes, attaching belt loops to dee-holder parts and riveting to the pouches, and, finally, dyeing edges. 
• Making pastichio for dinner
• Packing up the pouch retrieved from Thing 2 yesterday to mail out tomorrow

I am . . . not entirely impressed with ACen's exhibitor registration system. It seems to require human button-pushing to advance steps, which seem that they should be able to automate. I've been trying unsuccessfully to pay since Thursday morning, so this morning I sent e-mail asking what was up with that and several other items. This afternoon I got e-mail with the instructions how to do so and a contract to sign and return. Not sure if my e-mail jogged things loose, or if they passed in the ethernet.

I think its about time for bed now.

Chugging Along

More things accomplished, more-or-less looking ahead to ACen:

Invited Ron and Xap to be users on the Otter Necessities Square and Intuit accounts, so we aren't limited to using only one phone to run charges (also useful for smaller events, because customers like to descend in waves). 

Just heard from Xaplet Major on the last badge, so we have our setup/teardown staff.

Continued poking at the POS app, playing with exporting to DropBox. May play with putting inventory into its table layout and importing tonight. Still not sure if this is what we'll go with, going to get Xap's opinion tomorrow.

Ordered more tails last night. I have been keeping a dozen in inventory, and post-CodCon I'm down to 7, mostly smaller tails - raccoon, and grey and kit fox. The bigger tails have been selling better, so for ACen I ordered a dozen big tails - a coyote and various colors of fox, including some "super jumbo" sized ones. 

Although we only sold a few belts at CodCon, I'm down to nothing in the way of leather left to cut belts out of, so today, being payday, I ordered a side of black and a side of london tan (golden brown). I was waffling which shade of brown to order, so I looked at what we've sold since January of last year.  The results were even numbers of london tan and havana (chocolate brown), with chestnut (red brown) at about a third of each of the other browns. 

I'm glad I looked at the numbers, as I didn't realize chestnut had been lagging so badly. Now I'm waffling about even continuing to keep chestnut belts in stock going forward. Choosing between london tan and havana was based in which I like better. Nothing wrong with havana, but its . . . boring. If finances allow, I'll see if I can order a side of havana before ACen, but I'm not counting on it. 

I was thinking that we need to do an inventory of belts (I suspect I've had some errors creep in), may do that tomorrow since trailer-spelunking may be on the agenda anyway. Also, there's a couple bins that are a higgeldy-piggeldy mess of small stuff, some of which I plan to put out at ACen, and some I don't. So those may get sorted out, too.

In the not-ACen-related accomplishments, last night we found a pair of belts that we got an Etsy order for, holes punch, cut to length, and packed up to be shipped out this morning.

Then I woke up this morning to another Etsy order for a pouch. The only problem is that I'm not sure I remembered to pack it with the hanging pouches to go in Thing 2 and be more easily accessible. Fortunately, the weather is supposed to be decent tomorrow, so we can do said trailer spelunking.

Another of tomorrow's tasks is working on the two custom pouches we got orders for at CodCon. 

Working working working...

ACen Update

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
We are approved to be dealers at ACen.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
We have chosen a location in the dealer's room/hall.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
I am not quite rational. I was worse before breakfast, when I got the confirmation e-mail and we chose our spot.

Still have to pay, and send in a signed contract, but at this point those are semi-formalities, the reality is that we'll be in the ACen dealer's room.

I don't think I'm having second thoughts this point (second-dozen? second-hundred?), but there was the chance that we would not be approved, or the room would fill up before we were approved. But we've been continuing on the assumption that we would get in.

I've updated the Intuit account, which upped the limit for how much would be immediately deposited to my bank account (funds over the limit can be held for up to 30 days). I've also signed up for a Square account.  

Investigating POS (Point of Sale) software for the iThingies. The first three were eliminated for combinations of not meeting my (possibly odd) requirements, or having a monthly subscription fee of Way Too Much. I think I've found one, with a one-time Reasonable Cost to buy, which will work. 

Determined that buying a battery-operated receipt printer is probably going to be Way Too Much. However, a friend of ours who is good at finding tech cheap is aware of what we're looking for, so I'm not discounting it yet.

The ACen rules require that the sides of displays along the booth limits have to be curtained. Had one idea how to do that, but came up with a better one, which Ron refined, and Xap is now following up on.  

Last year's ACen attendance was 24,000. Twenty-four thousand. That's 20 times the size of WindyCon or DucKon, at its peak a few years ago when Jim Butcher was GoH.  My mind boggles. Really really boggles.

We will not be doing Northshield Crown, given this news. Ragnarok Rampage may be questionable, if we sell lots and lots of stuff.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

CodCon Report & ACen

Ron took Friday off, I worked. The plan was to be at CoD (College of DuPage) by 4:00, when the vendor's room opened for setup. I didn't get out of the office quite when I meant, so I was a few minutes late. Ron, Robin, and Marmaduke had arrived early, and had everything inside waiting for me. I think Xap arrived around 6-ish, but that's a SWAG.

We had two 6' tables/spaces, but the room was far from full, so we, um, kinda oozed over into another 4' or so of space. The CoD tables were 36" wide, which is 6" wider than our 6' tables. I'm not complaining. Robin did a good job packing hanging pouches onto the gridwall. Marmaduke's logic in arranging belts completely escaped any of us. :) Ron forgot the new sock yarn, but grovelled a lot about it.

