All Thor posts can be found here.
When I started working at my current job, the entire department was a mess. Things were tucked into random hiding places, nobody knew exactly what we had for office supplies, and there was tons of stuff laying around unused. Being the minimalist organizer that I am, I set about inventorying and cleaning up, and discovered a huge (3' tall, 7" in diameter) roll of thick brown paper that no one knew the purpose of. I didn't want to get rid of it, in case it turned out to be useful later, but I did cut off about 50' and take it home for crafting purposes, and it has been absolutely indispensable.
One of the occasions for its use was the belt for Thor. The character has a wide belt that is clearly shaped to fit closely at the top and the bottom; a belt made from a straight piece of leather will not do that on a curved body. Since my hips are 14" larger than my waist, I've generally just not worn belts in the past, but this outfit required it, so... break out the brown paper! I tried several curves and front shapes until I found one that looked and fit well, and then had to decide what to make the belt out of.
Many of the cosplays I've seen have made the belt out of pleather or stiffened fabric, and to my eye, it detracts from the overall look. I have never worked with leather before, but, I figured, how hard can it be? Don't get me wrong, the super fancy, fitted, articulated, tooled stuff must take a heck of a lot of time, but one belt? Can't be too bad. And for once, I was right.
I did a lot of research on leather thickness, types, grades, style of tanning, etc, and ordered a decently sized hide, because I wanted the belt to be all one piece. Cutting it out turned out to be a valuable lesson in why the phrase "going against the grain" exists - the side that went with the grain was like cutting plain white paper; the side that curved against it was like hacking through a fine steak left on the grill for a couple extra days. Once all the hacking was done, however, I ended up with a pretty nice belt layout.
More research on dyeing and finishing leather gave me insight on how to make it pretty. I ordered a medium brown dye, and tried it out on some scrap pieces from cutting the belt. I'm glad I did because dye soaks into leather at a wildly different rate than paint goes on a hard surface, and the first piece came out almost black. I used the starter leatherworking tool kit I'd gotten and turned it into a coaster for the gentleman, then tried again on another piece and got a better color: brown with reddish undertones.
Dyeing the belt itself wasn't too bad; I had to be careful not to overlap strokes too much or it became obvious (think filling in a large space with markers where you can see the strokes and the overlaps are darker than the rest of the area), but I got a pretty good coverage, then "polished" it to bring out the undertones in the dye. I'd intentionally ordered not the best grade of leather so it would have flaws and look battle-worn, and that turned out beautifully.
I burnished the edges so they wouldn't catch on things (basically you rub them with a wooden tool until the friction heat-seals the grain of the leather - rather tough on the forearms), and punched some holes in the ends to lace it closed. I'm happy to try new things, but I knew I wasn't ready to muck about with buckles, straps, and closures, and it'll be hidden under the cape, anyway. Ordered some studs for decor, which turned out to be very easy to attach - punch guide holes, insert tabs, use a pair of pliers to bend and flatten tabs on the back. Time-consuming, but not difficult.
I looked for a long time for something to use for the three larger studs on the front, but had no luck. Large, silver belt accessories apparently only come in heavily designed or stylized patterns, not smooth ovals. Ok, fine, I'll make my own. Some Worbla over craft foam made the perfect shapes, but how to attach them? They had to be flexible enough to move with the belt, but solid enough to not fall off. I'm sure there's a better way, but I ended up just adding more studs where they should be, roughing up the high points of the studs with sandpaper, and using contact cement to add the Worbla bits. Since they're shaped so you can't see under them, I couldn't check if I got cement on the leather, but they're sturdy, move pretty dang well with the leather, and clearly are not coming off, so I'm calling that a win.
Total time for the belt: 10.5 hours, including the practice leatherworking scraps, and I have a very nice-looking piece for the cosplay. Of course, since it's a custom-made belt, the leather pouches I have to carry stuff in don't fit on it, but that's a concern for another day.
