The New Hotness

I visit a lot of bike shops, and in these bike shops there are tons of rad people. Sometimes they'll ask me to make them a belt out of one of their own tires, and in these situations I'll sometimes get excited to try new things.

Lately I've been experimenting with rivets and chain plates, so I added some to this belt I made for Russ at Coventry Cycle. I'm still playing around with the whole process, but these will be appearing on production belts soon. Here's another picture just because I'm that stoked.

Deluxe Belts

I've been working on some new designs that have been rolling around in my head for a while. I'd write something about them, but pictures will do a better job.

The idea is to stay creative with these and keep trying new designs, hope you like them! You can find these and a couple more in this section of my Etsy shop.

Collaborating

I had the good fortune to meet a new vendor at Saturday Market a couple weeks ago. Trent at Rhythmic Metal makes some sweet buckles, and other metal art. He's got some bike themed ones, buckles made entirely of chain and cogs, and some other neat looking designs. Check out his Etsy shop or find him at the Saturday Market.

Our stuff works together well, and we've been lucky enough to set up next to each other at the market a couple times. The sum is greater than the parts!

Braided belts

I was working on this with some thin strips of tire scrap at the market a couple weeks ago.

It still needs some further experimenting, but if I can get the braid tighter I should be able to start making some braided belts. Interesting stuff!

Worn out tools

A couple weeks ago I finally broke my hole punch.

Luckily I had seen the crack forming for a while and had already purchased a spare punch.

This thing punched many thousands of holes in it's life, and I love how mushroomed the top of it got. I must say I like the look of well worn tools. The new one is a bit higher quality so I'll see how it holds up in comparison.

Etsy shop open

I've had my Etsy shop back up for the past couple weeks after a long hiatus.

I've reorganized the way I handle Etsy as well as production and storage of belts so that I can keep more listed in the shop with about the same amount of work. A win for everybody!

Now the bad news is that I'll be closing the shop this Friday evening for a month while I hit the road. But, when I come back I'll be reopening it promptly and hopefully keeping it that way!

Some weekend fun, and a little bit of work

Waking up this afternoon, slighty hungover, to this:

and this:

I decided the only suitable course of action was some mountain biking. After using my super secret hangover cure, I suited up and hit the trails.

Powell Butte is only a couple miles from my house, making it the perfect spur of the moment destination. The trail system is pretty small, but there are some good little climbs and descents, and of course some fun to be had. I could do laps to get some miles in, but today was more about enjoying the day and taking some photos.

All in all, a good time on the bike, and I even managed to get a little bit of work done back home.