Friday the room was officially open 6 pm - 10 pm. We got one or two smallish sales Friday.

Saturday we were officially open 10 am - 10 pm, but I knew the door would be open when the convention opened at 9 am, and due to waking up earlier than I wanted to and not paying attention to the clock, I got there shortly after 8. So it was a really really long day. 

Ron's been suffering from insomnia and bursitis in his shoulder, so instead of sending Robin and Marmaduke home late afternoon to let the dogs out, he bailed about 3:00. The dogs appreciated it. We didn't miss him - that was about the time sales died and we were bored bored bored. 

There were far fewer cosplayers around than last year, and no anime room. However, there was a LARP group across the room from us. The LARPers were our friends, sales-wise, but even so we only had slightly over half of last year's sales by the end of Saturday. (I just looked at last year's report here on the blog, where I said we got about half our sales Saturday, and the other half split mostly evenly between Friday and Sunday). I was not a happy camper, although we had cleared entry, etc. 

Sunday the LARPers came through again, and we ended up doing about a hundred dollars more than last year. Still going to have to think about CodCon next year - we'll be good if there's enough Cosplay or LARPers, but tabletop-ish gamers aren't our customer base. 

Packing up was a little slow, as Ron directed Robin and Marmaduke in how to pack the Things, to save his shoulder. 

But, to get to the even more interesting news:

Marmaduke made the comment Sunday morning that we should do ACen (Anime Central, a ginormicon held in Rosemont). I explained that while ACen is ginormous, it is also not-quite ginormously expensive (Chicon/Worldcon was ginormously expensive), plus all the hassles of having to get union workers to unload and set up, blah blah blah.

Except, one of our neighbors said, ACen has negotiated so dealers can do all their own unloading, setup, and bring in their own food (another Thing with some cons at the big convention centers). And you have a potential customer base of 20,000. Twenty thousand. My mind boggles.

My brain started working. ACen booths are 10x10, if you get one early enough its $650, currently $850, but the first one comes with five, yes 5 memberships. And the map shows empty spaces, still.

I e-mailed to ask if there really are still spaces left.

I waffled.

Ron and Xap agreed that I was barking mad in general, but not in regard to the possibility of doing ACen. 

I talked to the neighbor some more.

We played with the CAD program on my iPad and came up with a layout that we think will work, in one space. No stringy bits or instruments, leather only. 

We determined that we probably need to go into overdrive for the next month on making pouches.  And promptly got orders for two custom pouches. Of course we did.  

Xap read the policies. I re-read information and realized there's a registration-pre-approval process, that I think I initiated. (I forgot to screen capture the screen I'm pretty sure I saw saying I did it right, it didn't generate e-mail saying that (unlike account creation), and I it doesn't show up as a pending order). It doesn't help that by that point both Xap and I were more or less loopy. 

Re: loopy: Sunday afternoon a customer picked up a pouch to buy, and half the latch fell off, broken in a way I've never had happen before. I kinda stared stupidly at it, and said I couldn't fix it. After a couple minutes more staring I managed to tell the customer I could fix it at home and send it to him. He chose a different pouch.  

Robin is not interested in ACen, but Marmaduke doesn't have his membership yet, and will gladly trade Thursday and Sunday labor for a badge. Xaplet Minor is green with envy, as she has a conflict. Not sure where badge #5 would go, maybe Xaplet Major, if he's willing/able to work for it.

Late last night I got e-mail back saying that there are a few spaces left. I responded with a thank you, and asking if my attempt to do the pre-approval was eaten by the trolls under the ethernet bridge, or did it get through (in more formal phrasing). Waiting impatiently for answers. 

Yesterday I stayed home (mostly planned), and Ron came home after lunch. We went out to the Leather Factory store, and I found nice black soft leather in the scrap bin. I'd been planning to make belt satchels, sporrans, and smallish tabbed pouches, so it was an opportune find. I ended up cutting 5 belt satchels and most of 5 tabbed pouches out of it ("mostly" because I still have to cut inner pockets out for them, which I'll do out of my stash of bleah-colored steering wheel cover remnants). 

So, with luck we'll be doing ACen.

Black Thread Experiment Conclusions, and Other Pictures

Sorry, didn't mean to leave the results of the black thread vs white thread with black wax experiment on hold so long. Warning, this is a picture-heavy post.  Click to embiggen.

Here are the prepared sample strips, and my right hand, showing a dye smudge or two:

The "W" and "D" on the test strips indicate which run of stitching is the thread that was (factory) dyed black with beeswax, and which is (off-) white linen with the black encaustic media/wax.

Here's the sample strips with the white and dyed black stitching done, then both sides once the stitching with the black-waxed thread was done:

I was somewhat surprised there were no black smears on the leather, given the state of my hands:

Ron took the strips to our usual Wednesday night gathering, and the consensus was that the only way to tell the difference between the two rows of stitching was thread weight - my white and black linen threads are different weights.

Decision: I'm going to just use the black thread. The end result is virtually indistinguishable, and while beeswax may sometimes leave my hands a little sticky, it doesn't leave them smeary. If you look at the beeswax as a by-product of honey production, it comes out cheaper than the encaustic media.

CodCon prep continues, I'm optimistic that I can finish tonight, so that I can finish Ron's hakama tomorrow night. Contrary to my expectation, Cabela's called this morning and my ammo cans are in.

