What have I been workin on?

So as you can tell things have been kind of dead here at ARTRS that’s mostly due to the fact that every waking moment for the past month or so ive been working on a costume for myself.

Well I finally got it done Friday night. So here is the fruits of my labor.

A while ago I came up with an idea to make myself a cool steampunk costume. But I wasn’t really sure why direction to go with. Ultimately I settle on “DUST PUNK” which is like steampunk of the wild west.

The best example of DUST PUNK can actually be seen in the mostly awful Will Smith movie “Wild Wild West”. But I can never just do something simply. No I needed a character and a background for him. So that’s how I came up with Graham Stahl.

Graham was a member of the USArmy before deserting the force to hunt for gold in Wyoming. This didn’t work out for him and he took up a life of crime and started stealing and then cobbling together the things he stole from others.

The main gauntlet on my left arm is an amazing GatlingGun built for me by a fantastic leather worker/steampunker RJ FOSTER. Look for him on my facebook page. Dude is incredible. From there I started messing around and ended up making a leather Bandito mask.

I added some gears and cogs to my straw cowboy hat and fished out my old “armor” that has been gathering dust for years and I was rocking and rolling. Finally I found an amazing nerf gun from Goodwill that I painted into a kind of “golden gun” and fabricated a leather holster for it.

The final edition was some “E L WIRE” that I bought from Amazon for like 10 bucks after shipping.

Graham isn’t a one hit wonder, I’ll keep tinkering with his gear and may add some more E L wire yet!

So thats where I’ve been, be on the look out for updates to MODERN HERO and SAVIOR very soon!

Ric Susman

Another Lunch-date

So as I chill in the break room with some time on my hands I found myself fumbling with one of the products I sell. A Lace maker.

The idea behind the lace maker is to take all your extra leather and turn it into something of use. So leather spaghetti is made and then used for a number of projects.

As you can see I got the hang of it pretty quickly and now have an ample supply of lace for quick necklaces or bracelet binding. What really amazed me was how much lace I got out of such a small amount of leather that I started with.

It maybe hard to see in the photo but the piece of leather that yielded all my lace was just slightly bigger than my hand. It’s pretty impressive how long one square foot of leather actually is…ain’t it?

Ric Susman

Journal for ya

So yesterday I decided to make a Rustic looking journal. The trouble is I didn’t have the proper paper and only had about 20 minutes on my lunch break. So I decided to get it done and as a prototype. This is what I came up with

That is the completed mini journal, which is actually just about the right size to carry in a clutch purse. Apparently I can get “proper” journal paper at hobby lobby, so I’ll be going there this weekend. This is what I had to use at lunch yesterday.

The stitching on the back was super easy too. I really cant wait to make a bunch of these a it was super simple. One last photo for ya.

Ric Susman

Get your CARVE on.

One of the simplest things you can do in Leatherwork is learning how to “carve and stamp.” If you have ever seen a piece of leather artwork that has some kind of design on it and it wasn’t branded it was made from stamping and carving the leather. My mask, my bracelets all had some kind of carving or stamping work done to them.

If you ever wanted to learn how to do that and you were shopping at the store I would suggest you take the “Basic Carving Class” that we have on the first Saturday of the month. Recently I had some free time during my lunch break and decided to do my first “basic carve” in about 2 years.

You see I used to work on leather all the time, but after spending about 2 years as an indentured servant for a company that I’m not going to name…ever. I was unable to really practice my art, so I was a bit rusty. Before I started in on making new things I needed to kick off the rust and get back to, well, basics.

You start with a small piece of leather, usually you want 4/5 once “vegtan” leather. This is a thinner “vegtan” leather but it will still allow you to stamp and carve on it. It’s important to remember that only unfinished vegtanned leathers will take carving and stamping. If you try to stamp on upulstry leather you will either waste your time or ruin your leather.

Once you have your leather picked out, you will need a design to work on. Now some master leather workers do not need a pattern they can just carve what the see in their head. As much as I would love to gloat, I am not anywhere that level. So I traced out my design, which is a basic western floral pattern. You can use tracing film and a pen for this step. Not a whole lot to explain, find a design, trace it.

Now that you have a design it’s time for you to wet down the leather, this will make it a lot easier to carve and stamp. You don’t need to soak it, just make it wet enough that if you place it against your carotid artery and see if its cool. If the answer is YES you can now start your work.

At this point I have already placed the tracing film on my leather and using a stylus I put the design on the wet leather. Even without carving the leather you can see that the design stands out pretty well, that’s just how it works, wet leather loves taking designs. Sometimes it’s a bit too easy and you end up accidentally adding your watch band or fingernails to your leather. So be careful when you use wet leather or you may end up with a nice reverse image of your watchband.

The finished product. I used the following tools to create this image. Swivel blade, to carve the leather. Camouflager, which adds that neat clam shell look to the side of the flower. Vainer, this gives the image it’s “teeth” and you can see it well around the inside of the bottom half of the flower. Pear Shader, it’s a small tool that looks like a pear and creates a lot of awesome smooth depth in your image, best example being found on the “leaves.” The Beveler, is a tool of the devil and is easily my most hated and feared enemy, you use it when you want to add a nice 3 dimensional look to your work. Just about everything you ever do will require beveling and it’s a tough tool to master, best example is the perimeter of the piece. I used a “seeder” for the seedpod of the flower, and a “mule’s foot” to make the nice “V” mark in the center of the flower. Finally a “backgrounder” was used to make the matted look of the middle of the bottom of the flower.

I chose not to color this piece as I wanted to show the natural color of the leather. In a few weeks Ill take another photo of it to show you all how it aged.

Ric Susman

Sometimes life moves quick…(vol 3)

Sometimes life moves quick…(vol 3)

Ok so the last of the Update Trilogy.

