A simple bag

That turned into my working meditation for the month. I found myself in full artist-hermit mode the past few weeks, working only on this dear project... Even as others that needed to be worked on stared patiently from their side of my work bench.

And now... she is finished. Riveted, sewn, tooled, painted, buckled, primrosed and loved.

The words are "Let us go then, you and I..." from T. S. Elliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. I've always loved this poem, and then one of my brothers studied and memorized it.  Hearing his voice (I'm quite chuffed that he's my brother- quite clever that one - though they all are, my siblings) recite the words, I loved it even more. It seemed fitting, to put this line on a bag that will travel with me. I will go with it and chase the fog in the cities, the mist in the mountains, and feel the breeze carry sweet scents.

Time to come out!

I've been hiding away these past few weeks, resting and working.  I just wrote a letter to a dear friend telling her how I have imagined writing to her for weeks.  It's been the same for you readers too.  I keep imagining sitting down, typing out my thoughts and showing my photos.  If I would have written as much as I imagined, you would have had a post a day!  Sometimes two!  So.  I'm going to try to buckle down.  Every time I think of blogging, I'm going to try my best to actually DO it.  I like sharing my thoughts, I love sharing may work. You all offer such wonderful encouragement, I know I will feel better for sharing! There's nothing to fear here, it's a happy place!

With that said, I've just updated the shop with four of my newest pieces... They are all headbands, a project I've been working on since just before Christmas.  My brilliant yoga instructor asked if I made headbands, and she helped push me on to this branch of leather work that is simply inspiring!



The bands have a base piece, which is where the tooled flowers, etc are located.  I then weave a thinner piece of leather through the appropriate holes along the base piece.  This allows you to move the focal point to any part of your head.  Feel like having flowers at the tippity top of your head? Done. Rather have them tucked above your ear? Done!  All have adjustable elastic around the back of the head.

I'm rather in love with them all.

hope you are having a wonderful start to the new year!

Fall flower

Here she is dear folk, my first belt. A labor of love for sure, but also determination. Mostly against the fact that I don't have the right tools to set snaps myself right now, which nearly put a damper on a small section of excitement. But luckily I got through that, and if I may say so myself, quite cleverly too!

She's a peachy thing, a delicate strength. I kept the imperfections in the leather when I was planning this belt out (if you'd call pretty holes and tears that). I kept them because they presented a bit of a design challenge, and tons of interest.

I said I planned this belt out.

That may be an overstatement. I redrew the flower over and over, but that's where it stopped. And that only happened because I got a lucky, sudden wind of perfectionism. I kept trying on the leather as I cut it. I probably should've made a template. I probably should have practiced painting the flower on scrap leather first. Probably should've is boring.
I like -no- absolutely adore to the tippy top that I can work so intuitively with leather. Knitting takes a lot of planning some days. There's gauge, fit, stitches, patterns, cables... Lots has to be planned out. I prefer to fly by the seat of my pants. Leather kindly allows this raucous behavior.

There will be a second belt soon, and more cuffs, all with the same guitar strap woven closures. I adore this solution, and am happy that it has come to satisfaction so quickly. Happy October to you all, may your pumpkins be orange and your beer pumpkin flavored.