Disapproving Dog disapproves of getting ready for events:

Inching Along

Last night I checked the belt inventory list, and cut belts. Apparently havana (dark brown) was a strong seller at Military History Fest, that's what I made the most of.  I decided putting the hardware on could wait until we got to CodCon, as I think there's only one that we were completely out of. 

I did realize this morning that there's one or two belt blanks that we do need to put hardware on tonight - mundane (1-1/2" wide) belts get snaps to hold the buckle on, which Ron will definitely want to do with the new setter.

A month or two back, after Military History Fest, I made a couple semi-circular Civil War-era semi-circular belt pouches. I finished assembly, but they needed more attention - the leather I made them out of is a bit thick, so the ears on the sides (like side ears on a box with a tuck-in flap, like, um, band-aids) didn't want to fold in nicely, and the flaps are a bit recalcitrant. 

Nothing like an approaching event to encourage me to finish things, so this morning I soaked the pouches for a few minutes, stuffed them with newspaper to encourage them into a better shape, folded the ears, then wrapped them each in a small towel to keep the flaps where I want them while they dry. In a day or so they'll be dry, hopefully holding their shape better, and I can punch the last couple holes necessary to call them completely finished.  

I've got a box of new merchandise and other odds and ends being packed. Hopefully I'll be able to get all the new merchandise in it, but I won't cry too hard if I can't. 

I'm pretty sure I've got a bag of new conchos floating around the house, need to find those. And I need to bring the letter stamps, as we've already got some more conchos to add to the new display strap that we made a few weeks ago.

Current to-do-for-CodCon list, in no particular order:

• Find conchos
• Make embossed belt with concho and matching buckle set, in bag of conchos to be found
• Re-charge UPS
• Check to see if gaffer's tape is packed
• Pack velcro (found, just not in bin)
• Pack tools
• Buttonhole punch CW pouches once dry
• Put snaps on mundane belt blank(s)
• Update inventory and e-mail to external iBrain
• Pack letter stamps
• Pack things to work on
• Get all the packed things in one place so Ron and Robin can find it to pack the trailer 
• To-do list the external iBrain says I need to update the price list
• Print sales tax cheat sheets and price lists, e-mail to iBrain as necessary
• Strips of leather for historically accurate hardware display?
• Pack hardware from big hardware order
• Pack new pouches

I can get this all done by bedtime Thursday night. I can get this all done by bedtime Thursday night. Suuuure I can . . .

CodCon Prep & Schedule Natter

Saturday morning I finished the batch of hanging pouches I've been mucking about with, six in all. 2 large singles, and 4 small singles. I was down to setting the studs (which also hold the belt loop tabs in place for stitching), and sewing. I finished those up by noon, as well as putting the binding on the flap of a leather belt satchel that's been lurking about for months. 







After lunch, which we ate out to celebrate a relatively painless plumbing project, we went to Cabela's for more ammo cans for the sock yarn. Unfortunately, we came home can-less. They'd had some earlier in the day, but were apparently cleaned out. Insert regret for not stopping on the way home one day last week here. I did order some more, I expect they'll come in a week from today, ie: right after CodCon. 

Saturday afternoon I made the chain necessary to finish a soft pouch, which uses a dummy rifle round as a peg to hold it shut. I also got swivels sewn onto the last three tails. 

While I was doing that, Ron antiqued some brown embossed strips and made them into more wristbands. We have quite a number of wristbands for sale now. I really must figure out what I'm going to charge for them, and how much they cost us.

Sunday I alternated between making a hakama for Ron, so he can have a new Japanese-style outfit to wear at CodCon, too, and putting tags on the big batch of knitting needles I got recently-ish. I figured how much I paid for this batch (with shipping), which was more than the first batch. I priced the first batch based on what I paid for them, which I realized is not sensible, as I think I got the first batch on sale, and this batch I got some volume discounts on, but still weren't as cheap as the first.

Subsequent needle re-stock purchases may not be as large, or on sale, so I went back, found the base prices, and re-figured what to charge. Then I made labels (which I'd started), including ones with the new prices for the stuff I got in the first batch. Since all the labelling on the packages is in Chinese, I put the needle sizes on the stickers, so people don't have to read the markings stamped into the needles (which gets challenging on a 2.0 mm diameter needle). Ron helped me put the stickers on. 

I'd also ordered some cable needles, and realized I ordered Stupid Amounts of one type - instead of ordering by single sets, one type was packages of two sets (three sizes per set), and the other was packages of *five* sets. Which meant I got 6 sets of one style (not so bad), and fifteen of the other (definitely Stupid Amounts). Fortunately, it wasn't a terribly expensive mistake, and plastic cable needles don't go bad. 

E-mailed the faculty sponsor/contact for the college SF club that puts on CodCon to find out what time setup starts Friday. Which will be just Ron and I, as Robin has begged off, having joined a Friday night D&D game. Fink. :)

Still need to figure prices on the new pouches, get them into inventory, tag them, and pack them up. Tonight I need to check inventory to see if we need to make more belts. Hopefully we don't need to get more leather to do so. It wouldn't be impossible at this point, but it'll be a little nerve-wracking time-wise. Will need to pack tools, once a decision is made on belts and make any necessary. 

I meant to send some things out to the trailer yesterday, but never got a Round Tuit. But Robin will be home tomorrow, I can always leave him a stack. 

