bluesman1951

Hi Bob, Wow very nice !! I really like this a lot and I have only one small comment when rounding the cornors with your braid my opinion is perhaps a double pass would have been better in three holes instead of just two . Whats your opinion ? I would buy one of these in a heart beat . Got that wonderful old look to it . My compliments on a very fine project . Well done . Thanks for posting this ,I really enjoyed seeing it . I am impressed ! Bill

The love that went in to this shines so very bright ,imperfections will hardly be noticed . Well done ! I enjoyed seeing this . Thanks for this post ,you did a fine job here . There is a you tube video that explains the finish on this double loop braid ,I'll see if I can find that link for you . Bill

Scarey comes to mind here . I am seriously out of my element with this . However I'll comment to this extent : The lines are straight and even ,spots and rivets are uniform and straight ,spacing looks good every where symetrical . Looks like quality work ,just very different for me . I'll go now and leave this to be commented on by others more qualified . Thank you very much for showing us this work . Bill

This is very nice ,you have thought of every thing including keeping ones hands warm . My impression is it wiil give great service for many years . Well done ! Bill

Very nicely done . I would offer only one thing : on behalf of all large men with back pain if you were to increase the width of your belt loop attachment it distributes the weight of the bag and contents over over a larger area on the belt. This also contributes to preventing some of the sag in the bag . Making a gusset of two pieces has its own problems ,with centering the seam . A hard card board pattern and a flexable tailors tape aids greatly in finding the exact center . For this type of project Tandy makes a stitching pliars kind of thing for making sewing holes . Made in India . Its about 30.00 if you like it the awl will be retired except for use on thick leather . Might want to look into it . I know this has a specific purpose and use ,but to plant a seed this also makes a nice belt bag for ladies when doing shows . I like your bag looks very well done consider my imput as a old fool thinking out loud use it if it makes sense if not have a good laugh and get on with your day . All my best Bill

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM So you have been to seen the "Elephant" . I am wondering if a few of the things I mentioned came to pass? congradulations on learning about "compliments" they dont spend well at the local grocery store . Next to learn is the "Be Backers" LOL Welcome to the wonderful world of "Retail" This is why I do wholesale only . Glad you went thats a accomplishment for sure ,so big round of applause for that . If the show rules dont say you have to make all your own stuff ,I have a bunch of stuff that would work for you we should talk . If the rules prevent this ,Ill teach you to make a few bags and share a pattern or two . I have a bunch of stuff fondly called "Grand Ma Grabbers " LoL see if you can figure that out . I will deliver the last 200 bags on Monday ,got a order for another 750 bags so there should be a 50% deposit waiting for me . Get to spend money on monday I like that ! My son Mike got home to Brazil and my made in New Mexico Saddle bags are making the rounds there . I made him some music CD so he will see if American Blues music gets the Brazillian women to shake it ! He is like the Brazil version of Indianna Jones . LOL I'll rest well now knowing you did okay at the show and learned a few things . There is a bunch more things to learn ,sorry I am not going to share those . Bill

I agree with all the above 100% . I am too old to be dealing with all this tech stuff . How ever I have wished there was a library of shapes for bags and flaps . Something to take a picture to a pattern . Consider this : There are currently more people creating and producing things than there are people buying them . I personally enjoy the act of creating things and the time it takes to do so . To answer your question first I joined the tech age way too late in life . I dont understand most of it . Cost is a big factor and mostly these complicated machine suck the joy out of life . Leather is like fishing got to go a bit slower to enjoy it . Thats my two cents . Bill

Very clean work ,elegant I spent about half the time thinking "How is that going to work " Then came the surprise and I said wow! so thats how it works ! This is just plain simplicty having its finest hour . When I see your icon there is no doubt in my mind I am in for a treat something very nice is not far away . Thank you for posting this and sharing your work with us . I am honored that you took the time . From Albuquerque New Mexico I am one of your fans . Big round of applause here !!!! Bill

No doubt about Bad to the bone !!!!! Very well done sir !!! Good enough for any combat mission . This certainly raises the bar ! Thanks for showing us your work . Bill

Really !!!! Outdoor stuff ,hunting bags etc ??? Now you are in my territory for sure . Okay look at www.twistedfringe.com for starters. Real marriage of techniques here . Next go take a look at www.crazycrow.com cruise their catalog . To further your journey :www.shipwreckbeads.com So now you have enough for a couple of week ends . LOL Send me a PM if you wish more .If you can find it look for a coffee table book called : The Art Of Jame Bama . If you can bring some of his art to life you will enjoy the journey . At least a dozen new techniques are needed for this little journey . String and lace cutting ,fringe cutting 4,6,8, strand round braiding . 3,strand flat plait , serious hand sewing ,graph paper and pattern making for starters . Bill

