Saturday, September 6, 2008

My latest prototype...

I wanted to do a Steampunk bracelet out of leather. I have a nice bag of heavy suede scraps that I got at a yard sale several years ago, but never having worked with leather and without the proper tools, I had to put on my thinking cap. I really wanted to put metal pieces on the band (which I cut out with Pinking Shears) but I didn't want to glue them and I don't have a rivet/eyelet tool heavy enough to work. So this is what I came up with.....

In the top picture what looks like rivets are actually two pieces of polymer clay pushed through the two holes that I was finally able to make. I tried to made the back look like a rivet and the front look like some kind of screw. The disc is polymer clay, embossed with a rubber stamp and antiqued with black and gold paint. The bolts are of polymer also. Here's the fun part... the studs are actually little drops of translucent liquid Sculpey (TLS) that were gently squeezed out directly onto the leather, baked and then painted with the gold paint. The chain is from an old necklace that I used the TLS to adhere it to the leather. I am keeping it closed with Velcro dots and so far it seems pretty sturdy.

Here is the finished piece. I had fun with it and will probably be coming up with more funky designs of this sort. The leather was actually tan and I colored it with an alcohol dye marker.
It held up to repeated baking in the oven without any scorching or smelling. Another learning experience for me.



Have a great weekend and stay safe and dry. Toodles.

4 comments:

Barbara Pask said...

You are so creative, a very cool looking bracelet.

Anonymous said...

I loooooooove your bracelet! I've always adored cuff-style bracelets but have shied away from them because my arm is not shaped like a tube so I love that you made yours slightly conical/tapered/etc.

Did you make a pattern to fit your arm or just wing it when it came to the curvature?

suze said...

Get yourself a Crop-a-dile for punching holes. It cuts thru the hardest surfaces like butter. And it sets eyelets. It has 2 hole and eyelet sizes. And no banging with a hammer. It's the best tool I have.

Anonymous said...

How clever, making your metal out of clay! I like how your cuff turned out! Looks very medieval!