Craft Day

suede hatchet cover

This kind of craft project is simple. Find a suede jacket in the storage unit/trailer park where you work fishing shit from the nasty swimming pool. Take the suede jacket from the dumpster after you are told to throw everything out of a rent-delinquent storage unit. Save that jacket until you need a cover for your recently sharpened axe. Then cut the pocket from the jacket and put on a snap so the axe head fits in the pocket and snaps closed. The hatchet took a little finesse but I came to my senses before I used shearling fur. I wanted to use Alligator leather so my hatchet cover could eat better than Honduran orphans but I didn't have enough.

Alligator Coin Purse

Step 1) Use a can of Salmon (tonight's dinner) to make circles on paper. Overlap paper on faux alligator leather that swap meet seller claimed was real. Your response to swap meet seller was, "Real alligators don't have two hornbacks."

Soldering Skills

I tried

I did find a replacement electrolytic capacitor and soldered it onto the legs of the old one that blew up but this didn't work. The soldering job isn't the problem. I think the integrated circuit is also toast. I hooked it all back up and nothing happened except a little static came from the alarm speaker. This may be the end of my decade old alarm system. I put the new cap on both controllers and neither one worked so it's toast.

But in other projects I'm finishing before my escape from Mexico

Gourmet Coffee. (I put so much honey, condensed milk and chocolate in it that it barely qualifies as coffee)

Native Spirit and a new strap courtesy of a sheep and some local macrame artists. Gracias.

Vansanity

Where to begin? This week proves I'm not on vacation. I'm not productive in a socially acceptable sense, but I'm also not unproductive. The side view mirror saga came to a head and required I replace it with a cheap plastic piece of crap from Autozone. At least this one does not rattle and vibrate so bad I can't look at it. And the old one was so big that when I wanted to see if any vehicles were coming from the left I had to lean forward to look around the mirror. It was a hazard. This one is low enough that I can actually see to my left.

Side View Mirror

Then I decided to use some metallic pearl leather paint to put a Jim Morrison quote on my boots. I don't know why. I was sober. I have no excuse. Jim Morrison once asked, "Where is your will to be weird?" And I guess my answer is my side zip cowboy boots with these custom tooled concho boot straps and a tribute to Jim.

Jim Morrison Lives

Leather crafts keep me busy, so I bought a sheep skin rug and made an urnrelated coin purse....

Boot Bling

Boot Straps

These serve no purpose, but I think they could be adapted to be used with spurs, which my spine will not allow me to do. Boot straps are the most frivolous of leather crafts but they are also the craft that is a good one to practice on because it really doesn't matter what they look like. Quality hand tooled leather boot straps are around $125, but the material is around $2. There are some super luxury boot straps out there, leather lined, fancy, but these are basic variety with Star Conchos and some generic stamps. It's all to go with my newly tailored Spanish American suede pants.

It's been a productive period of time in Costa Rica, nothing miraculous happened, urban living in Central America is thoroughly marred by car alarms set to go off when any vibration passes near the vehicle such as a motorcycle with no muffler, or an earth quake, or other car alarms going off. ALl day and night car alarms are going off because of nearby vibration and no one cares. I feel like making fliers in Spanish explaining that on the car alarm there is a small dial that changes the sensitivity level of the vibration. Setting it at the lowest sensitivity means it will go off only in the event someone actually runs into your vehicle with another car. The highest sensitivity will cause it to go off if a dog takes a shit nearby, and this is the level Costa Ricans like to set it at. That way they know their vehicle is nearby because the alarm is going off every ten minutes. GOOD PLAN! I won't miss this neighborhood.

I also finished the leather dashboard but I need Chicago screws to install it and those are impossible to find here. There's no big hurry on any of this. New adventures await, and I will meet them in suede pants that fit me.

Púa Holder

First, sketch a fish. Then make the craft out of paper. Adjust the design on paper before you get into material.

...then trace on leather, or denim if you are some kind of hippie who think he's saving cows.

Fold the sides together. Hammer the snaps down so it can be put on and off a belt. (the center snap should be a small one because the big snaps are hard to open. Glove snaps would work best) glue the sides or get fancy and sew them. Or use rivets. This picture is a prototype and it's not ready for production. Everything is fine except that middle snap button, which is too strong for something dangling off my hip. It is a Cal. 24 snap. There are Cal. 20 snaps which are lighter duty. And glove snaps which are even lighter duty. And then magnetic snaps which are are probably the easiest to open. Glove snaps are probably the way to go since you're supposed to be able to open it to get the pick with one hand and it will merely pull toward you and not open if the snap is too strong. If you are wondering, those loops are made from 10oz Latigo strap. It's actually too thick so I had to carve the gauge down so the button post would fit. 6-8oz Latigo strap is better.

