They're everywhere, they're everywhere, they're everywhere

Assignment for Introduction to Psychology this past summer:  create a model of a neuron and submit a labeled photograph.

The myelin sheaths are rolled-up plant labels, while the nucleus and ends of the axion are brass beads.  Everything other than the beads is solid copper.

Experimenting with cupric acetate

Many if not most leatherworkers know that a solution of ferric acetate, aka vinegaroon, will turn vegetable-tanned leather dark grey or black.  Thus, while it's not actually a dye in the strict sense (the black color is not the result of black pigments in the solution but of a chemical reaction that takes place in the leather) it can be used as one in a limited capacity, and is cheap to produce using just vinegar and steel wool.

Years ago I saw a post on the myArmoury forums mentioning that if you use copper instead of iron, the result is blue.  I bought some copper wool to try this out, and finally got around to it last week.  After soaking the copper in vinegar for a few hours, I wondered if it might not take a long time to create the acetate, since copper is more resistant to corrosion than iron.

It turns out there's a way to speed the process up enormously.  All that's needed is one more common household chemical, et voila.  The video doesn't show it, but the midpoint of the steeping looks amazing, like a breaking wave filmed underwater.

It was at this point that I began to worry.  Was the blue color just a reference to the liquid itself?  What would it do to leather?

The answer is just a little.  The dry leather stained with cupric acetate is on the lower left.  To the right is the same piece after oiling, next to an unstained, un-oiled piece from the same hide.

The color doesn't seem to wash out easily after drying, so there may be some chemical reaction taking place, but the visual effect is modest - and this is after getting the leather sopping wet with the solution.  It probably contributes to the darkness of the oiled brown leather.  What you see in the photo, though, is the test scrap at its darkest - freshly-oiled leather will lighten with time as the oily and dry areas reach equilibrium.

Fibula 2

Here we go again:

This one is made from 1.5mm steel rod (a hair less than 1/16-inch).  I think this is a bit too thin, and might not stand up to the strain of fastening a heavy cloak.  But it works much, much better than the 1/8-inch in any case.  I might consider using a thickness up to 1/12-inch or so.

The use of only a single brass bead is intentional, as I wanted to keep the amount of metal to a minimum.  The round copper-plated beads on the first attempt already had 1/8-inch holes, so they were easy to use as filler.  However, for this pin, that wasn't necessary, since it was easier to drill out enough bone beads to fill out the bow when I only had to increase the hole diameter from about 1mm to 1.5mm.

And one more time:

Of course it turned out wonky due to the metal bending too much where the large round bead should be, forcing it over to one side.  I also made the pin too short, which didn't help.  Due to the wonky bead and too-acute bend in the bow, I think this attempt looks much less elegant than it could.  I might remake it someday.

A few notes:  Some of the bone beads - which, according to the package, come from the "Cherished Collection by Nicole" (um, sure) - had tiny seed beads jammed in the stringing holes which had to be pushed out before the bone beads were useable.

Also, the steel, which comes from the spine of a marker flag, is apparently high-carbon.  Between the second and third successful fibulae, I accidentally quench-hardened another pin while forming the coil, which was the first time I'd ever successfully quench-hardened anything, causing the coil to snap like dry spaghetti.

Fibula

Steel rod with bone and brass beads.

Lessons learned:  For this purpose, 1/8-inch steel is much too heavy.  Shaping it required a lot of annealing and forging.  The rod is also too stiff, making it difficult to clasp and unclasp, and pressing on the bow of the fibula in the process puts a lot of pressure that I fear will eventually crack the bone beads, even though they're not packed together.  And, of course, I wasted a lot of time enlarging the stringing holes on each bead (except the small smooth brass ones).

The bone beads are from an inexpensive packet I got at A.C. Moore.  The brass ones are from Crazy Crow.  Actually, the smooth brass beads are copper-plated.

I would like to try again with a thinner steel, in 1/12 or even 1/16-inch if I can find it.  I also wanted to incorporate fewer metal beads and some animal horn ones.

All-purpose leather cap

A side project I made using this PDF pattern.  The shell is made from a leather remnant I got at a craft store, while the visor is some "blacksmith" leather I bought years ago and have never found a use for.  I would've preferred the visor to match the crown in color, but a number of experiments failed to produce a construction and finishing method that wouldn't bleed dye and deform when wet or "crack" when creased.  I wanted this cap to be functionally indestructible.  The blacksmith leather is extremely dark brown, but appears blue-black in the photos due to outdoor light (it was slightly overcast this morning).  For the same reason, it also has a smooth leather lining inside the band with a replaceable cotton sweatband hot-glued into place.

This is what the cap originally looked like.  However, after completing it on Sunday, I decided that the bright gold buttons and lacquered brass buckle were too ostentatious and military-looking.

Luckily, I had some antiqued brass-plated buttons and two of these 1/2-inch buckles from Tandy Leather, and an uncle of mine had given me a bottle of Blacken-It.  I sanded the lacquer off the remaining buckle, darkened it, brushed back the Blacken-It finish with steel wool (it's still darker than it appears in the photo), and put together a new chin cord yesterday.  The cords are just attached with twisted copper wire through a pair of holes on either side, so they can be easily removed and replaced with needlenose pliers/clippers.  The other cord will probably be used for a costume hat project.

While this style is recognized in the West as a Greek fisherman's or sailor's cap, it was common peasant or working-class headwear, especially in Eastern Europe, so it would also work for any early 20th-century costume.  And because it's made of leather, it also counts as a motorcycle cap.  I like to think the functional chin cord would also work better for that purpose than the simple chain that a lot of them feature.

I modified it in two ways:  First, the band is a bit wider than in the pattern, for more headspace, and second, I also made the visor wider from side to side.  This forces the ends to be pulled in more when stitched to the band, which causes the visor to curl down more, protecting the eyes better from the sun.