I've been wanting to make a Cutler Briefcase for awhile but using the Lancette style handle instead because I like how it looks, and have been trying to think of a handle attachment shape that isn't the same as most people are doing. I like how Phil used the wing design in the De Havilland course, and Olena had recently made a similarly styled briefcase where she used the shape of the Chrysler building in New York and folded it in half for the handle attachments but obviously I don't want to rip anyone off. I was talking to a friend of mine last week who is also an audio engineer, and was saying how I always wanted to get an old phonograph wax cylinder recorder or an old wire recorder or something just to try out and see how it sounded in a more modern context but they're a bit expensive to potentially use once or twice so I couldn't ever really justify the cost. Just for fun though I went on eBay to see how much they were and kept seeing a bunch of listings for Webster Chicago wire recorders which had a really cool looking microphone. I was on the Tannery Row website awhile ago who is the retail side for Horween among other tanneries, and there's a hatch grained combination tanned leather called Pioneer Reindeer which has a nice cool gray color that they're calling Chicago Blue, I'm guessing because it's a cool gray and not the normal brownish or greenish grays that most other tanneries sell (which I just really don't like and find it offensive that it's called gray). So I thought maybe it would be fun to do a Chicago themed briefcase and when I saw the microphone it hit me that I could use that design as the handle attachment and kinda combine everything into something that was more personal to me and not just copy someone else's design. I found a listing for just the microphone and bought it, it showed up a couple days ago and I made a pattern and then a prototype using stuff I had in the appropriate thicknesses just to see how to put it all together to make it work how I imagined it, so here's a picture of that next to the actual microphone:
The colors aren't what the final version will be like, and the D ring was the only thing I had in the right width and for the actual build I'll be using a nickel-plated rectangle ring. My thought was to incorporate the colors of the Chicago flag, which looks like this:
I still haven't decided what color combinations to use where, the red stitching in the prototype was the only color I already had in 432 that wasn't black, so it'll either be that or the light blue. I actually found some 1/2" red 6 pointed star conchos that I'm on the fence about using in place of the Chicago screws like on the De Havilland, I don't know if that's just too over the top and cheesy or not. I'm going to order some just to see what they actually look like in person. I live in the suburbs of Chicago and was born at a hospital in the city so that's why this is all relevant, it's not like I live in the middle of nowhere and just decided for no reason to do it this way.
That's a very cool design! To be honest, I wouldn't know what that represents but, in my opinion, it doesn't matter as you have your reasons to do it.
By reading your post I got the feeling that you'd like some opinion (forgive me if that wasn't the intention!). While very difficult to opinate in such a personal project, if I were the one doing it, I'd tend to the more subtle references if you already have something that's unique looking like the chape. Not because it would look not cool but because over time I find things that were once novelty, with it's details and freshness, can feel a bit much. Think using a full print of the USA flag on a bag versus a few references in colour and/or patterns.
But that's my opinion, go with your guts!
I really like that attachment. I was wontering how you would intergrate the shape of a mic, but yours turned out great! I'm looking forward to seeing the completed project.