Ludivine Dulas is a true artist in the field of leather with which she creates magnificent aesthetic and personalized straps.
Ludivine Dulas is a self-taught artist who creates, among other things, custom leather guitar straps. She left at the age of 18 to live in Africa with the man who would become her husband, and has been back in Lodève for about fifteen years. She says: “I have always liked working with my hands but as a hobby. I made clothes, I worked with wood too. Professionally, I was in the literary world as a documentalist assistant for 7 years”.
This type of job being too precarious, after having two children and buying a house, she wonders about what comes next. After a garage sale, she made her first bags. She researches a lot, watches tutorials and learns. She created her company, Mimeya Créations, in 2016. “It means circle in Lakota Sioux, in reference to a part of my life where I wrote a futuristic novel that spoke about the Lakota Sioux. Braiding is one of my particularities, I really like to incorporate it into my creations”specifies the entrepreneur.
Custom straps
Then one day, a guitarist she knows well asks her to make him a comfortable and luxurious strap. “I took the plunge”says the artist. “I benefited from an Art Crafts Pass funded by the Region. I was able to buy raw materials and finance the work of a computer graphic designer to make a brochure for my guitar straps in particular”.
With the laser engraver purchased with this support, she offers the customer a customization with a logo for example, the name of a group, a quote, etc. Concerning her straps, the qualified craftsman explains: “I offer an atypical product in design since all my straps are lined but flexible, do not have a standard shape, are padded with wadding and are wide”. Ludivine Dulas adapts. On request, she also makes saxophone straps, double bass drum harnesses, accordion straps, all custom-made and customizable.
She tells a striking anecdote: “The longest strap I designed was 1.80m. It was for someone who wanted to play standing up and who had inherited his double bass from his father. It was a beautiful story. There is often emotion in the creation of straps since they will end up on stage or in any case accompany the musician, that’s also what I like.”
The designer focuses on comfort as much as aesthetics. She chooses the color, texture, lacing, braiding, engraving, etc. It follows an ethical and clean approach both in its choice of raw materials and in the design. She often incorporates dyed, varnished and hand-cut ribbons or laces which she then braids into the strap. “All my slices are treated with a fixative or tragacanth gum”she explains the quality finishing of the edges of her straps.
