Hoyden

I make custom leather dog collars and leashes. I buy the majority of my hardware from Weaver Leather. But you need a tax id to set up a wholesale account.

http://www.cutting-mat.com/proddetail.asp?prod=151 This page has custom grids, maybe you can get the smaller increments. I'm going to ask on my embroidery forum to see if the ladies have any leads on mats with smaller grid measurements. I've seen them and the lines are different colors Red for inches blue for quarters and green for halfs

Don't know what a frisk mat is but I use a mat I got at Joann Fabrics for cutting fabric for my leather. GO TO THE QUILTING ISLE! They have better mats and some have smaller increment measures on them. This is one that I like for small projects http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp?CAT...;PRODID=prd2774

There is a gentleman who does awesome work up on the Cape named Lee Amirault. I know him from the Connecticut Renaissance Faire. Unfortunately, I don't have his contact info, but I can get it for you in a day or two. In New York, I personally know Larry and Leenie of Lusty Leather. www.lustyleather.com. They do fabulous work.

Stunning. Just stunning. Are you sure the crazy rennies and larpers in New England can't lure you here?

Absolutely Awesome. I just took my kids to your deviant art gallery and my youngest one is now jonesing over the dragon armor.

Wow! That's all I can say. The second piece is absolutely stunning.

Thanks Johanna I PMed him

Mark, Where in CT are you located? I'll be coming up your way this Friday on my way up to Hebron. Possible I could stop and have a look?

I have an Artisan 618-1SC and love it. I call him Millstone. I use it for sewing dog collars, harnesses and whatever other crazy idea that pops into my head. My only complaint is my dumb male dog that likes to put his nose on the belt and scare the bejesus out of me. So I throw him out of the room when I turn it on.

I just picked up the Celtic book from Tandy and I'm having a blast with it. I digitized some of the designs to embroider on garment leather. I ordered the others from Borders for much less than the Tandy price.

ClayB - Your wife rocks. I used to scrap book and many of the mentioned tools sitting in tupper containers down stairs. I think they may be getting a new life. It's good to be a pack rat!! ~ Noel

Thanks Art. I have the sole bends leather and a band saw to cut it with. What I need are the rubber soles that you glue on.

I've been looking for the soles to make boots with. I saw the one in OTB, but they're not what I am looking for. I've started with my five year old because I'd rather screw up with less leather than more. I've made a pattern of her foot and leg with duct tape and made all the pattern pieces. Before I get past the point of too damn stubborn to stop, I'd like to find the soles. I'm looking for blanks that can be cut down

They're pretty close, but I prefer Tandy because I can go into the store. I also like that Tandy supports the kids in our communities and has a boot at our Ren Faire. On our school day at the Faire, they do demonstrations for the kids. I've been in when he's having a class and helped him out with the class while my kids help customers find stuff and ended up with a free tool or two or a piece of leather for the help.

Interesting link. At the ren faire, our town is called Caerleon, so I had to go have a look. Don't have any info on the saddle for you though.

Can you post a picture for me. I was hunting for a thick comfortable elastic to use in my ren skirts since i detest draw strings and came across a very wide super comfortable elastic at a hole in the wall sewing shop.

Okay - we're arguing about this. I made a hard leather bodice for myself and I plan on shaping it to my figure by putting the bodice on over a tank top and jumping into the shower, then having my husband and daughters help shape it by drying the shaded areas with a heat gun. So I think that the dying and tooling should come before the shaping. My husband says that I should shape it, then dye it. My concern is that the wetting shaping and drying will close the pores and the leather won't accept the dye. I don't want to paint it, but dye it. So which one is the right way???

I use one of those wire fox tail brushes for cleanning rust off of metal to rough up leather.

I am still sew today because someone took less than an hour to answer my questions and gave me some guidance when I was ready to literally throw the sewing machine out the window. I have been fortunate that I have several people who work with leather that will answer my questions, critique my work and give me guidance. Joanna - "Each one, teach one" is something that I believe in. A friend who is a phenominal artist said this, and I've printed it out a few times, make it pretty in photoshop, written it out in Calligraphy and decorated it with celtic work, and look back at it frequently. I've shared it with quite a few people and in turn they have shared it with others. I believe that no matter how outlandish everyone tells you your dreams are, they are possible. Visualize with crystalline clarity what you want. Write it down. Look for opportunities everywhere. Evict naysayers from your life. Learn, without jealousy, from people who are leading the type of life you want. Teach freely the things you’ve learned to others. Give no voice to the negative. Expect abundance. ~ Marrus

I've been lucky so far and have had several leather workers and seamstresses who have been more than willing to answer questions and teach me. I bring finished projects to them to critique and they tell me what is good and what needs improvement. In turn, I've taught several friends how to sew and I've started teaching a couple folks from the faire the basics of leather working. Much of what I know, I learned from my Irish great-grandfather when I was little. He talked as he worked, so when I started leather working, I drew from those memories.

OMG - please move to New England. The Ren Faires and Larps need you. On that note, how did you construct that beak? I wish you lived closer. I'd be more than happy to sew away or dye just to learn how you shape leather. I have to make a mask for a song bird fey and I just can't figure out how to get the beak the way I want it.

I'm placing an order on wednesday or thursday that is Well over the minimum. Will PM you.

I do get requests for people collars, but I send them to my friends Larry and Leeny at Lusty Leather. If someone wants one of my designs on a collar, I just send the artwork or pattern over to them and they take care of it. I'm too busy with dogs. I buy most of my webbing from www.strapworks.com. For colors that I use ALOT of, like black, red and blue, I buy it in the big rolls from Weaver Leather. Don't worry, my pit bull wears Miki Moto pearls, faux fur and a leopard print dog jacket. :biggrin:

I have NO idea who Buitton or Loewe are. Honestly. I got an embroidery machine so I could embroider on webbing for my dog collars, and I got a piece of software called Embird so that I could create my own designs. The daffodils and the Welsh dragon are embroidery designs that I bought. The music notes and the hawk mascot, I just created. Like photoshop, you can design your graphic in embird, except that you assign a stitch pattern to each graphic you create. The letter are made with a plug-in to Embird called Font engine. Any true type font you have in your computer can be digitized or created into an embroidery pattern. I took classic painting classes when I lived in Italy. (My dad STILL complains that he spent $10,000 on painting and art lessons over four years time and I don't do it for a living.) I learned how to visually put images, colors and textures together, everything else from my landscaping, to graphic art for magazine and newspaper ads that I do at work, to sewing, leather crafting and an odd bit of painting all have evolved from those lessons. Although seeing the Buckskinner work has some ideas banging around in my head that I am going to have a go at digitizing and embroidering onto garmet weight leather and adhering that to leather straps to make a dog collar. Here is what I do on webbing dog collars,