2011 Macy's Parade Santa Harness

An interesting commission landed neatly in my lap around July 2011 - to remake the leather harness & cuff portion of Santa's outfit for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Earlier versions of this unique hosenträger were embroidered cloth, but due to the seasonal wear and tear Santa sees they switched over to leather. Timberlake Studios got the overall job and sent me the previous assemblage of straps so I was able to better replicate the design.

Colour was one of the key concerns as the earlier leather version had either faded or been constructed from a more reddish/cordovan base tone. The white had become a dull ivory, though the red and orange ornament balls were still candy-bright. I ended up mixing a variety of browns together to get a darker, walnut flavour and layered too many coats of white acrylic & sealer to get a more pristine finish.

One of the special accents I added was to better define the green leaves on the harness. The previous incarnation was a little more relaxed and they may have been soft, festive green accents instead. I tooled distinctive holly and ivy leaves instead, gave them a forest-green base, and finished them off with a mint green drybrush that really helped their pop.

The detail I'm remiss to say didn't show up in any of the pictures or NBC's coverage of the parade was the special sparkle I used to highlight the white parts - a glitter sealer that gave just the right amount of sparkle to Santa's new belt shimmered without being too garish or flashy. It shows up best from about five feet away in good lighting, but is harder to capture on camera.