Tiger, Pink Leather and Boots; Plus Snake Jacket Art Part I

Happy Monday, folks! Today's outfit features a new-to-me item plus a couple of older favourites, and I have a sneak peek to share of the start of my next art project! 

I've been eyeing this ensemble in my closet for a while - it's the last bit of Mental Health Outfit Planning from several weeks back. Time to wear it! 

I built it around this lovely tiger-print linen top, pairing it with a bold bright pink leather. Yes, I'm wearing boots, and yes, it's still August. 

• Shirt - Jones New York, consignment; purchased here for $24.00
• Skirt - Evan Davies, vintage 80s, thrifted; last worn here in August 2021 with my optic cardi
• Boots - Rockport, thrifted; last seen here in April with a spring green dress
• Welsh cape (below) - vintage 60s, Dafydd Snowden,thrifted; last worn here (3rd outfit) in June

I really like the fit and cut of this top - it will go well with many of my solid bottoms. 

My pink leather skirt is getting its annual outing - this is its 17th wearing (Flashback here).

The skirt is quite high-waisted, so I added this leather/metal belt over the shirt to define the waist a bit more. 

I have nylons on, just because I don't like bare feet in boots. 

Masked up - pink for matchy-matchy! 

I saw six people in the office today!

• Mask - by Mom

Outerwear returns! It's cold enough at night now that it's chilly in the mornings. 

I found myself wanting gloves on my walk to work. 

The stuff: 

With September just around the corner, we're officially into the "shoulder season" - it's not quite full-on summer, but it's too warm and bright to be fall. And autumn is still three weeks away! 

Twisted bling:

I chose bold gold to match the blouse's buttons, and browns to go with the boots. 

• Celluloid snake cuff - vintage 1920s, antique shop, Sidney, purchased here for $60.00
• Brown bangles - vintage, Lazy Susan's
• Chain bracelet - thrifted
• Earrings - Biko, consignment
• Wooden ring - Dots
• Bronze Brutalist ring - vintage 70s, vintage mall
• Belt (not shown) - Club Monaco, thrifted; purchased here for $12.00

I added the belt after I took the "bling" picture. 

Snake Jacket Art Project, Part I

On Sunday afternoon, L and I have the lovely habit of reading while we listen to music. It's become a wonderfully relaxing and soothing part of our weekend. Instead of my book, I decided to delve into my next art project this week: my tan leather jacket, which I plan on covering in snake, skull and roses motifs. 

I'm a methodical person, so I started by gathering my supplies. 

The jacket, a variety of felt-tipped pens, scissors for cutting off the loops and buttons, and a bunch of printed design inspirations from the interwebz. Those pictures are for the main design on the back (that's a clip-art design - it's not a copyright infringement). 

Here's the jacket all stripped down - buttons removed from the front. I'll sew the replacement glass buttons on last, as I don't want them to get chipped or dinged.

And buttons and loops removed from the sleeves. 

The holes from the thread remain. 

But the loops disappeared pretty well into the seams. I'll be drawing over all of this section eventually. 

Learning my lesson from the Fluevog Shoe Art Project (end result here), I used the buttons to test all of my pens. Not all ink is created the same, nor are all leathers. 

The top line and number is the pen that I used on my Fluevogs, a Micron; the bottom line and designation is from my Staedtler permanent marker. 

I did a smudge test on all of the different kinds and colours - only the Staedtler didn't smudge or rub off with water. 

I also did tests with the spray lacquer and the coloured markers. I discovered that I had to spray the leather very lightly with lacquer in order for the coloured markers to stick, and I'll also have to spray over each colour to keep them from smudging. Or, I could always go buy more pens...

Fortunately, the lacquer didn't hurt or stain the leather when I tested it on the buttons, so I gave the entire jacket a light spray and then let it air on the deck with all the windows open (and doors shut, phew, it was stinky!).

I also tested my gold pens on the leather. 

These are the pens I used when I worked at Christmas House (1986-1997) to write on Christmas decorations for people. I mostly did "Victoria, B.C." in calligraphy, but sometimes customers' names. It's a liquid gold ink (you can also get these in silver).

No smudging - but I reminded myself to give any gold pen-work time to dry before handling it.

It looks good over black. Nice. I have Grand Plans for this!

Once I realized that most of my pens would just rub off with water, I sketched out the design on the back of the jacket with a grey felt-tipped marker. 

After my first attempt turned out crooked, I "erased" it with a damp paper towel, and drew vertical and horizontal lines to keep the drawing centered. You can see one of the lines going through the nose on my second attempt.

There's no going back now - permanent ink is going on it! 

Just a very basic black outline of the main sections: the skull, the snake and its coils, and circles for where the roses would go. 

I erased my sketching after I got the main lines in, then started working on the roses first, as some of them overlap the snake and skull. I didn't like the snake's head or pattern in the main inspiration picture, so I copied a different head from another image. 

I did the same flowers as I did on my shoes, and did the connecting leaves and thorns again. I changed up the large leaf design slightly. 

I filled in the scale pattern on the snake - this will be further elaborated on with a Zentangle-ish pattern and shading. 

That's about four hours of work, and my hand needed a rest after that. It's got a long way to go still, but I'm really excited. As NFL football season starts soon, I'll likely work on the jacket while I watch the games. It's better than sitting like a lump. 

Speaking of lumps...

Vizzini, aren't you excited by my new project?

"I can't believe you kept me off my deck for an hour, Woman!"

Silly bub, I can't have you inhaling that stinky spray! Besides, you were sleeping on the laundry most of the afternoon. 

"Oh, that's true. The warm t-shirts called to me."

Oh, to be a cat.