It sounds easy but it's actually quite tricky making something look old and worn!
When Graham attended one of our Jack & Rose workshops to make a gift for his musician daughter Erin, he had three wishes. One, to handcraft an heirloom for his daughter which was both beautiful and functional. Two, to accent this beautiful creation with a vibrant red colour and three, to make it look old and worn!
The first two were easy...
Graham decided that a leather guitar strap for his talented musician daughter would be both pleasing to the eye (it was to work with her super cool 'Flying V' guitar) and would last her for years, the high quality Italian leather tolerating robust daily use with ease! Adding a passionate and fiery shade of red suede to the back of it and some fearsome red accent stitches, (Graham, a highly creative man himself had been paying attention to his daughter's aesthetic tastes), satisfied the first two requirements.
What of the 'old and worn'? I've had some experience here and it's not what you think, cheeky! As the costume designer/maker on the set of 'A World Divided' I had to find a way of ageing the costumes, particularly on the leather work. This involved a high tech state of the art method of basically rubbing the leather across the old, knotty, nail ridden floorboards of my studio at the time - and then anywhere that was a bit grubby or dusty. I went at it with sandpaper, sharp tools and anything that you would normally keep well out of the way of a highly polished surface!
Above, some examples of the leatherwork from the musical 'A World Divided' made to look worn!
It went against the grain, quite literally, but the result was spectacular! It takes some doing to truly age something and give it an authentically worn look, but Graham handled it perfectly well. Using sandpaper on the unseen side and then rubbing the 'good' side around in the bits of sand and debris that had come off to create a sort of background of random scratches. Onto this Graham went at it with an old leather mallet, pressings off the well-used and grooved poly board and anything that would add a layer of grunge to the strap.
It turns out that to truly make an item look 'old and worn' requires plenty of genuinely old and worn tools and surfaces to transfer over that authentic look, which Graham achieved beautifully!
Graham (centre) with the guitar strap he lovingly handcrafted in our workshop for his daughter Erin!
Beginners are welcome in our workshops, we would love to have you along! You can book online here or email us with your requirements info@jackandroseengland.co.uk. We are open to ideas if there is something you would specifically like to make, or attend at a particular date/time other than advertised.
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