I have been busy making watch straps for the past month or so. I'm trying out new designs and working hard implementing it.
After trying out different types of leather, I decided to focus on vegetable-tanned leather. It's just simply a better leather to work with. I also found out that the waxed version is a fantastic leather for strap.
I have had two orders from the same person (Thanks Scott!), I must say he's the client to have. Generous, patient and has eyes for style, not to mention a lot of faith as well. He wanted me to build a strap from the waxed brown leather that I already have and grey coloured leather. His latter request left me scratching my head for a bit, I dislike using dyes as it's doesn't penetrate the leather all the way through and may fade overtime, even so I didn't even think grey coloured dye exist. After consulting a fellow strapmaker, I found the solution, literally.
He suggested to experiment with a vineagroon dye, it's basically rust in a liquid form. At full strength it will turn the leather pitch black, adjusting the amount of rust should yield a grey colour and the best thing about this is it's permanent. The only drawbacks are it takes a while to make the solution and the smell is not for the faint hearted. I made three different batch so I can test the ratio correctly. I must say I'm pleased with the result, combined with Obenauf's, the end product is fantastic. I will go into details comparing different solution in a different entry.
For now, here's the picture of some straps that I made recently:
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| Waxed Brown with white stitching for Scott |
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| Different angle |
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| Photo courtesy of Scott |
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| Vineagroon grey for Scott |
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| Different angle |
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| Photo courtesy of Scott (beautiful watch) |
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| Another photo courtesy of Scott |
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| Natural leather with white stich |
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| Different angle |
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| Mounted on the watch |
