I was asked by a friend, "Will you help me make a halloween costume?" She then went on to enlighten me how creative and crafty of a person I am, in hopes of convincing me to undertake the laborious task of hand making her a fairy outfit. My response back to her was "Sure, I'll help you, but fairies are kind of wimpy. We need to do something with a bit more ... grit..." and then began our search for ideas on what to do. After a few days of deliberating, we decided that a steampunk fairy was the way to go. She could have her delicate little fairy, and I could have my grit. Here's where it gets a little crazy....

I've never sewn before. I didn't take home economics. My mother sews, but only on occasion, and I can remember no time in my life where anyone really made anything significant using a sewing machine. I am however, adventurous and had a little money to throw around, so I decided to go to Walmart and purchase a really cheap Brother sewing machine for around $85. I did myself a little research on how to use the machine and pattern making. After a solid week, I had hand crafted a custom underbust corset, using a pattern I had made myself, made of cheap upholstery leather. It was lined with duck cloth and was fully boned using steel bones. I used eyelets in the front and back adjustable and tied it together with some gold cord. Success! The corset looked amazing.

I spent the next few weeks working on a set of foam board wings. I made myself a stencil and cut out 4 pieces of foam board with cogs, gears, and sprockets to make 2 wings. Each wing was 2 pieces of foam board with a piece of sheer cloth glued in between them, with bias tape glued around the outside edges. I had made clockwork wings, complete with a music box style key.

In the end, her costume was a hit. It took a few weeks to make, but didn't really cost all that much. The leather I used was really poor quality, but worked great for that project. It caused me great frustration however. I wanted to make things of much higher quality and durability. This is when I found Tandy Leather Factory. I went and purchased some vegetable tanned leather and a couple of small tools, went home, and started crafting. After just a month, I had made my first gauntlet, followed a month or so later by my first heavy leather corset. This whole thing has steamrolled into the shop I have today. I make things I enjoy making, and sell them to those that want them. I take the most difficult and intricate commissions in order to push myself to learn new things. Today, I do this as an extremely overactive hobby and love it wholeheartedly.

I love making things that people can enjoy and use. I am constantly doing everything I can to push myself and my artwork to the next level. My name is John and I am a steampunk leatherworking engineering artist.