Future Events:

Once I post this I'll be pulling the May 4th Midrealm Coronation off the schedule. Its in the City of Chicago, at a church/school, and while I think there may be a parking lot adjacent, its across a not-minor roadway (Montrose Ave.), it just doesn't look like a trailer-amenable situation.

Northshield Crown Tournament, on May 11th, however, looks better. Its at a park/fairgrounds that I think we've been to in the past. Fairground-ish sites generally  trailer-amenable. Anyhow, need to make our reservations for that. 

 

Embossing and Dyeing and Antiquing

Friday night we went to Dick Blick (art supply mega-mart) and procured an inexpensive (but decent) airbrush to use with dye. We do have other airbrushes in the house, and this one is almost identical to an old one of Ron's, but that one is pretty well used.

We tested the airbrush with the new golden brown dye Saturday morning, and it worked quite well - Ron got nice coverage while using much less dye than applying with a rag. It also turns out that, although IIRC the dye is petroleum-based, rubbing alcohol works as a thinner. (Forced discovery, as the cans I thought contained various thinners contained wood stains). This is something nice to know, because alcohol is less nasty than mineral spirits or other high-test thinners, is fairly cheap, easy to find, and might work for removing dye spots from my hands if necessary (not that I usually care, although I do wear gloves to try to minimize dyeing myself).

Saturday morning we went to the LF store, for antiquing. I have a couple jars of paste antiquing, but LF doesn't carry that brand/type any more (Fiebing's). I was waffling if I wanted to switch to the LF house brand, "Eco-Flo", which is a more liquid gel. Our local store has a table where you can try the different finishes, so we took along some embossed samples (because the whole point is bringing out the embossing) to play.

The first employee said you absolutely must use a resist applied to the design areas you want to leave highlighted, to which I replied "yeah, no, forget it". Fortunately, the manager rescued the situation and explained that no, you can use a spray resist/finish applied to everything, and demonstrated. We were mostly convinced, and left with a big bottle, and a couple ideas.

On the way we made another stop at Dick Blick, and got a couple squeegees. We also got another paint bottle or two for the airbrush, to try it with black dye.

Squeegee tests were very encouraging. You can use a lot less of the antiquing gel with a squeegee than you can with paper towel or a sponge, and using a squeegee, you don't need resist at all. Here's some samples:

The top two are un-dyed, just embossed. The bottom three have all been antiqued. The bottom two were dyed, the bottom one heavily, and had a coat of spray resist before antiquing. The middle, floral, pattern strip was not pre-dyed or resisted, the antiquing darkened up the lighter/higher surfaces.

In general the floral embossing design looks nice. The celtic one doesn't produce a very deep impression, it really needs the antiquing to make it stand out. Both those rolls are from Leather Factory. The basketweave roll is pretty good. The "Yahoo" design (bottom one in the picture above) produces a really nice deep impression if you have thick enough leather, which shows off very well when antiqued. Both the basketweave and yahoo are from Tippmann, which makes the embossing machine.

Ron also embossed some black harness leather strips (IIRC the celtic design) , and made a stack of wrist bands. They look nice, but to get a good impression you have to set the machine so tight its hard to crank a strip through. From now on we'll use vegetable-tanned leather, which takes an impression better, and dye it black.

Worked a little bit on hanging pouches on Saturday. Sunday and the previous weekend we were working on sewing, see natter natter natter on my personal blog about that.

This coming weekend I want to finish the hanging pouches, the three tails that need swivels, and hopefully make some drawstring bags. And we've got some brown embossed strips that are dyed, but need to be antiqued and turned into wristbands. Because we really need more things to find room for. 

I also still need to get more ammo cans for packing the new yarn into. And I need to get price stickers made and onto all the knitting needles . . . 

. . . because next weekend is CodCon!

Small Project Progress

The custom order has left the building. Last night we finished the belt (punch holes, cut to length), and it went out in today's mail.

The new press/setter arrived yesterday. Ron is very happy with it. For bonus happy points, it will use the same dies as our old one. 

Ron's made two trips to Leather Factory today. This morning he went and got another embossing die, which turned out to not fit our machine. This afternoon he went back and exchanged it for one that does fit (makes me wonder if the first one would fit their machine, or if it was a quality control failure). 

I suggested putting the embossing dies in the tool drawer with the cutting dies, but Ron  asked to stop and get a tackle-ish box like the ones we got for conchos, as there's not as much room as I was thinking in the drawer. 

Some of you may recall the knotwork design Ron has tattooed on his arm, which we refer to as "'Shrooms". Ron would like to get it done on embossing roll. The original paper copy is hiding, so I've re-drawn it, so Ron can scan it then trace it in Illustrator. 

Been lacing around the flaps for hanging pouches this week during my lunch breaks. The current roll of lace is shedding gobs of little-bitty black bits, and I had a meeting yesterday afternoon. But I'd thought ahead and worn a black shirt. 

When I was at the Leather Factory Wednesday I got a buckle, loop, and tip set with a celtic design, which has a matching concho. Instead of putting the hardware out for sale, I've decided to emboss a belt blank with the celtic design I picked up on the same trip, and put the belt buckle, etc. on it. 

Last night Ron was fooling around with the embosser making wristbands (not-girly bracelets), which is how he noticed we're low on snaps. So we may have some of those for sale. No pictures yet, though.

The stitched samples (white thread made black with black wax and black thread with beeswax) went to VS on Wednesday. The only way they could be told apart was that the white and black threads are slightly different weights. I've pretty much decided to just use black thread, but I promise a more complete discussion of the subject Real Soon Now.

