Some Ditty Bag Bodies, For Sale!

How Do All ;-)

I have just added some more items to my Etsy Shop

New Style Ditty Bag Bodies!

Here I have one Brand New! Ditty Bag body for sale.

The body of the bag is made from 12oz cotton Duck, and is 300mm x 175mm. the canvas is fully hand seamed and the base has a double seam for durability.

This bag has No eyelets installed yet, this is to give you the option of adding your own knot buttons as I have done on several of my bags, However if you would like a set of hand sewn Grommet eyelets installed, I can do this for you at an extra cost of £20.00

Please contact me first before ordering if you would like this option so I can change the listing price!

Clearance! 

Old Style Ditty bag Body!

This Clearance Ditty Bag body is one of my older models which I am putting out there for any budding knot tyer that might like to fashion their own ditty bag without the hassle of making the canvas body of the bag for themselves.

The only difference between this older version of my Ditty Bag bodies and the newer version is a slightly longer stitch length.

Please contact me if you have any questions: knotty (dot) bear (at) gmail (dot) com

Please check out my Etsy Shop for more items.

Thank you for looking.

Take care,

Barry ;-)

Cotton Seine Twine and Ditty Bag, For Sale!

How Do All ;-)

I have just added some more items to my Etsy Shop

All Sold Now, Thank you for looking ;-)

#30 Cotton Seine Twine

This is about 3mm diameter, with a firm lay and very easy to work with. 

900 gram spool (2 lb) , 286 meters (878 feet)

dimension, length, and weights are approximate.

#21 Cotton Seine Twine 

This is about 2mm diameter, with a very firm lay and very easy to work with. 

900 gram spool (2 lb) , 460 meters (1512 feet)

Note: dimension, length, and weights are approximate

Twisted Drawn Thread Ditty Bag

The body of the bag is made from 15oz cotton Duck, and is 300mm x 175mm. the canvas is fully hand seamed and the base has a double seam for durability. the body features twisted, drawn thread work, made by removing the weft from the canvas and bunching the remaining warp strands together and then twisting them into several small cords, these are further split and twisted into other cords, and some nice hard wood beads finish of the design.

The grip is of Cotton, and contains; Double Crowning, Pineapple knots in Hemp and Mathew Walker knots. The hanging loop is covered in Cotton Solomon bar. the grip has a coat of my own mixed natural bleached shellac to stiffen and help protect the grip from every day grime.

The slider (bag closure knot) is a Pineapple knot, and the toggle on the base is a Star Knot.

There are 6 beautiful Star Knots around the top of the bag, to which the lanyard legs are buttoned the splices on the lanyard legs are further covered with Turk's-Head knots.

The legs of the lanyard are Flax.

The bag can be converted to a shoulder bag by buttoning Star Knot toggle on the base of the bag through one of the two differently sized hanging loops on the end of the lanyard.

Please contact me if you have any questions: knotty (dot) bear (at) gmail (dot) com

Please check out my Etsy Shop for more items.

Thank you for looking.

Take care,

Barry ;-)

Fluo Ditty Bag, For Sale!

SOLD!

How Do All ;-)
Yup' you heard right! I am selling my pride and joy Ditty Bag.

My Very Own Fluo Ditty Bag is now up for grabs!

The bag is in excellent condition and has never been used in anger, this bag has only ever come out of storage for display purposes!

Please see below for all the details of the bag, and pictures:

 The body of the bag is made from 12oz cotton Duck, and is 300mm x 175mm. the canvas is fully hand seamed and the base has a double seam for durability.

The grip is of Flax and UV reactive cord, and contains; overhand Spanish hitching, wide single strand Gaucho knots and single strand Mathew Walker knots. The hanging loop is 6 strand round braid.

 The slider is a Pineapple knot, and the toggle on the base is covered with Pineapple knots.

 There are 6 hand stitched grommet eyelets around the top of the bag, through which the spliced lanyard legs are buttoned with small Pineapple knot buttons.

The bag can be converted to a shoulder bag by buttoning the double ball toggle on the base of the bag through the hanging loop on the end of the lanyard. 

This bag was featured on the cover and in the pages of Knotting Matters 104.

