Joined in late but I want to input a few items of interest, to me anyway, about making your work "stand apart" from all others like it. I got back into leatherwork after 67 or so years of life "sabbatical", and I quickly noted that so many different styles of patterns and projects had more of a generic look to them than original. As I watched videos of projects and saw all manners of different manipulations on one standard or another, I found some very subtle new ideas for changing the looks of something to reflect one's personality and personal style leanings. So I went back to my leather "roots" and began again to study the works of guys like Bruce Grant and other leather braiders who made the most gorgeous dressy looking braided items and dress knots for different horse gear and attachments. Much of Grant's work came from living in Mexico and So. America, among the Mexican vaqueros and the Argentine Gauchos, the original American "cowboys" whose life depended on knowing how to make and repair horse gear for their daily ranch duties. From the intricate braiding done by these early animal herders, I began thinking about how to make inlays in my leather work and also do filigree types of decorative piercings in leather backed up with contrasting cloth and leather lining materials and one thing led to another and I am now doing a few of my own designs to add to my inventory of knowledge. The pattern work behind the appearances of braided leather and rawhide seemed to draw my interest from earlier years and I played around with both free-flowing designs and also geometrical shapes and designs. I cannot claim to be the 1st to do any of this type of work but I am slowly developing my own styles to keep within my ideas for making my "mark" on my work which is my own takeoff of a standard type of design or style. My point to this message is to encourage new leather working students and those more experienced to open up their lines of thinking and step outside the box and explore other uses for things, designs, and thoughts, which, on the surface, have little to do with the art and craft of working with leather. You never know, until you try, if an idea of yours will interest someone else, who is free thinking and looking for something out of the ordinary. I follow a fellow leather worker on RU-vid who took the basic idea of a simple bottle opener and designed one which has taken off so quickly that he decided to get it patented to protect his design!! He still has a full-time job working with leather in his small shop but he now has a small line of basic things such as key rings with leather tabs on them, and simple cord keepers for rechargeable phones computer cords and other items. Simple items but each sale is one of profit for his own designs! I hope someone reading this message will be the next new entrepreneur to emerge with some new idea for making something from the sheets of animal covers we call "skins and hides"!! Good luck to all.
I’m a guitar player and we like tube amplifiers which are “warmer” sounding than the sterile consistency of transistor amps. The slight inconsistencies of the tubes generally sounds better. Same goes for handmade leatherwork
Hi Phil, I just started your beginners class but I just did a minimalist wallet and when I came to the corner I had trouble on how to do the stitching because I was using the French style stitching irons.
Hi Joe. Corner stitching is a little more advanced, so I include a video on how you can do this in the Masterclass. It's called 'Details Make Perfection: Corner Stitching' This will provide you with what you need to know for flawless corners.