Picture Time!

There should have been a picture of an embossing machine in Monday's post, but the trolls under the ethernet bridge seem to have eaten it.  How odd.

The embossing machine arrived yesterday. By the time I got home Ron had it temporarily screwed to a section of 2x8, for clamping into the jaws of a Workmate. A quick trip to the hardware store, a little drilling and cursing at recalcitrant nuts, and it was permanently mounted (I don't recommend clicking to embiggen this one, unless you want to see how bad the focus is):

Here's some scraps we were playing with:

On the way home from work I detoured to the Leather Factory store and picked up a couple more embossing rolls - one celtic knotwork, and one that looks like a strand of rope. I also have another one on order, with some single creasing rolls to stack on either side of one of the patterned rolls, like we did with multiple passes with a single roll in the top sample. The embosser came with two single rolls, but they're different widths; I ordered one more of each width, so we have a pair of each.

Tonight I finished the custom hanging pouch for the Etsy order I mentioned. Here it is with skirt hikes and the belt:

Here's Pippin telling me to quit messing around taking pictures and hand over his morning meds/treat:

Here's two pairs of skirt hikes, large and small rings:

And here's Pippin stubbornly insisting there's room on the couch for him, too (Sunday afternoon), while I sit on the floor cutting leather for hanging pouch backs:

 

Hear That?

Listen, can you hear it? That's the sound of money being spent.

We, in the form of Otter Necessities, are doing our part in encouraging the economy. 

Once upon a time we looked at an embossing machine that Tandy carried. They currently carry a different one, but the machine they used to carry is still available made by the company I've bought a couple-three cutting dies from, as it happens. I've also been drooling over a machine that another supplier carries that creases (puts grooves along the edges of) belts and straps.  Waffle waffle waffle.

This weekend the waffle event horizon collapsed and today I ordered the embossing machine, which will also do creasing. 

I also ordered a hand setting machine for snaps, rivets, etc. 

We have a setter, but it really should be mounted on a stand and be operated by a foot press - the handle points toward the back, downward, and is fairly short. The new one is a better design. 

I think the triggering event for the purchase of the embosser, besides having available fundage from our tax return, was a request by an Etsy customer. We'd been discussing a hanging belt pouch and belt, and she asked if we made "skirt hikes". I followed the link she provided, and then responded that ya, you betcha, we can!  

Here's a version from an Amazon seller. 

The version the customer was looking at was a plain narrow strap with two round rings, so that's what I made. And being feeelthy merchant scum (tm), I made some more to sell. How does this lead to purchasing an embossing machine?  Because if we had one, we could make fancy-schmancy ones with a pattern embossed on them. Or creased borders. And charge extra for them, being feeelthy merchant scum and all.

Meanwhile, the side of my brain that has been looking at trying to make fairly accurate Civil War-era accoutrements clutched its pearls and hyperventilated about modern farby wench gear.  It got a pat on the head and sympathetic noises.

Yesterday I cut out and worked on a custom hanging pouch for the customer. While I was out it, I cut out some more hanging pouches, which we could use. I, um, got a little carried away. I've got parts for 4 small and 2 large ones, besides the customer's.  But assembly-line production works so well!

Needless to say, I spent a good chunk of yesterday in the dining room. Pippin, being my dog, kept me company.

While I was working on pouches, Ron made got the ratcheting tie-down straps I'd bought parts and strapping for made/modified (about half the hardware came from straps we'd bought at various times, that were less-than ideal lengths, thin floppy annoying webbing, or both). 

I need to go to Cabela's and get more ammunition cans for the sock yarn. Right now the yarn is in jumbo zippy bags (to keep the dogs, and their hair, out of it). I was thinking I needed another collapsible fabric bin to display it in, but I'm waffling about display options, and holding off.  I also need to see if I can find a basic sock pattern, either to sell or give away. The supplier I bought the laceweight yarn from has patterns, and my original plan was to get sock patterns with sock yarn from there, but then I went and bought my MIL's sock yarn. Oops. Have to check my minimum order requirement and what I've sold/need to replace in laceweight yarn.

To go with the yarn, last week I ordered a bunch more knitting needles - I'll have bamboo needles in US sizes 0 through 10, in 8" double points, and 16" and 32" circulars, and aluminum double points in an oddball size that works out to, IIRC, US size 2.5.  I may need one more of the little mesh cubes, so I have one for double-points and one for each length circular, but that's minor.

Tote Bag and Other Accomplishments

Rewinding almost a week, between the weather and bad attitude, I took a sanity day on Tuesday.

I meant to work on something-or-other, but spent a whack of time cleaning up data. I didn't delete a lot, but I think its somewhat more rationally organized. 

Other accomplishments Tuesday were getting the sales from Military History Fest actually recorded in the books, and making test pieces for the whole black thread vs. white-thread-with-black-wax question.

Which reminds me, while I was out of the house taking Robin to school, Pippin decided to chew on the tube containing the oil paint stick, which I'd decided was too soft and messy to be useful in waxing thread. He decided it was icky and no fun to chew on. How do I know Pippin was the guilty party? The black oil paint smear on his leg. 

I got the stitching done on the test pieces, finally finishing yesterday, now to carry them around for a few days. More about the whole process when that's done.

Saturday I grumbled about the weather's continuing non-cooperation with taking parts outside to dye black.  

