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The Blog has been moved internal to the website. Please find it here: http://gothicpunkspecialtyhardware.com/blog/

Thanks a lot - Ben C

Steampunk Gothic Goggles, Cone Spikes in the Fashion Industry

 Hello from Gothic Punk Specialty Hardware,

            The news for this entry involves a new pair of goggles added to the catalog. We have attempted to make a contribution to the vast field of Steampunk accessories with our line of  "Steampunk Gothic Accessories".  The idea is to combine some of the elements of steampunk stuff, like the brass and copper metals, and burgundy leather, with elements of the more streamlined gothic aesthetic to create a kind of synthesis of the two.   This line includes a belt, a full forearm leather lace up cuff, and now a pair of goggles. Behold  ,Steampunk Gothic Goggles

These goggles are machined from Solid Copper, and feature a classic Gothic Trefoil design on the grille of the lenses. The back of the goggles are lined with high quality, stitched leather to create a comfortable fit against the face. The straps and nose bridge are also made of high quality leather, and the strap closes with a metal buckle. The lenses are dark grey acrylic.   We should be adding a pair with burgundy leather soon, as well as a monocle version.  

In other news, its been a big month for the 5" cone spike, and for run ins with the fashion industry.   Cushnie et Ochs, a New York Runway Fashion House, ordered some of our 2" stainless steel cone spikes to use on shoes I belive. That should be exciting to see.  And Angels Carying Savage Weapons in the UK ordered some of the 5" cone spikes to use in a fashion show. We actually made them to begin with as a customer request, and a sizable order of them is on its way to that customer in LA at the moment though Im not sure what they are going to be used for.  The 5" cone spikes have been popular in general since we added them to the catalog I think because they are one of the largest spikes available at the moment.

As far as Gothic Punk Specialty Hardware items being available in a store near you, you have to live in Albuquerque for that to be the case at the moment.  Cellar Door Gifts by the university is opening October 2nd I believe, and we have a few items in there. Nan at Free Radicals is also going to carry a few of our items, so that is great.    We really do want to wholesale, so if you would like to put some of our belts or something in your store -please get in touch.
  
I think thats about it at the moment,
  thanks as always for your interest in Gothic Punk Specialty Hardware - Ben C - Owner/Designer

belts, collars, local wholesale

 Hello from Gothic Punk Specialty Hardware,
 I said last time that the blog was going to be going  to bi-monthly updates, but I think it may actually be going to once a month- we'll see.
   Since last time, we have been  pretty busy, which rocks. The model photos are having some effect on website activity which is great. I'd like to do a photo shoot twice a year if things work out. That would keep things exciting I think. That being the case, we will be needing models, male and female, so if you're interested in modeling, please get in touch.

We have added a handfull of new products to the line-up since last time. We added a couple of belts-  The Bullet Rivet Belt, and the Black Bullet Rivet Belt. Here are pictures of those:

 We added a couple of collars using the 2.5" Pyramid Spikes that we introduced last time. Here are pictures of those:

Here is the link to both of those on the website, and they are actually the weekly special at the moment (the weekly special is kind of like the weekly blog entry that doesn't change for a couple weeks at least these days) so you can get those a little cheaper by buying them from the special box on the left side of the site page.

We also added a black metal cuff with spike holes- we hadn't put a black one on the site previously- but here's a pic of that and a link:

Here's how it looks with spikes in it -

Pretty bristly no? It probably weighs almost 2 pounds with the stainless steel spikes in it, and you probably wouldn't be allowed into most public places wearing it, but I'm sure its just the thing for some occasions.

There is a local store opening up called Cellar Door Gifts by the university and we are going to put some stuff in there on consignment. That should be exciting. We want to do more wholesale and consignment, so if you have a shop and want to carry any of our stuff, please get in touch.

We are going to try to switch the website over to a dynamic platform at some point during the next month or two, so that should make it easier to get around the site and to check out, and it will allow you to set up an account and all that cool dynamic stuff- we need someone thats hand with web design to customize the site template for us so that I don't have to spend hours and hours messing with it. If you can do that kind of thing and want to make a few hundred bucks, please get in touch. You wouldnt need to build the entire store, just customize a template, so I would think that it wouldn't take more than 10 hours total for someone that knows what they're doing.

That's it for this entry,
  thanks as always for your interest in Gothic Punk Specialty Hardware - Ben C - Owner/Designer

Model Photos- Respirator - 2.5" pyramid spikes

Hello From G.P.S.Hardware,
     These weekly blog posts are becoming bi-monthy I think.
The big news is that we got the model photos done! They are really cool we think. Here are a couple of them

 
There are 6 in all and you can see them on the splash page of the website.

Bazil Zerinsky at TerminalBlue photography did the photo shoot, and we were really happy with how it all went and with how the photos came out.


Next, we developed a gas mask/respirator and added it to the catalog.

This guy is cut from a solid piece of aluminum tube. It has a cutout to fit around the mouth, and endcaps that screw onto either end. There are 4 straps to hold it onto the face, and the piece has a black oxide finish. All in all, its definitely a unique piece.  Take a look at that products page on the website here.


