Our friend Ramona asked if we ever made dog tags. She got a brand new puppy, and had purchased a metal tag at one of the big pet supply stores. When she got home, she took the plastic film off, and found that all her nicely engraved information went with it! Yep, they had etched the covering of the tag (which should have been removed) and not into the metal of the tag.

Etching Goshe’s purchased anodized metal tag was quick and easy, but it got us thinking about other possibilities for laser cut pet tags. Ramona liked the shape of the Moroccan-style cross stitch pendant, so we used this as a base to make Goshe a bamboo tag.

This is the first version of the tag, without the reinforced hole. Address smudged for privacy.

Goshe is a very rambunctious Belgian Malinois puppy, and sadly, the first version did not last. This was not unexpected; the metal hook wore on the bamboo where the tag was attached and it broke.

I had both grommets and eyelets on hand, and we made two different versions of a new tag for Goshe to accommodate the different hardware.  My grommets have a nice 6mm hole, and the eyelets only about 3mm.  Grommets and eyelets serve much the same purpose – they reinforce holes that allow materials to pass through.  Grommets are 2 parts, and traditionally are for heavier or high use materials (think tarps, leather, etc.)  Eyelets are generally on more delicate things, like shoes or corsets, and are one piece of metal.

You can see the grommet doesn’t even clear the material hole on the left tag. The eyelet is on the right.

While we planned perfectly for the diameter of the tubes that needed to go into the holes, I failed to measure the depth.  The grommets were not thick enough, and did not pass through the other side of the tag.  The eyelets did, but only because I had special extra long bookbinding eyelets, designed for use on book covers.  And, of course, the 3mm hole size is just a tiny bit too small to easily fit on a standard dog collar S-hook.

Goshe modeling her new and improved tag with metal eyelet.  Goshe means “dog” in Apache, and is pronounced “Go-shay”

So, while I don’t have the parts suitable for the dog tag project, they do exist.  Both corset makers and knife and holster makers use nice and long eyelets, with a large hole.

Cats, though, are much less rough on their tags and usually their collar attachment points are more delicate, perfect for the 3mm hole.   Three lucky cats get to test out these tags, made in both acrylic and bamboo.  We’ll let you know how they go!

Three lucky cats will be wearing these around town!