Finally put ears on this dog mask/pup hood! I guess I'm just in a kink-making sort of mood.

More photos over on my tumblr.

This was a prototype/first run at making a mask in this style, with snout in front and buckles in back. It worked out pretty well, and I think the buckle arrangement looks pretty clean. The snout and ears both detach with snaps, which felt like it was a good way to start thinking about modularity. And there’s enough room in the eye area that it fits on over my glasses, which I think is pretty cool. The snout is open at the bottom, which is pretty comfortable, but the snout is deep enough that it doesn’t really expose the chin very much. And the base structure should be able to support different types of snouts.

The only thing I’m a little bit skeptical of is the ears. I wanted to try a minimalist construction, and it seems to work with just 2 points of attachment (which pivot too, being snaps). But the shape is maintained by stress in the curved segment between the snaps, and I’ll have to see how that holds up when the ears get bonked. But if it does need some adjusting, they’re removable, so that’s easy.

The next mask I make with this structure I’m going to adjust how the straps attach to the mask. Here they’re just riveted directly to the mask. Next time I’ll attach D-rings to the mask and attach the straps to those. That’ll let them pivot around that point, rather than needing to be lined up to point in just the right direction.

Mask was made by hand from 4 oz vegetable-tanned leather, stained black. I’ll finish it with neatsfoot oil, which’ll darken it up a bit more and make the surface a bit more supple. Rivets and snaps are nickel-plated steel.