The other day I was hanging out in the Leather Shop with my friend Seth and talking about my blog and how much I wanted to start getting back into Leather Working. I mentioned my small (but workable) craft space and he and I started thinking about ways to maximize the space.

Well before long there were A LOT of people in his store as tends to happen in successful businesses. I figured since I used to work at the store and because the guys needed some help, I would field some questions.

I kind of ended up selling a lady on a bunch of stains and dyes. I guess it was like riding a bike or…in this case, selling Leather goods. Turns out I was noticed by some important folks and was offered a gig working back in the store. There is a HUGE back story about why this is kind of amazing, but truth be told I was never “fired” and when I left it was under perfectly acceptable reasons, so as of 2/3/12 I will be back working and carving and having fun.

The trouble is I have to say goodbye to working full time at the Comic Book Store that I love and have shopped at for the past 10 years. I talked to the owner/my friend who originally gave me the job to get me out of a little slice of awful called…you know what never mind, fuck those guys. He was obviously disappointed that I would be leaving but was incredibly understanding. If he can find the time for me I will still be working as a very part time employee. But even if he can’t Im going to shop there forever.

Working for my friend Aaron (Im leaving out the name of the shop and his last name out of respect) is a blast. Working with a bunch of dudes I have known for years made every day of work fun and easy. But Im moving to a job that is offering better money, better hours, and doing something I truly love. How could I say no?

So there you have it. In about a week my life changed tremendously and not at all in a bad way.

Thank you all for reading. As I have writing this trilogy I have seen that vol 1 has already hit 30 unique views in under 20 minutes. You guys are awesome.

Ric Susman

Sometimes life moves quick…(vol 1)

I apologize for the recent slow down on the ARTRS, between the whole SOPA/PIPA and the recent discover that I am AWESOME at the multiplayer of Uncharted 3, I have been spending a lot of time off this form of internet and on another form of internet.

However, I have a number of updates and plenty of good news available.

First and foremost the Apartment is about as done as it can get right now. We do need some more bookshelves since we lost one during the move. Shockingly balsa wood does not transport very well. So the home office is in a little bit of disarray but that will be easily remedied. The same could be said for the master bedroom as well. Which is also going to serve as our Comic Book Staging Area. We are comic book nerds and we do not apologize for this fact.

This is the original photo that I took right after we moved in, you can start to see the shape of things here.

An excellent view of our kitchen where the majority of the bacon from www.baconintheoven.wordpress.com is made.

Our Dining room (which in reality is mostly for looks since we just tend to eat in the living room in front out of fire place…TV).

And here is the proper shot of the living room including said fire place.

The staircase that leads to the master bedroom, still need some more posters for the hallway.

The Penthouse. With Comic Storage facility.

A look at the walk-in closet and the Iron Gym that I have been using everyday (but more on that in Vol 2).

The closet in the closet that I will be using as a craft area for leather working.

And finally the home office.

Ric Susman

Brace for the bracelets.

Have you ever wondered how to make a bracelet?  Well, maybe you haven’t, but maybe you find do-it-yourself projects to be interesting.  I am going to show you how simple this process can be. So if you like, you can make a very simple, durable, and 100% personalized craft.

To start with you’ll need some basic leather, you’ll want to use a minimum of 4-5 or 6-7 grade leather. It’s heavier than the thin leathers but not so heavy that it can’t bend to be pliable.  Once you have measured out enough leather to wrap around your wrist, simply cut the leather from your sheet into about a quarter inch wide segment.

Now you can customize your project. Here are some examples of different types of things you can “stamp” onto your leather. If you look close enough you can see the color difference of the natural patina that happens over years of use of leather.

Both of these pieces were given a light stain to maintain color and then sealed. However the major difference between the two are the edges. The Cat Bracelet has a lot smoother edge to it. To get this effect I literally used an awesome device called an edge slicker.

 

The last thing you would want to add would be the button and snap to complete your piece. This is where I went a little pear-shaped. I put a button that was easily 2 or 3 sizes bigger than need be. Like I said, this was literally the first project I ever worked on (and subsequently completed)  so there was a lot of room for improvement. However if someone who had almost no training at the time can accomplish this, anyone can.

 

Ric Susman

The Art of Mask Making

When I was employed at a Leather Works shop here in Orlando, I did a number of fun activities. I made my own wallet, my own belt, armor, and many other things. None of these turned out as well as my mask making. This update will be dedicated to one of the two masks I made that really showed my capabilities.

We are looking at the first steps of my first real piece of Leather Art. I had done some beginner works prior to this but I had never stepped up and made something from scratch off the top of my head…so to speak. The Leather here is in a raw state, it has been processed by “Veg Tanning” the leather. Veg Tan allows the leather to pretty much take any color, and any shape you can think of. If you were to attempt to create something out of leather and didnt start with Veg Tan, you simply would be stuck using the color that was already on the leather and it would not hold shape well.

 

Once I had the over all idea in my head I started to shape the mask. I first took the still raw leather and molded it to my face. A very simply process for the most part, as you simple wet the leather and slap it to whatever you want to mold it to. Veg Tan leather holds shape remarkably well if you give it enough time to dry.

Next, I started adding some design to the mask. I wanted to represent as many of the natural elements as I could since the mask was to represent Lord Oberon from a “Mid-Summer Night’s Dream”. So I used actual pieces of rock on the “hair” of the mask to give it a very unique texture.

I then colored the mask in red and blue dye. I carved the flames and the ice after I stained the piece. This is usually a “no-no” but I felt the mask looked too plain and needed some more help. Finally, after a quick reshape of my wet mold mask, I was able to seal it and it has stayed in the same shape for a few years now.

 

Ric Susman