Finally, we have added a taller pyramid spike to the catalog as well. Previously we had a 1.5" pyramid spike, and we decided to try to lengthen them by an inch to create the 2.5" pyramid spike. Here are some photos:

 You can see more of those spikes on the Giant Spikes Page of the website.
Thats about it for this update -


         Thanks a lot for your interest in Gothic Punk Specialty Hardware - Ben C - Owner/Designer

p.s. just joined 

Black Oxide, Giant Spikes

Hello From G.P.S.Hardware,

    Its been an exciting past 10 days or so here in the Gothic Punk  Specialty hardware workshop.

first of all, we finally did our first photo shoot with a real photographer and models -  The pictures are still being edited, but the shoot went really well, and the photos look good - so we're excited to get those up on the website and stuff.

Next, we got our Black Oxide chemicals, which allow us to put a black oxide finish on our aluminum parts here in the shop. Im really happy with how thats working out so far - its great to be able to make  a new product and quickly and easily give it a black finish here in the shop.   We do powder coating on our stainless steel hardware, and thats a great finish, but you cant really use it on things like the metal bracelets that have hinges, because it will clog up the hinges.  We have done some black anodizing on our aluminum parts, and that is a magnificent finish for aluminum - you get deep rich colors, and it gives a hard shell to the surface which makes it scratch resistant, but, its pretty expensive to do.  You really have to be making large volumes of product to do a lot of that without it really driving the cost of the items up.
         So, Black oxide is a great alternative - it gives a nice black finish to aluminum parts, and its relatively inexpensive to do.   Here are a couple pictures of  how it looks:

Those are the 1.25" black metal cuff, the 2.5" black metal cuff, the 5" black cone spike and the 8" black tree spike.Check those all out at the website.
 There are also some cool rub-off effects you can get by buffing the black finish partly off to expose the aluminum underneath. the 1.25" black metal cuff is available with that tarnished looking finish.

The last bit of excitement we've had going on  has been two separate customer requests for large spikes. We have had 3" tall spikes available for several months now on the website, and they have been pretty popular, and we hadnt really thought of making larger ones any time soon, until a lady called from L.A. wanting to know if we could make 5" Cone spikes, so we whipped up a batch, and they look great. They are 3/4" wide by 5" tall. They are cut from solid aluminum and come in raw silver color and with the black oxide finish. Here are some pictures of those:

A few days later, a man called wanting to know if we could make a spike 9" long and 3" around!  We could, sure, why not- but that thing would probably weigh 3 pounds and wouldnt really suit his purpose of making the worlds biggest dog collar.  We slimmed the dimensions down a little bit, and came up with the monster 8" long by 1.25" in diameter tree spike. Here are some pictures of that:

And here is a picture of the 3", the 5" and the 8" spikes, with the black oxide finish standing side by side: I guess this picture captures the new developments here at the G.P.S.Hardware studio over the past 10 days.

You can see more of those spikes on the Giant Spikes Page of the website.

Thats it for this post -
         Thanks a lot for your interest in Gothic Punk Specialty Hardware - Ben C - Owner/Designer

Bullet Belt

Hello From G.P.S.Hardware,

    Short and sweet blog entry for this week  -  This weeks new product is a bullet belt with studs. I really like this belt -  its made with 12 of our  Black Stainless Steel Bullet spikes, arranged in 6 groups of 2 around the belt, and then the gaps are filled in with 3 rows of black pyramid studs.    This belt is the weekly special for this week, so its available at 15% off of the usual price. So, its a great time to get it.
Here's a picture and a link to the page on the website - make sure to buy it from the weekly special box on the right side of the page to get the good price.

 Bullet Belt with Studs, Black

         Thanks a lot for your interest in Gothic Punk Specialty Hardware - Ben C - Owner/Designer

Hello from Gothic Punk Specialty Hardware,
   Im finally getting around to updating the blog. Its been a busy couple of weeks, and of course, thats a good thing.  G.P.S.Hardware is attached to a regular machine shop, so when we get busy with the machine shop, it makes it hard to put in as much time as I would like on this stuff.
   Anyhow,  The roller derby at the albuquerque convention center a couple weekends ago  was pretty fun. I have a picture of the booth there Ill dig up at some point.

We have a new product that we've added to the catalog - and that is a 1 1/4" wide metal cuff.
Its a lot thinner than the first metal cuff we made, so its easier to make and costs less.  I think its pretty cool. Here's a picture of it:

and here is a link to it on the website.
   We talked about anodizing aluminum  a couple of posts ago, and that is a great finish on aluminum, but its kind of expensive. So, Im looking into a black oxide finish to turn these cuffs black at a lower cost than anodizing - hopefully Ill get that going in the next couple of weeks.  I think these cuffs will be really neat with a black finish.

We have also updated the graphics on the website a little bit.   Here's the new header block:

I should put that at the top of the blog I guess.
So thats a little bit of an improvement. 

 Thats it for now, Thanks as always for your interest in Gothic Punk Specialty Hardware - Ben C- Owner/designer