lightningad

theres a few places you could try...leprevo.co.uk, jwoodleathers.co.uk, jfjbaker.co.uk abbey as your in manchester - Abbey is in Knutsford, and J Woods are near Skipton, so not too far if you fancy a drive out. adam

mine are neither a Saddleback nor anyone elses! I bought the leather for this huge bag for approx £40, then spent plenty of time designing as i went....which i could afford to do as this was a very cheap price for this amount of leather! as you can see - its rather roomy! these each have approx £20-25 leather in them, along with a few buckles and the time spent making them. I would charge over £100 each for these. Aside from the money - its much more satisfying to design and make something thats unique to you. Just go for it! adam

thank you....yes, all hand stitched. I find it almost therapeutic...suppose its a zen thing!

but lots of them are very small and are from the offcuts! I managed to get three full satchels from one 20sq ft of leather, so pretty economical.

thank you, really appreciate the comments! i find it surprisingly easy to do things in leather. The process just seems to make sense. I'm certainly still a beginner, and i have plenty of duff items hidden away! For me, the trick is to keep the designs simple and clean and do the neatest stitching i can! For example - the "Clone Bag" i did (a pair of them for twins!) there is only twenty pieces of leather in each bag ....which includes all the pockets, flaps, body, and straps....it just looks more complex because its done simply! and before each project, make sure you learned everything you could from the mistakes of the previous one. You've certainly found the best forum for advice. Ask anything on here and someone will usually be able to help out.

all sorts of stuff ! started out making wallets, pouches, passports wallets, moved onto journals and book covers, and now i'm making satchels and have just about finished a big holdall thats just within flight carry-on sizes, but big enough to hold all my crap when travelling abroad (often have to work away and found the commercial bags were never big enough). the good thing is, as you get better people will want to buy stuff or commission special pieces. I have sold a few now and am always on the look out for more customers! pity i have a day job getting in the way. you can see all my stuff on my gallery page on the forum, or on my website listed below. adam also had a look at your boats...very nice! Do you just make them or do you hire any out?

just had a quick look at the link you posted. I did spot they have the same tandy kit i refered to - only at £65 !! The other kits all seem to be for a single project, whereas the tandy basic has probably 5 or 6 kits, plus various stamping tools, dyes, glue, thread and needles, an instruction booklet... I dont know what the others come with as i havent tried one. I will say that having worked through the kit, it was only when i started to make my own stuff that i really began to learn what i was doing! The kit is a good intro, but not much more. Mine was bought as a gift for me - i had mentioned i wanted to try it, but nothing more. Once i got the kit, the bug bit, and within days i'd spend hundreds on tools and leather...you have been warned!! adam

Hi Hally, i cant see leathercrafting being a problem with those limitations. Over the last 20months since i got hooked, i have made a huge range of stuff, and the only time i needed power was for the lights to see in the dark! I have just bought a dremel to speed up the sanding of edges, but thats something you can do manually. Depending on the size of work you want to do, you may find cutting out large pieces of hide awkward - but certainly not impossible. There are some excellent books you can buy to guide you, if web connections are iffy...such as the "making leather cases...vols 1-3 by Al Stohlman". They cover lots of techniques and while the projects can look dated, its the techniques that you need to develop your own ideas. If you want to try out the craft without a huge outlay, you could do worse than buy one of tandys Beginners leathercraft kits. Currently on sale around £35 but they are limited in stock and not getting any more. The tools are ok, and the leather is questionable, but there are plenty of projects to try and see if you want to go further. Its how i started (and many others on here also), and you'll soon know if you have the bug...thats when it starts to get expensive! best thing though is to have fun...jump in and start making stuff! adam

no - they're in Hong Kong, but don't let that put you off! The service was really good. I sent the logo in Adobe Illustrator format (they'll be able to tell you the other formats they can work with) and the stamp was finished and posted in just a couple of days...it took longer to get through customs than the rest of the process put together.

Hi Reimer, i designed my logo years ago when i wanted to create a t-shirt logo for an imaginary record label! The name and logo stuck, nd when i started making leather stuff i decided to dust it off and use it again. I got the stamp made by http://lwleathers.com and am really happy with it! adam

thanks for the heads up...i'll have to go check it out. adam

spuds? whats a spud? in the UK a spud is slang for a potato! so now i'm really intrigued....

finally got around to getting some pix of the things i made and use.... Bone folder, Slicker both made from Walnut, the pin cushion is some leftover silicone a stitching pony made from two old ikea bed slats! a folding table that i made years ago, brought out to hold the bags at the perfect height to work on! adam

So far most of the bags i have made have been stiff enough without any extra work, but i was wondering how everyone else goes about adding extra firmness to overly large bags, or those made from a softer leather but needing more structure? Ideally, with as little extra weight as possible! adam