I got mail! (Iyonk's giveaway pay off)

[whatmeworry]

The postman delivered me something rather lovely all the way from Jakarta today - the strap I was lucky enough to win in Iyonk's recent giveaway.
It's the first handmade strap I've owned and I suspect it won't be the last.
Punching a hole in it took nerve as I'm incredible un-handy, but against the odds I did it right. One thing that had never occured to me about custom straps is the fact that only having one hole in a strap makes it look much nearer.
It's intended to go on my Explorer, but the gap between the case and lug holes on that watch is ridiculously short, meaning any straps get damaged immediately, so I'm going to hold off fitting it to that until I've for some curved springbars.
For now, it's on my Alpinist, with the original Seiko buckle fitted, and it looks and feels a treat. The leather is much softer than I expected, and fits my wrist beautifully.

Thanks again, Iyonk, for such a fantastically generous giveaway.

[JAGtime]

Looks fantastic, wmw! Kudos to Iyonk for making such a beautiful strap and then giving it away!

Jane

[iyonk]

Thanks for the great pictorial Olly!! i appreciate it!
I'm so thankful that strap made it to UK and seem to fit your wrist fine.. i'm a bit embarrased with some imperfections in that strap.. i wish i did it better..

well, hope the one to MHe225 would arrive in the near future.. haha.. that would be my clue for another give away =)


its so funny to see my strap on other people wrist hehehe... and thank you very much for putting it on one of my grail seiko.. you've made my day buddy!!

[whatmeworry]

Thanks for the great pictorial Olly!! i appreciate it!
I'm so thankful that strap made it to UK and seem to fit your wrist fine.. i'm a bit embarrased with some imperfections in that strap.. i wish i did it better..

well, hope the one to MHe225 would arrive in the near future.. haha.. that would be my clue for another give away =)


its so funny to see my strap on other people wrist hehehe... and thank you very much for putting it on one of my grail seiko.. you've made my day buddy!!

I wouldn't have said it has any imperfections, just a lot of charm.

[93EXCivic]

i'm a bit embarrased with some imperfections in that strap.. i wish i did it better..

It looks great to me.

Have you considered selling straps?

[FuzzyB]

It looks great to me.

Have you considered selling straps?

+1

You really need to start selling these things soon!

[shameless]

looks fine ! green and brown really compliment !

[iyonk]

It looks great to me.

Have you considered selling straps?

Thank you very much buddy for your kind complement..

i'm going forth and back with selling my straps.. i've considered it for funding future giveaways.. but since i cant source inexpensive material to lower the selling price and have to buy not economical leather belt and hand pick one to choose the one suitable for strap material (they are not created equal) i'm afraid to offend anyone with the selling price..

the next problem with handmade is the unpredictable result.. but may be someday i'll post my strap on the sale section, just to see if there're any interest.

i've learn several more tricks since the giveaway, hopefully the next one will be much better =)

[iyonk]

BTW, while we are at it... any suggestion for future give-away? another 20mm, or 22mm or even 18mm stright?

[93EXCivic]

i'm going forth and back with selling my straps.. i've considered it for funding future giveaways.. but since i cant source inexpensive material to lower the selling price and have to buy not economical leather belt and hand pick one to choose the one suitable for strap material (they are not created equal) i'm afraid to offend anyone with the selling price..

the next problem with handmade is the unpredictable result..

Yeah buying a leather belt sounds expensive. Is there not a leather supplier in your area? Also check out second hand shops for leather bags and the like.

I personally love handmade straps. I have a few from Martu (around $30-$40) and a few from Clover Straps (around $50 or $70 for a bund) but there are imperfections on those and I think it adds character. If I wanted something perfect, I would buy machine made straps but those are kinda boring to me so now I only buy handmade straps (except NATOs and Perlons).