Then I cut out a bunch of little percussion cap pouches. I'd been waffling on how many to make, which I decided by starting out with the strip I'd cut for gussets. I got 5 gussets out of it, so I cut out 5 pouches.

Then I moved on to cutting out a fabric bag to carry the new concho boxes, had to leave for a MuseCon meeting, then didn't work on much more after that. 

Yesterday, after Ron left for a trip to Michigan, I gave up on waiting for the weather, got Robin to set up tables and the small spray booth (which has an exhaust fan, which we installed a Y in the dryer duct for), and got his help dyeing lots and lots of parts black. 

Next, I finished the bag, shown here:

The fabric is denim, bought ages ago, I think to make hakama for Robin. There wasn't enough to make a pair of adult-sized hakama (as no one in our family is short and twiggy), so I apppropriated some of it for this project. 

I cut a piece the right width for the main body from the larger piece of fabric, then realized that the piece was large enough to make the body of the bag two layers. The demin is a little lighter/softer than duck, so I went ahead and made the bag two layers thick. The handles are strips, folded in quarters (edges in). They're a little long, because I used strips the full width of the fabric, so the ends of the strips are the selvedge edges of the fabric, and thus won't ravel. 

I keep thinking the bag is "gaily striped", because I've been reading 19th century young-adult-ish literature lately, and that's the kind of description I think they'd use for it. But I digress.  The bag took longer to assemble than I expected, mostly because of fussing about folding and pressing the handle strips. And I kept having to stop and refill the bobbin (sewed it on the big machine).  

Tonight I need to bring all the dyed parts upstairs and re-sort the pieces back into their zippy bags. The two different rifle cartridge pouches and a pistol cartridge pouch have a lot of similar-looking pieces. We kept them sorted while dyeing and laying them out on foil-covered cookie sheets to dry, so I just have to put each set of pieces in the right bag. 

Ron made a stop at his parents house yesterday, and shortly before he got there suggested I look at what we have and what we want of his mom's knitting patterns. I sent a list, and a little later he called back, and asked about sock yarn. Ron had mentioned that I wanted to start carrying sock yarn, and she offered us a deal on some she had. I think we might be cleaning out her stock. I had been mentally allocating the proceeds from CodCon to more yarn, now it looks like I'll have sock yarn, and new patterns, for CodCon...

...which means I need to get more knitting needles, in appropriate sizes (I started out with just the sizes needed for the lace patterns we had), and see about finding a basic sock pattern. 

I have also declared that before CodCon we will be modifying/making straps for the trailer, dammit. Ron has agreed, I think we'll do those this coming weekend.

. . . The Rest of the Weekend

Thread- and wax-related messing about actually took up relatively little of the weekend, so what else did I do?

Saturday morning I packed up a pouch that was purchased via Etsy while I was off at the annual floodplain manager's conference. In the process of doing the postage, I signed up for Etsy's "Direct Checkout" program, which is a PayPal-like setup for people to pay by credit card, for a fee, of course. If you sign up for it, you can generate shipping labels from within Etsy's system, even if the purchase was not made with Direct Checkout.

Saturday afternoon I made a price list for conchos, with pictures. I had to go through the three suppliers I get conchos from and find the ones I have, and I also chose ones I might decide to carry. Get images, create spreadsheet, drop images in spreadsheet, go back and edit a bunch of images, finish spreadsheet, export to PDF, export to PDF again a different way, edit spreadsheet, export, possibly repeat edit/export cycle, until done.

Next step is to stamp letter codes by all the conchos on the display strip, and make a new hang tag that has the price for each code. One of the edit/export cycles was to put the letter codes on the spreadsheet. 

I meant to finish up the concho-pricing project on Sunday, but it didn't happen. We went do Dick Blick for black waxy stuff, did personal errands, then went to Dick's Sporting Goods, to look for a tackle box to store conchos in. 

I was looking at a Plano box that holds smaller, flat boxes, like this one, but there's a lot of not-very-useful or flat out dead space in it. I like the flat Plano boxes (I keep tools in several, and they've held up quite well, other than the time they were crushed by Thing 1 shifting in a rental trailer), so I decided to go with those and a tote bag.

But, Dick's didn't have Plano boxes in a bag, only some other brand. Nor did they have individual boxes the size I wanted. Ron wisely counseled not buying a bag with planning to replace the boxes, so we went to Cabela's. There we found boxes we like (good hinges), in the size I wanted (this style, not necessarily this size). They didn't have any in bags, but I don't want a bag with lots of extra pockets, so I'll make one myself, out of either leather or canvas. Or maybe we can fit them into Thing 2. (Ron is probably laughing right about now) Four boxes followed us home, which should be plenty.

It was wet and rainy all afternoon/evening, so I didn't ask Robin to go spelunking in the trailer in Thing 2 for conchos. If we don't get conchos into the tackle boxes before the next event, we can do it at the next event (CodCon, IIRC). I do need to measure the stack of boxes so I can make a bag. Not sure if its going to be leather or canvas. 

Because it was wet and icky not just yesterday afternoon, but all weekend, I haven't gotten cartridge box parts dyed black. I considered doing it in the basement yesterday afternoon, but lacked sufficient motivation.

After lunch yesterday I sat down at the computer, found websites for custom stamp manufacturers, and was going to come up with a design. However, finding the outline-only Illustrator file of our Otter logo turned out to be non-trivial.

