All Steam Ahead 2021 – Belt Up Part 3

 All Steam Ahead 2021 – Belt Up Part 3

On to the Final Stage of Embellishing the Belt. If you ever want to confuse a Bicycle shopkeeper go and ask them for a Bicycle Chain and then try it on for size.

In Spirit

 

Another Tip from Lovely Laura of https://www.alyssa-rose.co.uk/ It is not often you want to take Oil off a Bicycle Chain but if you do use White Spirit or Turps. After leaving it overnight then wiping it down with some baby wipes it came out a brilliant Silver Colour.

Superglue Chain

 

I knew what kind of Pattern I was going for and if you look at the Photograph above you can see that I am placing the Chain Over one Hole and Under the next.

Be careful when using Superglue. Don’t do what I did and Squeeze the tube too hard and end up Gluing your fingers together. It might be worth having some Nail Varnish Remover on standby.

Chain Glued

 

I carried on Supergluing the Chain along the Belt. I didn’t go right to the end otherwise it wouldn’t have gone through the Buckle.

Copper Wire

 

Now I can do many things but Reverse the pull of Gravity isn’t one of them. The Belt was now extremely Heavy and I wasn’t sure that the Superglue alone would hold it.

Therefore I pushed Copper Wire through the Holes and Tied around the Chain for extra Strength.

Inner Belt

 

As you can see from the above photograph the Copper Wire is holding the Chain in place at both the Top and the Bottom.

Steel and Copper Complete

 

The Belt is now complete. There is even a little bit of the Chain dangling where you can Hook something on. Since the weather is warm I am going to hang a Fan from it.

All Steam Ahead 2021 – Belt Up Part 2

 All Steam Ahead 2021 – Belt Up Part 2

Now I have my Belt the correct Colour I have to tackle my next problem.

Measure Up

 

There are only a few Holes in the Belt. However for what I have in mind I need Holes all the way around. As I do not have a tool for making Belt Holes I have had to Improvise.

My friend Laura suggested using a Dremel but after trying that I changed to a Hook. I used the Ruler to get the Holes evenly spaced.

Fold Back

 

Well that didn’t work out to well! It was so tough to get through and not only that I didn’t seem to be getting the Holes even.

On top of everything else when I looked closer I saw that the Holes already in the Belt weren’t actually round they were more Oval in Shape. I had to rethink.

Scratch and Snip

 

I decided to Fold the Belt over until the Holes matched up. I then Scratched the Shape by using a pair of Scissors. I then Unfolded the Belt.

Using the Scratched Shape as a guide I then Pushed the Scissors through. I carried on doing this back and forth until I had a decent sized Hole. Once the Hole was large enough I had to trip the Back so it was nice and neat.

All Steam Ahead 2021 – Belt Up Part 1

 All Steam Ahead 2021 – Belt Up Part 1

This is following on from my Out of Zone Series. I had my Mask and Jewellery but now I came up with another daft last minute idea. – A Belt and Hat.

I would like to point out to any Purists that this is not supposed to be Steam Punk but like my previous efforts it is Steam Punk Esque

Brown Belt

 

First I needed a Belt that I could Embellish. My boyfriend had bought a pair of jeans but he didn’t like the Belt. So hey presto one Belt ready to be Upcycled.

Permanent Marker

 

There was a slight snag. This Belt was Brown and I needed it to be Black. Using a Tip I got from my friend Laura I decided to colour it in using a Permanent Black Marker Pen.

I started Colouring the Belt. It was coming up pretty good. I then realised that doing the Front was not enough because when Fastened the Belt would Dangle and show the Back.

Black Belt

 

It took several Colourings until I was satisfied that the Belt was completely Covered both Back and Front. I nearly forgot to do the Buckle area.

One tip when doing this sort of thing. Make sure that you put it on some paper or cardboard before Colouring in. Otherwise you will have to try and shift Permanent Marker off your surfaces.