Hey you Wasteland Weekenders...Where does the post-apocalyptic guy or gal carry their phone, cigarettes, wallet and stuff? Well in a post-apocalyptic belt/shoulder bag of course! Here is the part 1 post gallery of pictures of the finished bag and an explanation of the project.
I promised in part 1 to post a part 2 with the process pictures when I had the chance to sort through my snapshots. It took me about a month to get to that but here they finally are.
Behold... the process pictures of the making of "The Great Bag of the Apocalypse."
It all starts with a plain piece of 3 or 4 oz vegetable tanned tooling cowhide. I take this piece of leather and abuse it by stomping on it, hitting it against textured items in nature like weathered wood, tree stumps, run over it with the truck in the gravel driveway, etc. I just work that leather over. Here I am stomping on the piece on a rough sidewalk. I you have been following my blog you probably realize by now that a lot of my projects start with me stomping or beating on a piece of leather
Next I channel my inner expressionist and dribble, smack, dab and drool several shades of brown and red on the distressed leather.
The leather piece is then coated with a Hi Lite stain which settles into all the divets and depressions I have beat into the leather.
When dry I take a wet cloth and rub off the stain from the tops of the bumps and ridges of the distressed cowhide piece. I will take a piece of sandpaper and rub lightly on the piece to make the highlights pop as well.
When I have distressed and dyed enough cowhide in various colors and textures, I am ready to start cutting out the pieces assembling the project. I sometimes make a pattern before I start, sometimes not. For this bag I just dove in with the measurements I wanted in mind and start cutting pieces.
Here I have cut a piece of 1 to 2 oz pigskin the shape and size of the bag to serve as a lining and the base to hang everything on. In this shot I am sponge painting the leather with 3 different shades of brown and some black.
I start cutting puzzle pieces from the prepared distressed and colored leather...
...fitting them together and gluing them...
...down the length of the lining.
Then I have to mark the stitching spacing along the edge of each piece ...
...and punch the stitching holes.
I "X" stitch along the seams and when done I rivet on leather "bandages" for decoration. Check the rusted rivets. All the rivets in this bag are hand distressed (which means sanding off the plating) and rusted. On my workbench I have a glass of water with rivets corroding in it pretty much all the time.
The rusted and distressed "D" rings are attached to both bag gussets (the side pieces).
Next the belt loops are riveted to the bag using a belt blank for spacing.
And there you have the completion of the major piece of the bag body, ready to stitch together.
The gussets are hand sewn in around the bottoms.
The clasp is mounted and
...the gussets, which were sewn on at the bag bottom are glued along the edges to the bag body. Rivet holes are made with a rotary punch and then the gussets are riveted together with the front of the bag.
Decorative whip stitching and rivets are mounted on the flap edge.
The strap pieces are cut and riveted together, a buckle added and the snap swivel ends mounted.
Touch up some spots with the dye and then the whole thing given several coats of acrylic finish and we are done.
If you would like to see more leather art and craft photo blogs, please upvote, resteem and give the ol' Armadilloman a follow!
To maximize my time, I do most of my upvoting and following through Steem Engine.
Hey, this is marvelous. You've made something great, man. A friend of mine also works with leather and I'm kinda jelaous of you guys.
Thanks @nameless-berk. I got addicted to creating things from leather when I had a section on it in Jr High shop class. Been doing it for a long time.
That's it, I'm calling the Spanish Inquisition on you !
You are most definitely magic, to be able to create such interesting things ! ;)
No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!
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howdy @armadilloman! my gosh that is awesome, talk about quality work! I love that industrial strength fastener. How much does something like that go for? great post sir! recharging my vote but will come back to upvote.
Thanks @janton for the kudos! This is the prototype so have not sold one and don't have it in the Etsy shop yet. With this was working out the issues to make a bigger bag eventually. But I will entertain any offer over 50 Steem....
These are some awesome pieces you create! I see you said you haven't sold any just yet on the "bag". I would love to see a leather shop in the @ifc's Marketplace. You definitely would do well with your own shop. Just a suggestion for you!! I love your work!!
Thanks for the kind words, @charisma777!
You are very talented at what you do!! I would love the steemit keychain you made, how much does one go for??
You are too kind @charisma777. I haven't had the time to put up a shop post for this week, but keychain is 8 SBD plus shipping. If you are in the USA, you can contact me via Etsy (ArmadilloLeather) and we can work out a USD deal. Thanks again for your time and consideration!
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Bel lavoro e ottimo tutorial, provo a seguire la tua tecnica per il prossimo fodero del mio coltello.
Un saluto, nicola
You do amazing work! Love how the bag turned out!
Thank you @jamethiel!
true craftmanship. Salute!
Thank you @anomt!
wow mega post. awesome step by step photos. good work !!
Thanks a lot @web-gnar! I now take pictures through the whole process every time I make something interesting, so follow along and you will see more "how I did that" photo blogs. I also give away a handmade leather item every other week, so stay tuned.
I admire all your work. These are masterpieces!
Thank you @voronenka! Coming from a talent like you, that really means something.
Resteemed by @resteembot! Good Luck!
Check @resteembot's introduction post or the other great posts I already resteemed.
Posts like this make me crank things up to an 100% upvote! WOW!
I've got to let the dreads grow in a little more, measure my head, and get with you for a custom hat like we talked briefly about before. You are one talented man, and I love that wallet!
Thank you for the kind words @papa-pepper! Well you ought to see the hat on my workbench now. I am taking plenty of pictures so will have a, hopefully epic post, of a, hopefully epic hat next week.
Oh and look forward to making a hat for you some day.
Cool! With a growing head size I just don't want it tight, so I've got to be careful. Too many years with too many tight hats anyway, and now a pile of dread growing.... I'll let you know! Thanks man!
Hi @armadilloman,
Thank you for taking part in my little upvote contest. I've read and upvoted your post.
To hold a contest sometimes makes me see some amazing stuff, like yours. Honestly what a great skill you have! I love the bag but I even love more to see how you manage to create it.
Best regards,
Achim
Thanks @achim03 for the kind words, the upvote and stopping by to say hello!
Hello @armadilloman, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!
Thank you @creativecrypto. I post these "how I did that" photo blogs every other week. So stay tuned!