Maureen

They are painted with Kova paints (acrylic paint diluted for leather work). You can also do what we call double dye where you do the first color saturation dyed with a wool dauber. When that is dry you can then lightly block dye a second (darker) color on top so that the under dye shows in the deep places and the block dyed color is on the surfaces. The red/burgundy star collar and the teal/black belt were done this way. Most of the others are block dyed over the plain leather... I believe these were ordered as buckle collars rather than martingales.

Cute design!

I picked up a stylus from Amazon.com and I use that for people to sign with. Before I had my first show this season I contacted them and asked for my limit to be raised and they deposited the entire $1275 from the weekend in without holding any. When I first used it last October I did have some money held but it's reasonable that you have to prove yourself with them first. If you don't want to get a smart phone the iPod Touch works as long as you have wifi access. There is no monthly fees on an iPod Touch but they will cost you about $250 to get one. You can use it for many more things than just Square though. Some of the apps in the app store are fantastic.

Hi guys we're new to the forum but not new to the business. I appreciate the replies I've had on my other posts elsewhere so I thought I'd post this to maybe help someone else out. It's a pretty undisputed fact that accepting credit cards will increase your sales if you are at a craft fair or other venue where people are browsing around and maybe impulse shopping. It's usually been a pain in the rear to get a merchant account and process cards for a small time seller though. There is a new player in town called Square. They are a credit card processor whose goal is to get everyone able to accept credit cards - even Joe-Schmoe at his garage sale. You do need a smart phone (iPhone or Android) or an iPod touch or iPad and internet access in order to use their service. The very best thing about it though is that it is FREE to sign up, their device is FREE and there are NO monthly charges. The only charge is a 2.75% fee on each swipe. Receipts get emailed or text messaged to the customer and include your location and a picture of their purchase if you choose to take one. I have a traditional merchant account and a wireless swiper. I have to pay $14/month for wireless access + $10/month minimum fees + $185/year for PCI compliance fees as well as the percentages (which are less than 2.75% but not by a whole lot). I have started transitioning to Square and eventually will drop my other account. One great thing about Square is that now I can accept American Express which I never could before. I don't get anything by telling y'all this. I'm just tickled with the service and want to share. My customers think it is cool to sign on my phone. This is their website for more information

hmmm, my browser is warning me that the Wickett and Craig website is infecting peoples computers....

We used to get the Nature Tanned leather from Tandy. They no longer make it and our supply at home is just about finished. We use it to stamp and then block dye and like the mellow yellowy tone that shows through at the base of the stamps. Does anyone else have a yellowy/golden tone leather that is toolable and dyeable? I was going to try Siegal since I'd seen something like that before in their sale ads but that seems like it's no longer an option. thanks, Maureen and Sean LongDog Leather Works

I've just bought a bunch of Angelus dyes and Fiebings dyes. I got the neutral dye to thin the Angelus with. I got some Fiebings solvent for the Fiebings spirit dyes. I also got a gallon of denatured alcohol. But what do you thin the Fiebings oil dyes with?

We got an order a while back for three personalized collars for some very large dogs. Off the top of my head I think the measurements were in the 24-28 inch range! Here they are worn like belts on my son Maureen www.longdogleather.com

we are about to use some scrap stingray hides to make cuff bracelets. I got some aluminum cuff blanks to use. What would be the best glue to permanently attach the leather to the metal? Would an pseudo-epoxy like E6000 be better than contact cement?

a martingale is also called a limited slip collar. Because sight hounds have smaller heads than necks they can just back right out of a buckle collar. A martingale tightens up when the leash is pulled so that they cannot slip out of their collar and take off. The main collar body is closed off with a smaller loop where the leash hooks. This loop will tighten up to a certain point only (when the ends of the main collar touch) so that it is safer than a choke chain which can tighten past the point where the animal can suffocate. Martingale collars are becoming popular with other breeds of dogs too as the extra control gained with the tightening up helps with any dog. This is our retired racing greyhound, Mr. Murphy modelling his stingray martingale.

we're new to the board so I thought I'd throw up a few pictures of our specialty - martingale dog collars. We cater to retired racing greyhounds who need the martingale style collars as they can back out of buckle collars. We make them adjustable in size by using a buckle closed control loop to connect the main body of the collar. But we have made all sizes of collars for all types of dogs and sent them all around the world. This is a custom stamp I had made from a drawing. We use a 5 ton press (not pneumatic, hand operated with a lever) to cut out the tapered shape and then to impress the stamps. We block dye most of our stamped collars because we can't get the antiquing or staining down good enough. We line everything (even the rivet backs) with deer tanned cowhide and I sew them with my Pfaff 1524. All the stress points are rivetted so I'm only sewing on the lining - nothing critical to holding a dog safe. here are a few other stamped style collars - yes, we use Tandy belt blanks to turn into collars at times We also use factory dyed leather with conchos rather than tooling. We love the bullhide from Hide House. This is our setup at events. We both have full time jobs and do this out of our basement on weekends. It's been fun these last few years. Maureen and Sean www.longdogleather.com

Hi all this is my first post and I'm sure glad I found this forum. My husband Sean and I have an in-home business (on top of our full time "day jobs") where we make leather dog collars, primarily martingales. Our primary target audience is the retired racing greyhound community as we are both involved somewhat with our local adoption group. We actually started the business as a way to donate goods and money to the greyhound community. We have made and sold collars for all types and sizes of dogs and sent them all over the world though as we do a fair amount of internet business. Our favorite thing though is the greyhound reunion events where we go to set up as a vendor. It's been a great way to travel and visit with lots of people. Our website is www.longdogleather.com if anyone has any comments or critiques I have some questions but I'll post them else-where. Maureen and Sean