I've decided to wear a rather old fashioned kilt at work, and the rest of the kit too. Since what I do is leather art, I needed to keep those long sleeves out of the leather dye. What to do? A cuff of course! Not just any cuff though, not for me!




When children come in with their parents I tell them it is a legendary dragon scale cuff (all done in heavy Scottish brogue of course). When they look confused I go into a long tale about dragons shedding their scales and the process of finding them to make into a cuff. Of course it includes the dragon and cuff maker becoming fast friends. I tell them the cuff is necessary to be friends with a dragon because as everyone knows dragons like to lick and their saliva is acidic. The dragons are careful to lick only the cuff to save wear and tear on the flesh of the cuff maker.

The tale changes everytime and can get very outlandish. When it's done I give the kids a choice of a "dragon dollar", "celtic quarter", "bad penny" or "a scale from the incredibly rare iron dragon". These are round pieces of leather stamped with dragons, celtic design and skull and crossbones. The iron dragon scale is one of those pieces of leather dipped in boiling water for twenty seconds to harden it. It's amazing how many of the kids pick the iron dragon scale. They all are fascinated by the tale and their parents enjoy it too.

The things we do when we get bored...