I was the first person to be presented the Ditty Bag Trophy, in memory of the late Gary Sessions at the joint IGKT & IGKT-NAB meeting at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, Massachusetts in 2009, pictured here with the Ditty Bag Trophy and my Fluo Ditty Bag. An article appeared in KM 105 with pictures.

Below you can see the effect that Ultra Violet light has on the UV reactive cord and also the twine used for seaming the bag and putting in the  eyelets.

 The effect of the black light on the UV reactive cord and seaming twine is mind blowing when seen in the flesh.

The single strand Gaucho Knots ane braided directly to the lanyard,

 Close up of the  Pineapple knot used to close the bag.

Now the business end of the deal!

For this unique, one off and completely unrepeatable work of art I am asking a kings ransom of £395.00

Postage is £7.55 Royal Mail Special Delivery in the mainland UK.

& £23.00 USA. for a custom postage quote for other countries please contact me.

Contact Me: knotty (dot) bear (at) gmail (dot) com

I will not be making any more Ditty Bags ever again, so this is the last chance to own one of these much sought after hand crafted items!

You can see more of my Canvas Work here:

Canvas Work

Thanks for looking.

Take care,

Barry ;-)

Playing With UV Again!

The last time I experimented with UV Black Lights was during the making of my Fluo Ditty Bag, this bag had lots of fluorescent Yellow UV reactive cord used to make a very happy bright bag; as you can see below.

Above and below: Under Natural light and also under UV Black Light.

After making this bag I did not get around to playing with UV again until now; when a friend asked me to make some pineapple knots for him. one of these was to be bright, and as you can see below, under UV light it fills that requirement quite handsomely.

This is a 40p x 36b, 6 pass, Type 5 Pineapple Knot.

                    Below: under normal lights.                

    

And from the top under UV again.

Playing with UV Black Light is fun but only in very small doses; and with protective glasses, even then I still got a headache taking the pictures.

Take care,

Barry ;-)



Bags, Bugs & Bikes.

Been a Busy "B" Lately.

Bags

A Draw Corded Ditty Bag.

I was asked if I could create a standard sized bag with a hemp draw cord by some folks in Canada, and yes; I know I said I was not going to do this type of work again, but as I happened to have a couple of unfinished bag bodies, and also because I find it hard to say No! I got to work, and below is what I came up with from my brief.

The folks from Canada never got back to me; but luckily the bag has now been sold to another more deserving person :-)

 

Hand seamed in 12oz Cotton Duck canvas, with 6 hand sewn grommet eyelets. 

Threaded with a Hemp draw cord, the ends joined with a doubled Bosun's Lanyard knot, and finished with a seizing in waxed Hemp twine.

The sliding closure; or puckering knot is a single strand Mathew Walker knot, made with my own hand laid Hemp twine; and sized with a natural sealer. 

Some of the tools of the my trade.

Puckered up and ready to go.

Bugs.

In between jobs I decided to do a little R&R in the garden; and whilst minding my own business a little Grass Hopper hopped over for a chat, before gettign down to the business of making little Grass Hopper's with his mate; whom was keeping an eye on her mate from the adjasent Rose.

& Bikes.

And on to the business of serious fun making!

I have been fetteling with my race / road training bike over the past few weeks, I still have a way's to go yet but this is what I have done so far.

I concentrated mainly on the rear wheel and wheel disks, the original Carbon fibre moulded disks I made; and had great success with; actually winning races in my class ;-) have now been passed on and I set about building a whole new rear wheel, the main reason for a new wheel was to trim a little weight off, quieten th e thundering noise I got every time I hit a bumb; and that the original rim did not have enough surface area for attaching the fabric covering.

The covering is is a very light weight ripstop nylon which is stretched and bonded to the rim before being sealed with cellulose.

here on the non drive side you can see the foil tape patch that gives access to the valve stem for pumping the tyre, the patch make the wheel more aerodynamic than if it was left with the gaping hole in it.

I then got down to the business of comfort and made a new air mesh padded seat pad, and pillow neck rest from the same materials, and I can confirm that it is too comfortable, I have been spotted napping on several occasions whilst out and presumably training ;-)

I could not help myself and had to add a nice dimpled look to the pad very cushy.

I still have the new bars I made to fit, which include a whole new brake and gear operating system, some serious chopping and modding going on there.

more to follow soon?

Take care,

Barry ;-)