Púa means Guitar pick in Spanish, but since your new leather rock star pants don't have pockets you can use the bottom loop as a key holder. Or rivet in a carabiner. Or make leather pants with pockets and use your pockets to carry your keys.

Desert Dust

My needle threader broke before I could add more flowers

There's more to the story of this embroidery project, but for now I will only confess to trying to replicate the 70 year old photograph by Verne Wood of a wild horse in Wyoming. For a model I actually used a oil painting someone did of the photograph so this embroidery project is even further removed from the original. I also moved the horse, a Palomino Stallion named Desert Dust, about 1200 miles south and made him a Mare. Desert Dust was indeed captured during the wild horse round up, a' la the 1961 Henry Miller/John Huston movie The Misfits which killed Clark Gable and also Marilyn Monroe. This photo was of the horse's last few moments of freedom. It became a rodeo horse and tried to stomp to death anyone who rode it. But it was never free again. Desert Dust was reportedly murdered in captivity in 1952 but reckless and unsustainable wild horse entrapment and slaughter came to be regulated. There's actually more to the story than that but to delve deeper would be like turning Desert Dust into dog food.

The horse came out a little fat and the color shades were beyond the limitation of a corner store selection of yarn. And those flowers aren't native to Wyoming. I was adding more flowers when the needle threader broke. Alas, it wasn't the only thing that broke.

Thunderbird

I now notice the upper right wing tip is not filled in.

 Again, this is all procrastination because I think a hand embroidered Thunderbird on a shirt will not withstand machine washing. I'll probably hand wash it for a while but eventually it will go in a machine and be destroyed. The only way to do this is to pay a computerized machine embroidery shop to do it as the stitches will be solid and washable. Speaking of washable, I recommend using some fabric glue on the back side to reinforce the stitch. Fabric glue is washable. Glue a patch on the back loop side and that's all one can do to protect it.

I should frame this shirt and not wear it. But I don't really care. It's practice for an epic punch pin project that will be framed.

As I applied the final stitch the whole building shook like a bomb had gone off. 5.1 isn't very damaging but I did have about 8 seconds of wondering if I should jump out the window.

Tired Cliche Continues

Author At Work

I'm not bored of the vagabond life because it does present challenges every day and excitement but because it's more like a marathon of problems and obstacles and police harassment there is never a moment to relax and enjoy any of the small successes. That part is draining. Here I am in a makeshift art studio finishing my latest belt buckle project. You can't see the number of bugs flying into my face but it forced me to close up shop early. I'm also using red nail polish for paint because it was cheaper.

You can see the tornado that's going to destroy your house for two hours before it hits

I'm adrift in the world again with a current goal of playing Western Swing guitar for 8 hours a day for one month to see if that helps my approach. I've come to West Texas because I didn't get the memo that Baptist churches are more plentiful here than hair on a hippie. Traditionalists, as I like to think of them, don't like my kind but I don't mind them. I see traditionalists as important to the culture, even if it's a culture that's in decay.
I could go on and transcribe the conversations I have about gun control and politics with myself in the demon-infested van, where it is 110 degrees and my body leaves an imprint of my wasting skeleton in sweat on the sun faded sheets. Every song reminds me of a broken heart and I feel more like Gordon Lightfoot every day. But it's no longer punishment for my trespasses and sins, it is a cleansing of the burger king finger foods that poisoned me when I was working in the oil field. I saw my old coworkers and of course they all got a raise when I quit. But their lives are 72 hours of pipe and wire a week. They have their responsibilities and I have my narcissistic crafts.

Big Bend was wonderful right up to the point I started a band called Oggy and the Reckless Romantics. Our first gig was at Heartbreak Hotel and we got stiffed by the promoter. It's fate that I pack up my belongings and drive on a long road to nothing with wind and storms on the horizon and a broken dream bouncing to oblivion in my rear view mirror.

Sure, nail polish was a good idea.

Jarritos Buckle #2

!Que Buenos Son!

The first buckle attempt resulted in evidence that my brain is decaying invisibly as I arranged the bottle caps upside down when worn how I usually wear a belt. I tried to put the belt on backwards and while that fixed the orientation of the caps I still felt like an idiot. So, I had to wait 4 months until I had a moment of peace to really apply myself to my chosen calling. This was an improvement but I can't pretend it looks pretty. Try to make something out of bottle caps and you'll know quickly what your standards are. For the record, I drank dozens of Jarritos soda to make this buckle.

Odds and Ends

Jarritos Belt Buckle

This belt buckle is finished. It's not perfect but it's done. I also found a Texas belt buckle at the flea market that looks like I won the rodeo. totally awesome

Tile Belt Buckle

I ruined the sober belt buckle seen here:so badly that the only thing I could do is cover it with tile. If only all things were that easy.