The Bikernet Board of directors assigned me this article at the last editorial meeting. “It’ll be a good one,” Snake said while guzzling his third beer during the meeting. His nerves were shot easily if there was an sharp edge to the story or conflict.
“Don’t mind him,” Renegade said. “You’ve been assigned a simple tech about leather seat tooling.”
“So what’s the glitch,” I asked. “He’s as nervous as a dog trying to cross a six-lane freeway during rush hour.”
The all-knowing Sin Wu swept into the room as if on roller skates, gliding over the dinged and dented hardwood floor with a silver beverage tray. “Ah,” she said and we all turned as she delivered another icy Corona to Snake. “Shirley is a lovely redheaded lass, and her husband is Joe Zanelli, a Las Vegas pit boss.” Images of mafia hit men filled the room. “Joe has a special relationship with Bandit. Don’t fuck it up.”
I felt my palms turn moist, and took the shot of Jack Sin offered without a blink. Whiskey, in the morning, smoothes almost any day. I started my trek towards tech tip excellence with an extra measure of trepidation, but immediately Shirley soothed my hard-wired nerves with her lithe West Yorkshire, English accent.
She worked in Casino in England, “But you can’t make a decent living in English Casino’s,” Shirley said. The trek to Vegas is a long but party packed journey, beginning on English Cruise ships, then working tables in the Bahamas at the Crystal Palace. That’s where Joe fell is love. “He tells folks he saw me bent over a crap table, from behind,” Shirley said. That sealed the deal and they’ve been together ever since.
They married and paddled to Nassau, in the Bahamas, for four years before moving to Vegas to work at the old Aladdin then Bailey’s. But an owner called one day,” Have you two bought a house?”
“No,” was the answer, so they were offered a position on a new Fort Madison, Iowa riverboat training gaming staff. “It’s the home of the Bass Fishing World Championship,” Shirley said, “and miniature golf courses next to prisons.” It’s also home to famous bike builder Don Hotop.
They spent a year in Fort Madison, another year in Illinois setting up another gambling riverboat, a year on the Mississippi and one in Louisiana. In 1996 they returned to Vegas. “I’ve been a fat housewife every since.”
I had to ask how she launched her career in leather seat making and tooling?
“Joe decided he was going to give Paul Cox over $2000 for a seat,” Shirley said. “Fortunately Paul was overloaded with work and couldn’t take on the job. I’ve always been into art and drawing, but it never meant shit to Joe, until I went to the Tandy story and bought a kit.”
While at the store Joe, a biker most his life, tried to commission a local talent to make his seat, but she also couldn’t schedule the job for three months. Shirley bought the kit, signed up for a class the following week and went home. She plugged in the video and made the kit supplied wallet as practice, to get started.
The next week she attended the class and the instructor said, “Let’s make that wallet in your kit.”
“I pulled my already finished walled out of my toolbox and showed it to him,” Shirley said.
He was astonished. “This is a sellable quality, the instructor said.
She returned home, joined several Leather guilds including the IILG (international Internet Leather crafters Guild) and Prairie States Leather Guild. “They cover anything and everything and are often made up of world renowned artists,” Shirley said. “I’m still wondering what happened to my two grand?”
This particular seat was made for one of the 5-Ball Racing Team members, Jeremiah Soto, who chose to build a bobber in the Bikernet Headquarters while we were attempting to build the World’s Fastest Panhead. Here’s how it went:
“I always spray paint the seat pan if it isn’t coated when I receive it,” Shirley said. “I want to prevent any chance of rust. To prevent sharp metal from damaging leather she wraps the edges with vinyl trim-lok.
She adheres closed cell neoprene foam to the pan with spray adhesive, then files and shapes the padding.
“I only use Wicket and Craig top quality vegetable tanned tooling leather, 6 mills thick,” Shirley, pointed out. “Tandy is okay for starters, but once you get rolling, you need top of the line material.”
She sponge wets the leather with water thoroughly. “I like white wine once in a while,” Shirley added. The leather goes dark and she lets it set until the original color returns, but it’s cool to the touch. “It’s still wet on the inside.”
She then transfers her art to the leather surface from tracing film with a stylus for a perfect original replication of the original art. Then she starts cutting in the design. “Cutting is the key, or you lose everything,” Shirley said. “You can be good at tooling, but it’s nothing without accurate cutting.”
Then she started tooling after beveling the art to round it and make it smooth. In this case the background tooling consisted primarily of pebbling back. “You can re-wet the surface,” Shirley added, “but it try to complete as much as possible. If I can’t finish the job, I’ll wrap it in plastic and stick it in the fridge to retain the moisture.”
Next move involved cutting the seat pattern with leather shears and a template. “I always wait until the art is finished to prevent the art from being anywhere but exactly in the position I want. Then she painstakingly punched holes around the perimeter of the material for stitching which is a major grueling pain in the ass.
With the tooling complete and holes punched she coated the surface with Matt Leather Finish, which is die or color resistant. “That way the antique finish wiped clear of everything by the cervices,” Shirley said.
Then she added another water resistant finish/sealer or weatherproof coating. “These coatings are not completely waterproof against this porous material,” Shirley snapped. “If you’re caught in the rain, wrap the seat in plastic.” I underlined that note.
There are three of four general stitching patterns. “The most requested is the Mexican Basket Weave,” Shirley said. “It’s also the most intricate.” There’s also a more simple cross or X stitch. “The old baseball stitch is even more basic. Just pray the holes line up correctly.
Suddenly the phone went dead and a husky voice filled my ear. “You talkin’ to my wife sucka?”
I hung up. Hope she likes the article. “Sin, can I get another shot of Jack?”
Connection:
Shirley Zanelli
Bad Ass Hand Tooled Motorcycle Seats
(702) 325-3532
Shirley@badassseats.com
www.badassseats.com
