DREAM EVIL DESIGNS
Chicago
Dream Evil Designs began back in the early '80s, as Martin Basurto was an oil painter and wood engraver. One day while at a show in New Mexico, a local guy came over to Martin's booth and liked his work. He asked if Martin had ever worked with leather before. Not having the experience of the trade, Martin was intrigued by what the Native American man had to say. After an all-day talk with the ol' guy, Martin was hooked and going to take him up on his offer to teach Martin the old-school way of tooling leather. He soon found out not only did he like it, but that he was good at it. With this new skill, Martin found other work in leather such as engraving, painting, leather treatment, and some taxidermy. It was not long before he was making seats and saddlebags with logos and designs. Years later he moved to Chicago in search of more bikers and choppers. After hours and hours of hard work looking for a better way to work with leather, Martin came up with a few innovations that were unique and original. These techniques are what Martin likes to call "Scorpion" or "Rattlesnake" lacing. He also likes to smoke-dye (specially selected powder dyes) the leather in wine colors, which give an antique, worn-out leather look. This is followed up by adding tons of lacing surrounding the edges with an Indian touch, adding spikes and skulls or all kind of weird accessories that make the seat unique.
One of the things that Martin...
One of the things that Martin loves to do is add all kinds of custom touches to his work, like adding this hand cut bone insert to the seat nose.
Here Martin wanted to show...
Here Martin wanted to show three different styles of stitching, the top pattern is a double crisscross, the mid-stitch is what he calls the Scorpion, and the edge is a third side loop lace.