JLSleather

Okay, call me crazy lazy ... I was doing some fishing scenes, and had some blue left in the jar .... pictures tomorrow when they're dry. Got a little behind tonight when my old buddy showed up with the checkbook I made him about 8 years ago. Held up pretty well for spending that long under a 300 lb guy Oh, yeah ... the woodgrain is one of those pull the trigger on the airbrush and close your eyes things. Taking the advice of another crafter on the site, I left the lid off the glue bottle, too. Back to key cases , here's another pattern in case someone is looking for one. Came in some stuff off of Ebay, I bought some stuff, came with like 20 of these key case kits (what WAS I thinking, I hate these things. 3-4 were old n moldy, went in the trash - figgered I'd paint the rest ...

WVC.... It's easier to tell if we have a photo, but pro'lly the #1 reason for marks in the background is leather still too wet.

Bob P.'s tutorial is about belts, but works just as well on other items and covers the issue pretty well. For a 4oz wallet, I'd go with a #1 or #2 edger.

Morning, Pete ... If you're talking about a "billfold" wallet, I generally cut the "guts" 1/4" shorter than the wallet back. Looks pretty to lay it out flat, but causes the insides to "bunch" when closed. The shorter inside cures most of this. Glue the sides first, then work the middle down. This will keep your edges lined up, and the wallet back will "come around" to suit. Personally, I like a 1 1/2-2 oz goat lining. Very thin, yet still strong. I know lots o folks use pig, 'cause it's generally a little cheaper. Also find pig in most of the kits I've seen. But pig is very stretchy, meaning it's not very good at holding it's shape. Someone will say it's inside a wallet, so it's under compression,not tension, thus it's "justified". I disagree, and here's the short version of the pros n cons ... Pig ...................... ............. Calf or goat cheaper ...................... it's only about 1 1/2 feet, so from $1.50/ft to $3/ft means you spend $2.50 to go from "ewwww" to "sweet" cheaper ...................... nice crisp lacing slits, versus the pigskin actually compressing into the slits, making the lace look less professional cheaper ..................... .... smooth, soft, luxurious (even the "pebble grain" calf is nice) and still sturdy enough to hold it's shape There are others, but clearly the bald guy recommendation is lightweight calf or goat. I try to color match the lining. Saddle stitching (which I love the look and feel of) makes me dislike the pig even more. Eat the pork chop, and save the pig for glued-in linings where it's backed with something sturdier. Somewhere around here, there are some wallets in my posts. If you can't easily find them, there's a thousand more done by others ... Just saw at the bottom of one page, one girl recommends these folks.

Black lace, dk brown lace, medium brown lace, tan lace, ... phew. Last one. Now, on to the saddle stitching...

Thanks much, Hilly! I asked on the board a while back what kind of flower that was on my craftaid, and the consensus was lily. So I googled "lily pic" and got like the first 25 of 25 million or something like that (translation, paint it any color you want). Course, there was included alot of pics of some scant-clad girlie named Lilly, which distracted me and threw me off for a week or so ...

Here's ALMOST all the others I did yesterday. If you fellas are about tired of seeing them, you can guess how tired I am of lacing them Only one left to go ...

OOpss... sorry ... that musta been the same time you were setting up the new website (my sincerity exceeds my memory ). I generally do some carving for a while, then do some painting for a while, then some assembly. It IS more efficient, I just don't find "double cordovan" that interesting, I guess. Seems like with a lot of people lacing = double loop.

Thanks, Troy. I remember the evil clown thing you did recently, and I love the lacing you did on that. Keep thinking I want to learn some more of that type of stuff. Then I lace 6-8 wallets in a day and that idea goes away for a while

I got one of their 4/5 oz double shoulders a couple of weeks ago, wasn't too bad. Supposedly their "B" grade, but came out in a flyer so I got one. Tools pretty well and dyes evenly. Under $5/ft and good color. Depending on how many projects your going to make, should be big enough (you can ask, and they'll send you one closer to 9 feet or closer to 14 feet). I got it for a couple of small handbags, which I'm going to line with a 2 1/2 oz fairly firm chrome tanned, so the 4/5 oz was plenty heavy enough. They said to expect "some range markings" but I didn't have any ... all good clean leather. Now that I've said something nice about Tandy, I'm gonna go brush my teeth again (ugghhh... those "kits").

Too kind .... these are the "factory seconds" actually, but I like the glue lid idea!

I've been at it pretty much all day. Maybe I should stop more often to catch them up so I don't need to do so many at a time, and end up basically sick of lacing. Anybody selling a "lacer" machine? Anyway, here's the first couple ... I'll get some pictures of the rest when the kids aren't asleep...

I use Ebay nearly every day, if only for a couple of minutes. Just getting some good deals from time to time. I paid $100 for 100 ft of really nice 2 1/2 oz calf. And then there's the occasional search for those old patterns I used to have before somebody decided they needed them worse than I did. Which is fine, long as I don't ever buy a "vintage" craftaid that shows up with my initials on it But, I couldn't help the other day ... still choking ... One guy appears to be doing well enough ... selling $20-30 items that couldn't have cost more than $8-10 to make, and involving almost no labor. Looks pretty rough to me, but people are buying it, so I guess that's the interest. Not for me, but sometimes I'm almost in awe what people will spend their money on.

That'll be sweet, I think. Maybe need to figger a way to tool the flower centers. Too many times I see folks tooling flowers all "laid back" like this, then they bash a big seeder that was intended to be viewed straight down, throws the whole carving out, makes an otherwise perfectly good carving look unnatural.

Okay, not gonna happen. I don't have any white. Forgot, I don't use white Not a total loss, though .. in the scrounge I found enough red to do this ...

Yep, you won't be alone . Hundreds of dollars on a web site proclaiming from the rooftops "one of a kind item", then we go buy a craftaid .. There's a couple in this post you could just as well use ...

Actually, Storm will tell you that a dogwood can have 4, 5 or 6 petals (and a bunch of other stuff I kaint pronounce ). He's got quite a discussion on it somewhere around here. But, in the end I'm going with this one ...

Kain't really say what the next fella will do. For me, ... I landed here on LW selfishly trying to find a pattern and save drawing one (re-inventing the wheel). I am my own worst critic (wife says I'll never be satisfied) and, while we all love to hear others' praise, in the end it's my opinion of my own work that counts. I never did find the pattern, but stayed for the company of other leather nuts (no offense, that's a compliment). There's some work around here that I personally think is VERY nice, and some not so much. Just my opinion. But I don't take someone else's idea without their permission, and if I did use something from another crafter I would have no problem stating -- to the site, to the customer, whoever -- that I got the idea (or style...) from [insert your name here]. If in my honest opinion the guy did it better than me, I would have no problem sending a note to ask that person if they want the order. What I originally thought was just common courtesy turns out to also be good business. Oh, I know wha t you mean about the posts ... sometimes I think it's a contest to see how quick we can disintegrate a topic ...

That's beautiful! Just an oil finish????

House won't warm that much ... now that's fun-NY ... Love the moose, though, AND the frame. I've never done a moose, and probably should. About the time I started, Stohlman did a "doodle page" with a moose and EVERYbody was doing them, so I didn't. Dare to be different .... which is not the same as slothful ... NICE art ...

Just stumbled across this old post by SouthPaw. Nice looking project, from a guy who wasn't on this site at the time. The colors are a bit bold for my taste, but who doesn't love that left-handed lacing (amazing nobody commented on it). New. Different. Nice.

Okay, somebody know what these flowers are? I want to use the natural color, and don't know what they are ...

Now that's realism ... when the bull is mad about that guy smakin' im in na head with a stamp ...