That searched turned into another project, in which Ron did a search for all the Illustrator files on the computer and bank of hard drives, determined which were the latest copies, and copied all of those to one central location. Note to self, make sure that that location is being backed up regularly. After that, Ron went through and updated the set of images I use for MuseCon, so all of those are in one place (which was the original intent, but edits and additions have happened over time). 

Ron did, in the process, find the image I'd been looking for. So maybe this week I can get a maker's stamp designed. I also need to go through and clean up my MuseCon and other design directories, there is a lot of unnecessary duplication of files in them. I can also probably get rid of a lot of stuff that I did for the Graphic Design courses I took at Harper. Not that we're short of drive space, it can just be challenging to find the stuff you want in all the cruft.

Return to Research

Back to the research I've been doing on Civil War-era cartridge pouches, specifically on thread color and waxes.

The two books I'd been waiting for (one on Indian War-era cartridge boxes and other accoutrements, another on US Military belts in general) arrived Friday. I've flipped through them, but not started reading. Last night I made space on one of the bookshelves, and put them away, with other military-ish leather-ish books I have (German WWII Cavalry, US military saddles, etc.). 

Circling back to the thread color issue, I'd previously said I wasn't going to try making my own black sticky wax. However, the idea wouldn't quite get out of my mind. The recipes for black  wax are:

"9 [parts] rosin, 6 pitch, 6 beeswax, 1 tallow. To be mixed together and poured into water; then worked with the hands until it becomes soft and pliable." page 175, Ordnance Manual, pub. By J.B. Lippincott & Co. Philadelphia, PA, 1861

"Pitch, 2 lb. ; resin, 2-1/2 lb. seal oil, one pennyworth. In winter add 2 lb. of resin instead of 2-1/2 lb., and never more than of the oil until the stiffness of the wax has been tested

"(b) Pitch, 1 lb. ; resin, 1 lb. ; and linseed oil, one pennyworth.

"The exact amount of oil to be used in both of the above recipes depends on the season and the weather. A little lampblack may be well mixed in when the wax is required very black. Always melt the pitch and resin together, and then add the oil. Afterwards pour the mixture into cold water, and knead and pull it until it floats. Try a small piece first,- to ascertain whether there is sufficient oil, and likewise after pulling to see whether it floats." Saddlery and Harness-Making Paul N. Hasluck, ed.
J.A. Allen and Company, Ltd., London, 1904, available as a modern reprint.

If you point yourself to Wikipedia and do a little vocabulary-checking, pitch and resin can be synonyms, or not. In this case, I'm going with the interpretation that "pitch" refers to a the petroleum-derived sticky stuff, and "resin" to the plant-derived sticky stuff. Exercising my Google-Fu, the common source for petroleum pitch for hobbyists is to beg some tar from roofers. For plant resin/pitch, Stockholm Tar, which is used by boatbuilders and some horse-owners (on hooves). 

Seal oil is oil from seals. Not going there. Linseed oil is, I think, common enough I'm not going to natter any more about it.

I also looked up lampblack. Oh, look, its the same thing as carbon black pigment. Hmm. I wonder if I could buy a reasonably small amount of lamblack/carbon black at Dick Blick and see how adding just that to beeswax works...

...I can't tell you that. Because I found R&F brand pigment sticks, in "Lamp Black" and "Intense Carbon Black", basically oil paint in a stick. Ingredients: " natural wax, linseed oil, and pigment" I followed a link to the material spec. sheet on drying times, etc., and saw that it also had information on their encaustic paint. Think think, think think think. Wait, isn't encaustic done with wax? Yes, it is. 

Dick Blick also carries the encaustic media, ingredients: "pigment, pure beeswax, and damar resin" in "Intense Carbon Black".  Damar gum/resin is plant-derived.

Yesterday we went to Dick Blick, and I got one of the oil sticks and one of the blocks of encaustic media. As I noted above, the oil sticks have a very long dry time, and I suspect are pretty soft/sticky, they come wrapped in plastic inside a tube. The encaustic media feels like a chunk of plastic, in a plastic wrapper. Hopefully one (or both) will work for waxing thread. The oil stick could be too soft/sticky/messy, and the encaustic media too brittle.

At the very least, I'll do a sample seam with each, to see the color effect on white thread, gauge messiness and/or brittleness, and to have as a sample for reenactors who are serious about Getting Things Right.

Um, I think I may be slipping into that mind-set. And Ron says I've infected him, he's probably going to sew the stuff I've got cut out at a finer count of stitches per inch than the last ones. 

I didn't get as far as the sample seams yesterday, got derailed by other things. But I think I've nattered and deluged you with links quite enough today.

 

Bag Finished!

I finished my new bag last night. Got the dye touched up on the handle, sewed the tabs on, trimmed to length, and holes punched, and Ron trimmed the extra binding from the inside of the flap.

I can see all the things that aren't perfect about it, but I suspect most people wouldn't.

Here's a picture of it packed for the trip today:

And here's a closer view of where the handle attaches to the bag:

The end o the handle on the right was just tilted toward the camera, its the same as the other one. 

That's about it for today, Harper College is closing early, and Robin doesn't want to slog home in the snow, so I'm off to get him in a few minutes.

Productive Weekend

The customer liked his pliers, sounds like he may be asking me to do more. 

Tax paperwork did get copied and mailed out last week.

I think I may lay claim to a little bit of our federal return and get a maker's stamp, which we've been thinking about doing for several years. Provided the possible resolution of house water pressure issues unpleasant noises the truck was making don't hoover it all up.

