A Mostly Blue Dragon Tail With A Yellow Underbelly. Made With Anodized Aluminum Scales, A Full Line Of

A mostly blue dragon tail with a yellow underbelly. Made with anodized aluminum scales, a full line of chrome spikes down the spine, and a diamond-shaped leather spade tip in blue.

I included a close-up of the tip of the tail to show the lobster clasps that hold the spade tip. And also a photo under fluorescent lights to show how hard it is to get this blue to show up properly in photos. White balance is weird, guys.

Anyway, the stats on this one: it measures 33 inches from tip to top of belt line, and the spade tip adds 2.5 inches. In total it weighs 3 pounds 6 ounces. 

Just some shots showing assembly of a leather spade tip for my dragon tails. I pack the inside with layered leather to give it extra thickness and stiffness. These leather pieces are laser-cut out with everything else, then glued together like a double-sided ziggurat and inserted between the outer pieces before sewing it all together. I neglected to get any photos of it while I was sewing them together, but oh well.

Good Struggle Story Time!

2 weeks ago, my leaf barrette design was featured on Etsy’s front page, as the cover/link photo for their “Fall Fashion Accessories” promoted category. 

This was awesome. A huge spike in views, traffic, and purchases. Validation! Success!

But it was also hard. For one, it happened while I was out of town for a funeral, so it was a few days before I even saw the wave of orders. I cut all the orders that had been placed at the time as soon as I got back, plus some extras (and 2 new designs, the oak and the ginkgo). But doing so cleared me out of the thick leather I use for these, and while I’ve been waiting for more leather to arrive, orders keep pouring in. So that’s a wild ride of excitement and guilt about how long it’s taking to fill orders.

More generally, though, this experience is shining light again on my troubles with making my products right now. The laser store I’d gone to for years to cut my products (which I worked at for a year and a half) stopped offering services in the summer, and finally liquidated a month or so ago. Last year I put money in to pre-order a laser cutter, and the last update from that was that they expect to ship sometime late December. In the interim I’ve been struggling to find places to laser-cut stuff. There’s an artist’s co-op space near me that has a laser cutter, but it’s an open-source project and hasn’t been operational since January. I’ve been bumming laser access from a place where some of my old co-workers at the laser store now work, but that’s not exactly sustainable, since it means I’m asking a favor every time I need it. The dorm I lived in back in college got a laser cutter recently, and that’s been my most reliable option recently, but I don’t really trust that to be consistently working. I expect it to break at some point, and when it does it’ll take an undergrad fixing it, or I’ll have to fix it.

If I can’t find a more sustainable way to laser-cut my products, I’m afraid I’ll have to confront the question: Do I just have to shut down and stop making these things? I don’t want to, but if it becomes increasingly difficult to laser-cut stuff, I may have no choice.

Let’s hope I can hold out until the cutter I pre-ordered arrives. Let’s hope it works right and lets me continue doing this. Maybe in a few years I’ll be able to afford the cutter I really want.

I updated the design of this wolf mask! I dropped the bottom jaw, tweaked the proportions and fit, increased the size of the ears, and reduced the amount of stitching it requires by a little bit.

It’s up for sale on my Etsy store!

And here’s the previous version.

Hello, Any chance of getting an order in any time soon?

Keep your eyes peeled.

Was feeling bored and silly the other night, so I made another pet rock. It's so eager for you to hold it. Look at it, it's already hard. This one went much faster than the first one I made, because I had some supple black leather on hand, and also since making that one I've actually acquired some more tools that make strap work go faster.