Hi Sam ,Welcome I used to live in Texas back in the day . Have to pull up a map and see just where you are ,dont ring any bells at the moment . Look forward to seeing your work . All my best Bill

Looks like homework time ,Amish people use suspenders in every day life so I might try on google . At the horse shows there is always a vendor selling them ,seems to me I have seen some right fine ones at the shows . You can cruise the magazine rack for "Western horseman " and look in the add section and see about the show circut . Good luck . Bill

Thank you for taking the time to tell us of this injustice . The world is changing every day at a break neck pace . Old familiar things are being replaced by things that dont work and have no history or value . I am sorry this is happening and wish there was a way to stop it . Sounds like you are going to be out of work as well ,not a good thing these days . I hope this turns out well for the musem and you as well . Thanks for the heads up . Bill

Thanks for your words . Being a manufacture /wholesaler I have gone to literaly thousands of stores selling and gotten all manner of responses. From: "The buyers not here " when I know they are lying . "No I dont have time " "maybe not till spring " when its six months away . Just all kinds of garbage from shop keepers when they dont want to look at your stuff . I know this selling battle well and I promised no matter what I would always make time to look at work and say thank you for letting me look . Just to acknowledge some one and say "I am glad you are here ". This kind of selling is not for the thin skined it gets to you after awhile . Profit margins at the wholesale level are not huge so it becomes a volume thing and you end up making huge amounts of things to get by . I always said I would quit and walk away when I got jaded or disagreeable ,helping folks advoid the pitfalls has helped a lot keeping the balance . I enjoyed greatly reading your words and would like to thank you for the time it took to compose them . I am throughly in love with a song by Keb Mo called "Better Man" it can be found on You Tube the words in the song could be lived by every day . I hope you have time to listen if you like it share it far and wide . Make the world a better place . Thanks again . Bill

Hi Chris ,Welcome from New mexico . Love to see some of your work . Thanks for taking the time to introduce yourself ,I see you are in NC how is the leather supply there ? Prices ? Do you have a large tourist industry there ? Have you sold anything outside of NC ? Feel free to drop me a line if I can be of any help . Doors open and the welcome mat is out . Bill

Boy I hope not ! Perhaps my brain just slipped a gear .Nothing negative was intended . I am not recommending silence at all . I have a huge curosity about who made what and the story behind each project . Thanks for pointing this out to me and I will chastise myself for that random thought . Welcome back ! All my best Bill

Hi ,from Albuquerque New mexico ,thanks for showing us your work . I liked all your pictures the second one really impressed me very nice use of materials with the marriage of the wood and leather . I dont understand the pink by doing that you remove 50% of your market by selling to women only . Its still well done nothing wrong with that but I have found there is some value to being gender netural . Just thinking out loud here . First class work and thank you very much for sharing with us . I rember my days in Texas and those chili cook offs on the week ends pitchin horse shoes and dreamin about girls with two names Betty Ann, mary Sue , LOL! Mighty fine barbuque and some great fiddle music miss that brisket cooked slow all night long . Dont miss the snakes ,the giant mosquetos ,and the fire ants ! LOL ! Be nice if one of those women with two names would take a drive and bring up some brisket ,I am just dreaming I guess. Glad you posted this and look forward to seeing more . All my best . Bill

Perhaps sometimes a critique is not the way to go . Consider a question instead " How did you do that ?" might be in order . Every one who posted something deserves a thank you thats just good manners and we learned that in the third grade . I have never heard of or saw a time when Thank You was out of order . There is wisdom in the old saying : Its better to remain silent and be thought ignorant ,than to open one's mouth and confirm it . LOL Bill

Please tell me why a comment has to be technical . Do you think the average customer has a clue what they are looking at in regards to tooled leather ? I would guess not . Some questions to consider first do you like it ? pretty simple there . would you like to own it ? simple as well . are you impressed ? Pretty simple there too. Consider that as the hours stack up in a project each stroke has a greater risk than the one before it . It takes but one wrong stroke to put a hicky on the whole project . I respect that moment by moment progress as a project nears completion just the shear effort of it . Next ,did you enjoy seeing the post ? Why not just say thank you for the time and effort it took to post it. No one I feel needs to be a expert to comment except maybe about technical stuff. The whole point is to make every one feel welcome and comfortable regardless of skill ,todays student will be tomorrows teacher thats guranteeded . Its just that darn clock that needs to tick for awhile . being compassionate is just the right way to be . When you comment on a straight cut consider that may have been made by a person in a wheel chair or on a rickety table because thats the best they have to work on . How would you feel then ? Never assume anything by looking at one piece of work for all we know it was made by someone's young son or daughter . I can recall each time I got a piece of knowlege that moved my leather skills to a new level felt pretty darn good . If I can do that for someone why not? Never rush to judgement be kind and honest as you give so you will recive . Bill