Still still waiting for the two reference books. Still within estimated delivery time frame, though.

Remember months ago when I was working on a bag for myself, kind of based on a cavalry Quartermaster's bag?  Well, it's only this (small amount) far from being done!  I was motivated to finish it by the annual floodplain managers' conference this week, which will be held in Bloomington-Normal. 

When last I left the bag, the main parts were sewn together, the flap needed to be cut to final length, and I'd decided that the flap needed a binding, as the outer and lining pieces had some alignment problems. It also needed a way to carry it, and tabs to buckle it shut.

I started by stuffing it full, as part of determining flap length. Turns out I made a bag of holding:

This picture shows all I had stuffed in there: A fleece blanket and a roomy sweatshirt of mine in the large pocket, and two iPads (mine and Robin's) in the front pocket. This picture also shows how flat it collapses to, thanks to my cleverly molded gussets. 

Saturday afternoon/evening I sewed the binding on. First pass right sides together, then I rolled it over and sewed it down again. Because of the mis-alignment of the two layers, the second, visible stitching is farther away from the binding than I usually do it on pouches, etc. This picture was taken with the bag empty, you can see the flap now only goes to the bottom  edge of the bag. Or, it would if you nudge it a little - it sat for a while folded over loosely and lopsided, it'll take a little time to forget that fold.

Here's the bag with the binding done. I also put a coat of tan dye on the tabs holding the buckles to the front, which I'd inexplicably made from leather that doesn't match either the dark brown on the flap and front pocket, or the london tan I used for the gussets.

Yesterday I made a handle. I'd planned from the start to make it easy to change handles/straps. I thought about making just short handle for this week, but decided for travelling to/from the conference I'd want to be able to put it over my shoulder, but I didn't want a full shoulder strap flopping around. The compromise is a handle that's long enough to go over my shoulder, but not too long. I got fancy and rolled and stitched the leather around a piece of rope to make a round.

After sewing, I trimmed the handle, then soaked and shaped it - so that it would be in about the right size/shape U, with the seam on top, and to put the twist in at the tabs where it hooks to the bag. The back of the bag extends up past the flap (which you can't actually see in any of the pictures), and has two slots in it. I stitched around the slots, too.

The only thing left to do is to do a little touch-up dyeing to the edges of the handle, and to sew two tabs on the inside of the flap so that I can buckle the bag shut. If I don't get the tabs on tonight its no big deal, but I think I'll probably have time (I also need to get some things done to get ready to leave tomorrow for the conference).

But wait, that's not all I did this weekend!  Yesterday I also cut out cartridge pouches! I did two different styles for rifle cartridges, which get shoulder straps (haven't cut the straps yet), and a smaller one that rides on the belt, for pistol cartridges. There's a lot of similar small fiddly bits, especially between the two bigger pouches, so with the exception of the two larger main body pieces, they're sorted into labeled zippy bags. 

Not sure if Ron will get as far as doing any further work on any of those, but he knows where the parts, patterns, and directions are.

 

Catching Up

I  got home Monday to find Ron sorting the non-2012-tax-paperwork. That job done we put things more-or-less away, and the 6' table was taken down. Yay!

Then Ron trimmed the last bits on the last pair of pliers, I dyed the edges of the leather, and sat down at the computer to print an invoice, shipping label, etc. Until Ron demanded I move, he needed to do something right NOW.

There were red and orange blinkie lights on the Drobo (multi-drive storage device). The Drobo holds 4 or 5 drives, and one of the original drives we put into it is/was failing. Not a problem, given the way the Drobo operates and immediately running successful backups, but Ron's a little twitchy since the time two drives failed simultaneously. 

After dinner I reminded Ron that I hadn't finished what I was doing on the computer, evicted him from the computer, finished up what I needed to for the pliers, and did the last couple bits of tax paper-pushing. 

The pliers went out in yesterday's mail. Here's a picture:

Snuck out of work a little early yesterday because of the weather, but still haven't gotten any cartridge pouches cut out. OTOH, I'm almost caught up on dishes, and even though I was hoping for a snow day today, I planned for having to go to work, boo, and put together tonight's dinner.

2011 tax paperwork and my laptop power cord are still missing.

On the up-side, the reproduction Colonial-era buckles and Civil War-era studs and buckles I ordered came in Monday, and yesterday I got a book I'd ordered, about uniforms, equipment, etc. of the US Army on the plains post Civil War. 

I'm about halfway through the Civil War cartridge pouch book, and have found a reference to thread color, at last, stating that black wax only is to be used on the thread. Trying to re-find a web site with a recipe for black wax, I tripped over information on dyeing leather black in that era, which was also interesting, but I'll natter more about later.

Yesterday I found the black wax reference. I had briefly considered making up some, but upon more sober reflection, I think not. The stuff is messy to make, and somewhat sticky to use. Besides making thread black, and probably helping waterproof seams, it was used to stick boar bristles to your thread, the bristles being used as needles. 

Still waiting for two more books I ordered for references. We have a biggish mail box, but given the weather this time of year I played it safe and had them shipped to work. 

Still need to photocopy and mail off the business taxes.

Don't know if I'll get leather cut out tonight. Have to stop and pick up dog food and also a PeaPod order. Depends if I go with Ron to the weekly Wednesday night kibbutzing at a local restaurant, or not.