Tag: leather

Hot Sauce holster

On By CarynIn Craft

My Dad has been experimenting with making hot sauce. I thought he needed a hot sauce holster for either sauces or spices so they are easy to grab, so I made him one from leather. I started the design process with card stock, so I could get the sizes and shapes right.

Photo description: gray card stock cut into various pieces with two spice jars, pencil, and ruler

Once I was comfortable with my design, I used Adobe Illustrator to lay it out digitally, including engraving and lace holes. I included a “test” rectangle, which was very helpful and something I will include in future design projects, because I was able to use those elements to test my laser cutter settings before committing to larger objects.

Photo description: four test runs of the word “test” and outline and hole cuts on scrap leather
Photo description: leather still in the laser cutter, test swatch missing and three holster pieces engraved and cut

I rinsed the leather with water to remove the soot and smoke marks, then dyed it with leather dye.

Photo description: leather dyed with buckskin colored dye

I used waxed linen to sew the pieces together. I absolutely love how even I can laser cut the holes. Neat stitching is 90% hole placement.

Photo description: sewing leather at 90 degrees with waxed linen cord
Photo description: sewn leather holster with 3/4” grommet installed using Dritz pliers

I’m had some space at the bottom of the holster and thought that places to hang things are always potentially useful, so installed a gold hued metal grommet. I finally bought a pair of grommet pliers for this size, and it makes installation so much easier than hammering dies together.

Photo description: Finished spice holster with one spice jar and one hot sauce bottle and the words “Flavor Master”

The holster is designed to hang from a belt, and since it is wide, I separated the belt loop into two sections so it can accommodate a belt loop if necessary.

First prototype

On By CarynIn Craft

My headphones were in a tangle in the bottom of my bag. I realized that I now have a way to design and cut leather quickly, and could make a holder! I laid out an SVG file in Adobe Illustrator inspired by a Pinterest pin, put a piece of scrap tooling leather in my laser cutter, and ran the program.

Photo description: prototype leather headphone holder with key chain hole, hole for the ear buds, and slit to hold the end of the cord
Photo description: headphones wrapped around the leather holder

Hm. Not as neat as I hoped. Still, first prototypes usually aren’t spot on. This design would probably work better with headphones that don’t have a volume button on the cord, and have different shaped ear buds. I also need to beef up the keychain ring. It’s looking a little thin. Back to the drawing board. (Really, I’ll do a pencil sketch first on paper this time, then go to the computer.)

And now leather

On By CarynIn Craft

I did my first test of tooling leather in my laser cutter. I used a two color version of my business logo and did a fill engrave of the logo and a cut for the circle. The cut wasn’t quite powerful enough to go through the thick tooling leather, but not surprising for my first attempt.

Photo description: Caryn’s Creations tree logo burned into tooling leather with a laser cutter

I had to finish the cut with shears. There was smoke residue on the surface, but a quick rise removed it.

Photo description: same logo on leather, cut out and wet
Photo description: same leather logo now dry

I do take screen shots of the engraving and cutting settings because I’m pretty sure my software resets every time I open a file. I’m also starting to get a good feel for the settings.

I’m am now well and truly dangerous. I love working with tooling leather, and this opens up a whole realm of opportunities.

Leather phone case protype

On By CarynIn Craft

I had the chance to sew some reclaimed leather on my antique Singer 66 treadle sewing machine. This leather is thin and flexible so was easy to sew, I suspect that a modern machine would be able to handle it as well. (There are tales out there that these old machines are great for sewing leather, but the truth is much more complicated.) I did crank the machine by hand rather than risk the speed of the treadle, and I used upholstery thread (and found my purchased bobbins don’t fit, sigh.)

I wanted an envelope style pocket with the flexibility to thread on a belt, or hang from belt loops with carabiners.

Photo description: sewing thin soft leather on a Singer 66 sewing machine
Photo description: pouch turned right-side out
Photo description: pouch with carabiners through the central hole in the belt pass through

The design needs work. I like the hole in the belt loop and the flexibility it gives, but the flap makes it difficult to get the phone in. I ended up clipping the edges of the flap so it still helps the phone stay put, but is easier to get the phone inside. Not ideal, but experiments will continue.

Laser cut dice cup

On By CarynIn Craft

Making kerfs, small straight cuts, in thin plywood allows the wood to bend without breaking. Those kerfs can also be decorative. I found free patterns on an Instructables post, downloaded them, and used the basic building blocks to make an SVG file for a round dice cup. The SVG file was built with sections of the rounded pattern, which resulted in incomplete cuts only a fiber width thick, but enough that many of the cutouts had to be manually ejected (dental tools or long thin carving tools work well for this).

Photo description: cut sides of the dice cup with stuck cutouts, along with the end of the metal tool I used the weed the pattern

I mentioned that I don’t like butt joints, so I added lace holes along the edge and secured the join by lacing with leather cord. I then measured the diameter of my cup and cut a circle of wood to fit inside the bottom. This is a different kind of butt joint, so I also cut a piece of recycled leather (thank you old recliner) with holes spaced to line up with the gaps in the sides. I glued the leather to the wood and used the same leather lace to sew around the edge of the base.

Photo description: laser cut leather base for the dice cup
Photo description: reinforcing the base with leather lace sewn through the holes using a long nose pliers to reach inside the narrow cup
Photo description: finished cup with leather lace securing the joins and another line of lace as a decorative element at the top
Photo description: dice cup bottom oblique view

I used my go-to finish, Howard’s Feed-N-Wax, which was problematic. The wax became wedged in the small decorative curves and was very difficult to rub into the surface. Some time in the oven on low melted the wax, but I think for the next project I’ll use light coats of a spray finish.

This was an interesting project that resulted in an unusual object, but not one I think I’ll repeat. I will take elements of this piece and apply them to other ideas.

Experiments continue.