Too much stress ,if you are juggling lots of things one solution is to throw them higger in the air takes them longer to return,drawback is when they do come back they are moving faster . LOL !!! Time for some laughter no doubt about it . For that there is only one solution . You Tube : type "Fluffy Guy" and watch a few of his things . After that when the stuff hits the fan just think WWFD (what would fluffy do ) that lets stress melt away . Now if fluffy was running your booth do you think it be would be a fun day ? Point is to have fun ! Learn something ,tell the truth always ( Then there is nothing ever to rember ) its the same today as it was yesterday . If you have seen "Tyler Perry's " work as "Media" just think what it would be like if "she " ran your booth . Customers at these shows like it when you are having fun and they respond by buying . This is just "fishing" you take your goods and go to the show put the bait on the table and see what bites . Some days its good sometimes not so much . I am smileing now just thinking about this and you getting your feet wet . HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM Bring a camera ,when some one gives you a card make notes right away ,you will never rember after the show why you have that card . Bring a calculator do math on paper doing it in your head on the fly under stress means you will lose money end of that story . Rember your friends are cheering for your sucess and you arent alone . Keeping it simple goes a long way towards sucess. There is a thing called "MOJO" cant be explained but like porn you will know it when you see it . LOL Look for it ,watch for it , learn from it when you see it . Gather some for yourself and build it in you till its mighty powerful . Those who have some mojo are smileing now, others are confused sorry cant be explained . I wish you all the best and great sucess . Bill

Gladly !!! Drop me a line any time ,love to share some music and pics with you . Nothing like Zydeco music to make you raise a glass . Thanks for the words . Bill

I am glad you are enjoying ,I am as well. There are so many wonderful folks here . The sheer volume of work is amazing . Making comments forces you to think not only of the work you are seeing but of the person and the place it was made . We dont all have the same tools or the same skills . There are those from all over the world and just going to the store and buying something is not a option sometimes . When we see a hand sewed seam a little off, consider this before commenting, maybe glasses are needed that cant be afforded, perhaps the tool needed for a straight line is currenty out of reach money wise , maybe it was clamped to the bench or sewed between the knees instead of using a stitching pony ,we never know how some one accomplished something till we look closer . I am amazed at some solutions I see here and wonder how they were arrived at .I have stood behind a table filled with my work and faced the public many times hoping they would purchase my work . Each time I made a mistake I learned and tried to eliminate it from my life. Now after years of mistakes its down to pretty efficent ,refined and simple ,no more traveling thru the weeds . LOL I am at peace with myself and my craft my picture collection has more ideas saved than I have life left to create ,so I wish to pick and choose my projects . I am in total awe of some of the talent here. What I have learned in my years is the laws of the universe WORK !!! There is truth in the saying : Give and you shall recive . Be grateful for the smallest things ,Treat others as you wish to be treated , Your life will pass before your eyes again live it well . One should never be far from a copy of OG Mandinos "Greastest Salesman " Imagination is the key to much of life vanilla ice cream is fine but imagination allows for cherries ,nuts whip cream point is why be ordinary ? This site is growing and good people are joining every day , the chance for sharing is becoming epic . I have a very good feeling about the direction its taking . The holidays are coming and there will be stories beyond imagination shortly . Thanks for reading this and rember it has not been a perfect day until you have helped someone who has no chance of ever paying you back . Gravity works you dont have to see it to believe likewise being nice works . May all your memories be good ones . Bill

LOL I know well the gossip nature of small towns . Glad to living in a decent sized city . Welcome from Albuquerque New Mexico . I like the look of your wallet very much . Glad to have you here and look forward to seeing more of your work . Bill

There is something to be said about personal satisfaction and I know you must be very pleased with this . So many hours invested so much love of craft . I enjoyed seeing all the fine detail in this project. Thanks for showing us your fine work . This will meet the be around in a 100 year mark for sure . Very fine quality ,my compliments ! Your work does honor to the craft .

Maybe not as far as you think sir . Maybe not far at all ! Saying : Its as good as it gets is so simple ,but in your case very very TRUE ! I would stand and applaud your efforts with great enthuesiam . Bill