Bow Tie Build Process

Ok so trying to do weekly updates was an interesting challenge, and one that I mostly managed to stick to (let's ignore that one post that came the Monday after). But I'm not quite convinced that forcing weekly updates is the best model, as I'm not always interestingly productive (and honestly I feel like I'm just pouring all my anxiety into them). I decided to switch things up, and try posting whenever I'd finished something significant, instead. And then I made myself so busy that I couldn't find the time. So maybe weekly is the lesser evil, not sure.

This year, I decided to try vending at markets. I don't expect to sell the high-priced items like books in person, so I figured my best bet was to make a large number of smaller items, and I decided to make something I'd been wanting to do for nearly a year: bow ties!

Usually when I have a new idea, I let it marinate for a few weeks or months, planning out the construction, trying to think about all the different processes involved, where they might go wrong, how I can get the quality of finish that I'm looking for at every step. If an idea doesn't survive this process, then it's not interesting enough to me.

The first and most important component of a bow tie, is of course the bow. I folded some paper in half and started sketching out shapes to try and find the right silhouettes.

I had thought about making a single layer, turning in the edges, and gluing in a back layer, which would give the base a narrow profile for me to build onto.

But 1) this came out pretty ugly, pretty, pretty damn fast and 2) wasn't very fun. So I switched to my next idea: a proper, double-layer construction like a Real bow tie. I measured my paper template, and cut myself a rectangle that was twice the length, plus seam allowance, so that I could fold it into a loop. I wanted some very prominent, well-defined folds in the structure, that I would have to sew in place, and the only way I could figure out how to construct those, was to make myself a sketch.

After I finished the first test, I wasn't sure that three folds was sufficient, and I thought my final bow was a little small. So I did some research and found measurements for standard bow tie sizes, and then made a tester with four folds.

But I felt this lacked the satisfying depth of fold I got from three.

Once I'd decided on a structure I liked, I made myself a template, so that I could save time on measuring materials.

I finished off the blue tester with an elaborate centre piece, then decided to play with teeth positioning and a simple wrap for the next experiment.

I added useful markers to the back of my template

And then got to work on batch production.

Making all the bases was pretty satisying, but I knew that I wouldn't enjoy making too many of the fancy fanged centre pieces, so I planned to make smaller numbers of several different designs, and finish most with a simple eye wrap.

And of course I had my laser cutter content requirements to fulfill, so I took some time to draw up a tentacle motif. Rather than faffing around making vector paths, I decided to use the Engrave feature to etch the pattern in rows, like a regular printer. I usually make a lot of pieces in black, but 1) that was getting boring and 2) the laser wouldn't show up so well, so I made a few bases in different colours for the laser.

I ran a couple of tests of different power and speed settings, on different colours of materials. Burning the design into the leather, especially at higher powers, produces a loot of soot, which could smudge and make the leather dirty. I did some googling, and found several forum posts where people discussed overly complicated solutions to this: covering the entire surface in tape before lasering, and cleaning before removing the tape; washing; sealing (before and after); vacuuming. I definitely didn't want to waste all that time and paper tape, covering the surface of every piece, and having several washing and sealing steps would increase my time cost significantly. So I simply tried removing the soot with single strips of paper tape. This lifted the soot quickly and precisely, and I could reuse one piece of tape many times over, starting on the lighter leathers and moving up to the darker colours with heavier burns.

At this point, I had a couple dozen bases intended for half a dozen different designs, all in various stages of completion. All I had to do was Finish the Damn Things.

At the beginning, the bow ties were a fun break from my usual makes. I'd tried to limit frustration by making a small number of the complicated fanged centre pieces, and planned to finish the others with the simple eye wrap, but this soon reminded me of why I had stopped making the glass-eyed earrings.

Even after assembling all the bows and eyes and teeth, I still had to mount everything to metal hair clips, or build straps for the ties.

And then sew all the bows to their fixtures, because if I'm going to be charging handmade, artisanal prices, I'd better be making these as durable and long-lasting as possible.

As always, I thought the bow ties would be pretty quick to put together, but the process ended up taking nearly two full weeks of work, including many evenings and weekends, to finish.

I tallied up all the days, and tried to divide pricing in a way that would properly compensate me for my time. Of course, I didn't include materials costs, or overtime hours, because I'd wanted the bow ties to be more affordable for markets. I ended up pricing the simplest at £35 each, and the most complicated at £95.

Pricing is a constant struggle, because I want to be making enough money that I can have savings, and a pension, and occasionally afford little indulgences like fancy doughnuts. But I also recognise that a lot of people are just as broke as I am, possibly even more so. And my fears seemed confirmed by my first market. But this is getting pretty long, and we can save that for another post.