LGBTQAI+ Business

We are a NGLCC-LGBT Certified business! Sue is a proud gender-fluid member of the community, and ALL of our employees are LGBT as well!

Humble Beginnings

Ever since I got into LARPing, I have been an avid artisan, creating various leatherwork pieces. Most of my designs are inspired by the wonderful LARPing stories that are told, as well as some pop-culture influences.

  • Locally Made

    All of my leatherwork is made right
    here in the US (Chicagoland area) from high quality leathers with each
    piece being hand crafted. Also, thanks to a talented seamstress, we now
    have all of our products professionally sewn up. No more tossing sewing
    machines out windows!

  • Original Creations

    Oh, the reason I call myself
    DaSueDragon 'Designs' is because I don't just make leather or fleece
    hats, I 'design' everything myself. Patterns, layouts, engineering feats
    unknown to man with leather until now....it's all part of the job!

  • Where to Find Us

    Besides Etsy, you can catch the
    Dragon roaming around the Midwest at various conventions such as MFF,
    Anime Midwest, and other popular pop-culture-themed cons. In addition,
    Saar, the Dragon God of Potatoes, can be found at various LARP events
    with all leather wears for sale

Meet the Team

  • Sue - OWNER

    I am the shop owner and lead leathersmith. Passionate about my leatherwork, I strive to create innovative designs never before seen!

  • Derek - HUSBAND

    I am the loving husband who is dedicated to ensuring the financial success of the business. I help support the shipping department and the business cannot succeed without my intimate accounting knowledge.

  • Lacey

    I am a leathersmith and seamstress. I help produce many of the leather items and I am the lead coloring expert.

  • Jos

    I am the lead photographer, videographer and social media manager. I'm responsible for all of those amazing TikTok and Instagram videos featuring my cats and my lizards!

  • Dawn

    I am the lead seamstress. I sew up all of the leather bags and also help with raw material preparation.

  • Jessica

    I am the best friend who always has everybody's back! I helped organize and get the business off the ground, supporting the traveling sales team as well as producing the dragon eyes seen in our products.

SHOP ORIGINS

  • My business started when I was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in my left foot (aka. Cancer). This caused me to lose my job as a computer programmer (yes of all things) and forced me to start looking for more work. Unable to find work right away, I realized I needed to go back to school, but that wasn't going to bring me any money. In fact, that was going to do the opposite.

Instead, I decided to take a grand leap and try to figure out my "thing". I grew up being taught woodworking by two master builders, hand stitching by both my mother and Nana, painting, drawing, carving, origami, you name it! But I had never settled on one particular craft. Then it hit me........What takes and combines all of those skills in order to make artwork? LEATHERWORK!

  • Having never tried it before, I dove right in with my first project: Link's Cap. It was treacherous, but I was able to work through all of the ups and downs to finally put the piece
    together. From there I needed to think big: become a business and sell sell sell!!!

So I came up with a couple of ideas and designs of my own and grew my shop from there. I started with selling my fleece hat designs, which had been successful with my friends in the past, and eventually moved towards leather designs. My first, and most successful design, as thus far been the trademarked "Snakelets" that I sell.

  • With a shop came a workshop. My workshop is called "The Magic Kingdom." The workshop is named after my Pops' old woodworking shop, to which he spent 20+ years of his retirements working on the most beautiful woodworking pieces and teaching me everything he knows. His collection of tools and equipment was vast and unending, to which now has become my goal to be able to fill a 2500 sq ft basement, like he did, one day. Until that time, I have utilized what I could, acquired the best tools and equipment for my art, and improvised innovative solutions to keep on the path that is continuous improvement to my art.

    I never gave up, kept moving forward, overcame the cancer, and eventually grew my business to what it is today.