When I started working at my current job, the entire department was a mess. Things were tucked into random hiding places, nobody knew exactly what we had for office supplies, and there was tons of stuff laying around unused. Being the minimalist organizer that I am, I set about inventorying and cleaning up, and discovered a huge (3' tall, 7" in diameter) roll of thick brown paper that no one knew the purpose of. I didn't want to get rid of it, in case it turned out to be useful later, but I did cut off about 50' and take it home for crafting purposes, and it has been absolutely indispensable.
One of the occasions for its use was the belt for Thor. The character has a wide belt that is clearly shaped to fit closely at the top and the bottom; a belt made from a straight piece of leather will not do that on a curved body. Since my hips are 14" larger than my waist, I've generally just not worn belts in the past, but this outfit required it, so... break out the brown paper! I tried several curves and front shapes until I found one that looked and fit well, and then had to decide what to make the belt out of.
Many of the cosplays I've seen have made the belt out of pleather or stiffened fabric, and to my eye, it detracts from the overall look. I have never worked with leather before, but, I figured, how hard can it be? Don't get me wrong, the super fancy, fitted, articulated, tooled stuff must take a heck of a lot of time, but one belt? Can't be too bad. And for once, I was right.
I did a lot of research on leather thickness, types, grades, style of tanning, etc, and ordered a decently sized hide, because I wanted the belt to be all one piece. Cutting it out turned out to be a valuable lesson in why the phrase "going against the grain" exists - the side that went with the grain was like cutting plain white paper; the side that curved against it was like hacking through a fine steak left on the grill for a couple extra days. Once all the hacking was done, however, I ended up with a pretty nice belt layout.
More research on dyeing and finishing leather gave me insight on how to make it pretty. I ordered a medium brown dye, and tried it out on some scrap pieces from cutting the belt. I'm glad I did because dye soaks into leather at a wildly different rate than paint goes on a hard surface, and the first piece came out almost black. I used the starter leatherworking tool kit I'd gotten and turned it into a coaster for the gentleman, then tried again on another piece and got a better color: brown with reddish undertones.
Dyeing the belt itself wasn't too bad; I had to be careful not to overlap strokes too much or it became obvious (think filling in a large space with markers where you can see the strokes and the overlaps are darker than the rest of the area), but I got a pretty good coverage, then "polished" it to bring out the undertones in the dye. I'd intentionally ordered not the best grade of leather so it would have flaws and look battle-worn, and that turned out beautifully.
I burnished the edges so they wouldn't catch on things (basically you rub them with a wooden tool until the friction heat-seals the grain of the leather - rather tough on the forearms), and punched some holes in the ends to lace it closed. I'm happy to try new things, but I knew I wasn't ready to muck about with buckles, straps, and closures, and it'll be hidden under the cape, anyway. Ordered some studs for decor, which turned out to be very easy to attach - punch guide holes, insert tabs, use a pair of pliers to bend and flatten tabs on the back. Time-consuming, but not difficult.
I looked for a long time for something to use for the three larger studs on the front, but had no luck. Large, silver belt accessories apparently only come in heavily designed or stylized patterns, not smooth ovals. Ok, fine, I'll make my own. Some Worbla over craft foam made the perfect shapes, but how to attach them? They had to be flexible enough to move with the belt, but solid enough to not fall off. I'm sure there's a better way, but I ended up just adding more studs where they should be, roughing up the high points of the studs with sandpaper, and using contact cement to add the Worbla bits. Since they're shaped so you can't see under them, I couldn't check if I got cement on the leather, but they're sturdy, move pretty dang well with the leather, and clearly are not coming off, so I'm calling that a win.
Total time for the belt: 10.5 hours, including the practice leatherworking scraps, and I have a very nice-looking piece for the cosplay. Of course, since it's a custom-made belt, the leather pouches I have to carry stuff in don't fit on it, but that's a concern for another day.
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