Bob Blea

Hi CountryStyle, If you have a drawing compass in the house (say the kids old school supplies) you could replace the pencil part of it with a nail or something similar and use it the same way. I have a metal divider I got at Harbor Freight that I often use to scribe border lines. Bob

I still think your work is outstanding! I do like that border. I may have to try something like that on one of my upcomming notebooks. Bob

HI Jesse, I was just looking for this earlier because of a staining problem I have on some leather. I think this is what you are looking for: http://leatherworker...=1 I don't have a suggestion on your finish question though. Maybe someone else can help on that. Bob

I've never used Saddle Lac, but Resolene, which Tandy does sell, is an acrylic sealant. If you put a couple of coats on it will make your leather glossy. I would expect the SuperShene would make it pretty glossy too.

Cool idea. In my mind, the hard parts would be the fork, horn and the cantle. I don't think you would need a complete saddle tree to build the leather onto. Maybe you could carve the fork and horn out of a light weight wood (like balsa) and use it as a form for the leather. Same for the cantle? Just thoughts, but you've got me thinking about how I would try to do it. Bob

Your work looks fantastic!!! Bob

I really like your carving. Bison's right, your work is inspiring. Bob

Welcome to your new addiction. You are going great (and are very productive) for just starting out. Keep at it and keep posting pictures! Bob

That looks great!

He certainly is a character. It's no wonder there are so many stories! Glad to hear he's OK. I have some tools on order from him! Bob

This is great. I love the history behind it too.

Really nice. I especially like the second one. Bob

The only other source for modeling spoons I can think of off the top of my head is Robert Beard, but there are probably others (on this site even) that make them. Just can't think of any now. As for restoring your grips, if the tools are thick enough you could get the rubber pen or pencil grips they sell at office supply stores and slide those over the barrel of the spoon, giving them a softer grip. Also, you could wrap them in electrical tape until you get the thickness you want. Of, if the rubber grips are too big for the spoons, do a combination and wrap them with the tape until they are thick enough to securely grip the rubber pen grip. Hope this helps, Bob

I'm pretty sure this isn't true, at least I hope not. I saw on his facebook page that we was at Standing Bears Trading Port last week (or maybe the week before) teaching classes all week. Bob

That looks really good. Your coworker will be very proud to own that. Bob

You did a good job. I like the contrast of the tooled sections to the black leather of the purse body. It makes everything stand out nicely. Bob

Biggundoctor, I agree with you completely. I know I need to improve my salesmanship and learn how to market. I'm getting the leather skills down, now I need to learn these things to sell my works. Being able to tell people about the quality and why it's important is probably my biggest hurdle to overcome right now. Bob

So I have been watching this discussion for the past few days with a lot on interest. I've been looking at Etsy and pricing of my own work, and been thinking about pricing and marketing. There have been some similar discussions on other forums. I certainly see the logic for pricing $20 per hour (or more) for your shop rate, or maybe charging so much an inch for a tooled belt. However, as much as we feel we should charge a certain rate for out skills we still are constrained by the market we sell into. From what I have seen on Etsy, it just isn't the kind of marketplace that will have customers willing to pay $200 or more for a Bible cover. My most common product are fairly small notebooks that hold 5x8 notepads. I'm certainly no master, but I think my carving is pretty good and I believe I make a good quality product, but if I was to use the $20 labor rate the cost, just in labor, would be over $200.00. That doesn't include overhead or a 2x markup for retail that really should be in the price. From the research I have done, Etsy is NOT the marketplace that would support a hand carved leather item at these sorts of prices regardless of the quality. Now, I am not good at sales or marketing, so if I was maybe I could write an item description that would get a buyer to purchase a $200 notebook on Etsy, but from what I can tell, Etsy just doesn't attract many of that sort of customer. I think it is certainly possible to get those sort of prices for a well made item, and it's clear that very talented and experienced artists like Bob Park do just that. The difference here is that they have developed a different market, one that appreciates fine handcrafted (and usually customer made) leather items. Also, I think at that level, there is a certain name recognition or word of mouth that exists in their market that allows them to charge what they do. They have marketed themselves to a completely different market segment than the folks on Etsy, and they have sold themselves in that market successfully. That is what allows them to sell at the prices they do. And I think Biggundoctor has a valid point that what happens in the Etsy market doesn't have much effect of the market for a Bob Park or a Jim Jackson. And I really believe that what those masters do in their market segment doesn't effect Etsy one bit. What really ends up determining what we can charge for our work is how we sell ourselves into our particular market. To move our prices up, we usually have to move up to a better market. Just my two cents worth.

That is really nice work. I like the black backgrounding and black areas outside the tooling. It's a lot different than most Bible covers. Bob

I've taken short leather courses, but I also have some experience with technical training with my day job. I recommend sticking with a very specific subject for the class, say carving or finishing, and go into really good detail on it. As DoublebarP and Jazznow said, having hands on experience and repetition are great for real learning and retention. Where I have found things not going so well is not keeping the class on track, and not finishing the project. It's not hard for the class to go off on tangents and you've got to gently redirect them back on track. I think having the small size helps because it's easier to get them back on track and keep the class together, but even then people work at different paces and need help in different areas. Bob

I might have to switch to using shelf paper. It would be a lot quicker than taping multiple strips of tape across a project. Also, I just remembered a tip I got from Hidepounder: If you draw you pattern on paper you can line the back of the paper with white shelf paper and you can then transfer from the drawing to the leather without moisture ruining you original artwork. I've tried it and it works. Bob

Thanks Pete, that edge dye applicator idea is great. Those are all good ideas. Might need to make one of those bevelers too. Bob

Hi Clint, As I understand it the slicker is intended to compress the grain side fibers in the leather and make the surface more uniform. That should make carving easier because the grain surface is more consistent. Also, I was once told that it helps the durability of the surface of your final product. Supposedly it made the grain surface more resistant to wear. Don't know if that's true or not. I use packing tape for every project I do. I first case the leather by briefly soaking it and letting it sit in a bag overnight, and then let it return to near normal color. Then I apply the tape to the flesh side and slick the grain side. Slicking at this point also helps the tape backing to stick. I'm surprised you can get the tape to stick if you are soaking your leather with the tape on. My tape won't grip the leather if it is still wet. Bob

I think your carving is outstanding! Bob

So tonight I was looking at pictures of a Jeremiah Watt saddle that uses almost this same stamp to cover most of the seat leather and the swell cover. He used a border stamp to cover the edges, and it didn't look bad at all. It's making me reconsider using a border stamp to cover the little imperfections and misalignments that I'm getting near the edges. I'm thinking that maybe the right border stamp is the right solution to this problem. Bob