06/09/2026
SOAPBOX POST: Here's a pic of some of my breechcloth orders for this summer.
If you, as an adult leader or parent, have any influence on these young Tribesmen building their attire, please steer them away from buying a black breechcloth. Black is a very difficult color to paint over in the 1st place.. think of trying to paint over a black wall in your house. And for the most part, the leather is poor quality that has been dyed black to hide all the imperfections. Often this inferior leather is like painting a bath towel & just soaks up the paint. So the combination of covering up black & poor leather, requires multiple coats of paint to make the artwork look good. All those coats take a lot of time & paint... essentially, I'm painting the same design 3, maybe 4, or even more times. And therefore, I charge more to paint black breechcloths.
Now, all that being said, some designs look really cool on black- they just pop & I love the end-result. But more often than not, I'm handed a black breechcloth & asked to paint a design that doesn't need to be on black... like a sunny scene with mountains & a bright blue sky. Or ones that just don't make sense- "here's my black breechcloth, can you paint a black bear in a dark cave at midnight for me?"... oh, so you just want eyeballs?!?!
If Parry Lodge only has black in stock, hold off on buying everything at camp. Back here in the metro, you can buy sheets of leather at Tandy, or Three Trails Trading Post has a variety of options from whole sheets of leather to make your own, to fully cut/sewn breechcloths ready to go... all in a variety of colors.
If you're unsure if your design is one of those that would go well on black, feel free to reach out to me ahead of time & get my opinion. And even if you want a nighttime scene, it can easily be done on tan with stars & a moon in the sky & totally look good! But for the most part, leave the black leather on the shelf!
Thanks for listening to the rant.
