DoubleC

Chris in reference to you maker's mark question, anyone can be a maker. So might as well mark it if you're proud of it or in my case remember to. If you make it you are a maker. Coach may be a producer but to mark it is ridiculous because they don't make anything, their assembly line type factories do.

I don't know where this got into a subject about custom, but if someone downloads a holster pattern, or buys blue guns or whatever, and makes them over and over where they [ut a flower on one and a donkey on he next it's not custom. It ain't art either. Holsters would be a tough category to get art in and I've only seen maybe 10 people that could do it. You can't change the pattern or 'design' of the holster so what do you change? I've seen Sheridan carved holsters I would call art and I don't even like Sheridan style very much. I've seen some gorgeous holster done on here by Katsass that were inlaid and could hang in a frame. They weren't dip dyed and they weren't plain. It wasn't because his hand stitching is perfect, or the shape of the inlay, or what the inlay was, or even if there was one. Itt was all these things that added up to something that could hang on a wall, although they were made to use. If I make 20 belts and they all want initials on it, it's not what what a LW would consider custom or art. It is a custom order ONLY because a (custom)er asked me to do it. It's not art. Art stretches you, makes you make mistakes, redesign, try things Makes you cry in frustration and laugh in joy when it comes out exactly as you imagined it. Art doesn't use a template, art using a mind. If you use a template or 15 of them to arrive at what your mind MADE you make, and it is a physical urge, to come up with a piece it doesn't matter about the templates or how many you used. An artist is someone driven to create things, not because they might sell or they are in style but because you simply can't rest until it's done. I had one more thing to add. Very few of us get to create art because we're too busy doing (custom)er orders.

well ya just kinda feel your way along in that. I don't know of an actual formula for it, I could be mistaken. I just always allow a couple of extra inches over my usual length. Cheryl

I do 50/50 and multiple coats. Cheryl.

LOL Lew, you and me both. Cheryl

Use your resolene for the back too OR the mop and glo formula which is almost like resolene. Cheryl

A beautiful, clean job. You're friend will be thrilled. Cheryl

I use Kangaroo lace and when I market a product with it, I say quite honestly, it's the best lace you can get and use it as a selling point, not a negative. I have it in several of my projects at the Farmers Mkt and use those as another example of just buying the best there is for my things. My niece did ask me about it once. I just told her they are consider vermin in countries they are from, much like we consider gophers. I know if I made her something out of the lace she'd wear it and brag on it. Now me, I won't use elephant or horse. I guess everyone has their own quirks. I would focus on the quality and toughness of Kangaroo, and not worry about the perception. You're right, people who say something aren't looking to buy any leather probably. Cheryl

I don't have this problem after dyeing, etc on straps or belts. Anytime you use veg tan and turn it in on itself it's going to wrinkle. That's why most people use pig, goat or some soft leather as a lining. If you bought 12 oz leather (stirrup leather) for the top and lined with tooling pig it wouldn't do this. Cheryl

Glad you remembered it. I would say he's a tad weird, or was I guess but he wasn't boring. Maybe an artist is someone battling boredom?

If Dali hadn't known where to place a line or where to shade I doubt he would have been so successful. I don't 'get' his art and daddy issuse but his art makes my eyes happy, LOL.

doyou sstill want this done Mark? If so PM me. Cheryl

I'm a pushover with strangers, LOL much less family and friends. That's really nice work Chris. Cheryl

Good Chris, I am looking forward to seeing them. Yes unfortunately the pics were taken by me, but with my 8YO digital camera. The choker set was taken with my new one. I thought it was me that kept taking the bad pictures until I found out it didn't have enough MP to take a good picture. Oh well 8 years of frustration is good for you right? LOL. I can just about free hand any picture by looking at it but have no memory anymore for creating my own. I come up with an idea then go google searching for a piece I like. I am currently working on a pair of sandals with a dragon fly as the subject, but I am not gonna brag about that right now, LOL> Glad my foot will cover most of it. Maybe the second one will be better.......

Chris, I have been thinking about this thread a lot. I have art, I mean actual pictures I free hand drew looking at another picture, and either painted them or dyed them and used antique. Antique is a leather medium just like any other and has it's time and place. I disagree with JLS that just because he doesn't use it, it ain't worth using. I understand how he feels because I feel a certain type of snobbery toward people who only do Sheridan carving. If you can't get good at placing a mules foot in the right spot of a flower, vine or leaf after doing the exact same thing over and over maybe leather isn't your medium. I think there's nothing wrong with using the 'paint by number' method of learning a craft if you move beyond it. I was in Sheridan and you sure don't see any roses, leaves and vines there. So I think a lot of people started this craft with kits. I wasn't fortunate enough to be able to do that, work at a Farmers Market where if you don't make it, bake it or grow it you don't bring it. So all of my things were designed by me, good or bad to begin with. I don't carve everything. I have a lot of custom orders and do one offs where I never really get to learn a certain technique that's used in the order. I have used inlay, overlay, paint, dye, antique, stamps, the basic 7, and a few other things. I have drawn art and braided art. I have some superb failures too. I use those I think the enemy of art is complacency. If you are always satisfied with whatever you churn out then I don't think you can be an artist. Can a craft person strive to be better each time? I don't know. Probably. I'm not sure being good at a craft isn't art. I don't know when we started seeing masons or contractors as less than artists. They have great items....they have superb failures. I live in Vermont which used to be a big marble industry state. I defy anyone to look at some of these churches and buildings around here and say they aren't art. Below are some of my art pieces. I apologize for the crappy pictures. Cheryl

Hi Panpan. Welcome to the world of, 'I ain't got a dime cause I spent my last one on leather.' LOL. Your straps are very nice. I noticed after the first one you quickly started burnishing them. That makes them look even better. Cheryl

I guess I'm with oldhat. I have my 5 & 10 buck items that are well made but not very artistic. You have to have those to survive the farmer's market regime. But I also have pieces I consider art, and they vary from necklaces to a square piece of leather painted on. I consider it art and maybe I use the term more loosely than you do. But if I can make something beautiful out of leather then I am artist. Cheryl

Thanks for the info!!!! Cheryl

LOL Hi Mark, so now we meet properly. Welcome Cheryl

No Conrad I wasn't offended and that's the thing about computers, it's hard to understand the emotion behind the typed word. I just couldn't imagine how anyone could click a whole hide at once or do all those things in 15 minutes. Now I'm finding out the commercial, big clickers vs. the one I intend to buy. I make leather goods too but doubt from what I've read here clicking for others would keep me from being able to continue to do that. I work 3 farmer's markets a week, and sell on etsy and FB too and getting ready to build a website so I will be able to keep pretty busy without additional clicking It just seemed like it might be a viable option if I could do someone else's while I was doing mine. Thanks for you comments I really appreciate them. Cheryl