Good morning, Readers!
The Starlings already know this - not just because of the early access to the weekly blog posts they get, but because I got very excited and shared it when I got home on Sunday, but… I did a thing!
I crafted leather for the first time in years. I haven’t done it since moving into my new apartment; largely because I am on the top floor of the building, and leather working, well, it requires quite a bit of tippy-tapping. And by tippy-tapping, I mean banging. Loud, might shake the walls banging. For a long time, depending on the project. I did not want to harry the neighbours with that kind of noise for however long it took to make a thing. So I hadn’t picked up the mallet in a long while.
As I started to clear away my office/studio, I have been struck with the urge to create. And with Can-Con coming up soon, and my having absolutely no leatherwork stock whatsoever, I figured I should do some leather work soon.
It happens that my dad lives with his girlfriend not very far from me at all. It’s within walking distance (I realised as I wrote this that, seeing as how I walk roughly an hour to work and an hour back nearly every day, my definition of “walking distance” might be a bit skewed, but I promise this is a normal person’s walking distance).
It also happens that she is a very creative and crafty sort of person, with a craft room upstairs and a workshop in the basement. A workshop. In the basement. Surrounded by earth and brick and cement. Which means someone could theoretically be in there, banging to their heart’s content and never bothering a soul.
They were also, very conveniently, away for the weekend. Meaning I could go and work and be obnoxiously loud, and I would bother no one but my own ears. And so, with permission, that’s precisely what I did. For both Saturday and Sunday, I headed over and down into the basement, put on my music, and got to work.
For two days; a total of 19 hours of work.
I focussed on getting done the things that would require me to be loud - so, not the cutting, but the creation of the sewing holes and the tooling of the design. The actual staining and sewing will happen later. Those are much quieter activities.
I did want to get much more done. During my studio clean-up, I recovered some of the leather pieces I wanted to use to make three dice bags, and I had two rebinding projects I wanted to get started on.
Unfortunately, I only had enough leather for the two dust jackets, leaving nothing for the rebinding projects (one to create a hard cover out of a paperback, and the other to rebind a book that is getting a little loosey-goosey). And I also severely underestimated the amount of time required to get the two dust jackets done. It seems my memory of doing them the first time around was not great. This left no time at all for the dice bags. Seriously. I left the house a little after 9:30pm Sunday evening.
Maybe I’ll get lucky and have another opportunity to steal into the house and take over the basement workshop for another day or two, and I’ll get them done then.
The dust jackets will be for sale at Can-Con. Whatever doesn’t sell there will go up on the Ko-Fi shop, but I cannot sell them beforehand. I need them for Can-Con.
It was really nice to be back at it, despite the ache in my back from spending two consecutive days bent over a workbench.
I did neglect my cleaning duties on Saturday and Sunday, and then also Monday, as I spent that evening working on getting the blog posts written that I was supposed to do on Sunday. So I the rest of this week will be spent getting myself back on track there.
It was nice to have a good space to work where I didn’t feel like I’d be annoying anyone at all. I hope I get more chances again soon.
Until then, I consider this weekend a good one. I’m getting back to doing the things that make me happy. It’s nice.
Slán go foill!
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Whoo!!! Awesome work! I'm sure that there will be more opportunities like that, and it sounds like it was both rewarding and somewhat cathertic. If your Dad and his girlfriend watch sports games, those tend to get loud, so perhaps you can ask to be there in the basement and working when the game night noise will cover your noise, too.
My folks have had a friend over recently, and all of them have been doing craft work projects in the same spaces, and they've independently commented about how nice it is to work alongside someone also working on something. Your Dad's girlfriend might be similar and would welcome someone else using the workshop at the same time, too. It's worth exploring, at least.
You did a thing!! Well done!
Thanks! It was really nice to get back into it. Funnily enough, my dad's girlfriend and I will be working on a joint project soon. There's an antique buffet I'm being given, but we have to clean it up and paint it, first. I'm looking forward to it!
Ah, the buffet: a piece of furniture underappreciated by our half-generations, I think. My friends don't seem to recognize them, unless they're hot-tables at an AYCE restaurant. The one in my dining room has drawn all sorts of what-is-this-and-why-is-it-here questions. Well, the joke's on the people who don't have buffets, because they're missing out on an excellent storage-and-service option.
Happy cleaning-and-painting of your buffet! I hope that you and your DGf have fun with it!