When the Coronavirus pandemic hit, I thought I could help by making cloth masks. At the time, the CDC, Surgeon General, Dr. Fauci & Dr. Birks made it clear that masks would not help. I was largely criticized that my contribution was a waste time. I really thought that no one would want the first 150 masks that I painstaking cut out and sewed. I also, decided that if anyone wanted one, I would send one to them. And... I did.
To my surprise, my friends and family generously offered to purchase a mask from me. I was so delighted to help out that I wouldn’t dream of taking money from them. ALL of them wanted to contribute to a mask fund so that they could help out too. It turned out that my masks went to Seattle, NYC, Spain and many other places around the country. As the requests came in, beyond the circle of my family & friends, I decided to put them online with all proceeds from the sales going to buy more materials. I made more because of these generous people. Thank you so much. I’m very grateful to all of you who have purchased masks. It has truly been my pleasure.
Because I’m utterly fascinated by how materials come together whether it be DNA, cloth, glass, steel, leather...I moved on to another project. I’ve been doing leatherwork for many years now. I started out by making leather journals. One of the things that I always wanted to understand how to do was to make armor. Since working with metal and a forge is quite beyond my capabilities, I decided to tackle a project in leather.
After countless Youtube videos, I found a very lovely tutorial from Prince Armory, who had great patterns and a promise that they were beginner friendly. Encouraged, I download the patterns and got to work on a new creation.
After a few days, the pieces were cut, carved, dyed & prepped for final construction. I channeled a patience that has been hitherto unknown for me to possess to very carefully pull the pieces together. In a short time, I realize a new mask was born!
It is a lot of work and it is pretty expensive to do. If you want one, I’ll make it. But not for free. Lol.
-Kim