lightingale

Lol they do have a big dog, but he's friendly. I can't imagine any other dog would work in/around a store! A cable might work, just trying to come up with something a little more elegant looking. This is kind of the direction we're going. I hadn't thought of chain link joints, but that's something we'll play with. From what I'm told, more fiddly = less likely to be stolen, which would be easier on the shopkeep than having to search for a key of some sort. Unfortunately no, these would be OOAK (one of a kind) pieces, with an effort to provide the same design in a variety of sizes. The nature of the exotic leather makes it almost impossible to offer a consistent look across a variety of designs and replenish sold out stock that looks the same. For custom items this will work, and I'm working on a display of tooled veg tan collars for this purpose.

Alpha2 is absolutely correct. Belt thickness affects the size and hooking extras like cases and holders will increase it further. You'll get a feel for how a thin belt would fit and how many inches more you'll need for thicker leather.. you can test it on yourself too! It really helps that your customers are able to try them on. This is a HUGE advantage, and will save you many headaches. However, if they're buying as a gift or you sell online, you still need a reliable standard by which they can measure and still buy a belt that fits. "Belt size" Schmelt size. Go by actual measurements.

That's the trouble with belts (and dog collars). It seems like everyone has a different idea on how to measure the length. I'm not sure how "standard" the standard sizes are, but it might help to go to a store with a measuring tape and see how the stated size compares with the actual buckle-tip-to-middle-hole size. From that you can specify that size with the actual crafted size in a way that makes sense. You have to be very VERY clear to your customers on what you mean by your size so someone can measure themselves and be able to buy the appropriate one. Diagrams are your friend.

While visiting a local exotic animal farm for fun, I discovered they send their hides out to tan and had them on display right at the farm. It's a tourist destination with a gift shop sporting the work of other local artists using the animal products, and we struck a deal whereby I can craft dog collars with their hides to sell right in their shop. The leather is expensive to tan, so the product price reflects that. Since dog collars are a small item, the owner was concerned about how to display them in a way that is resistant to theft. I've only ever sold online so this is something I've never had to think about. Ideas we've had so far: - a display with a thin board at the back whereby the D ring of the collars can fit through a slot, with a nut and bolt holding it in place from the back - a post with holes drilled for dowels that the collars can be displayed on, and attaching a snap on a ring to the D ring that would make it too fiddly and time consuming to remove while the shopkeeper's back is turned. Any suggestions?

I'm pretty new to machine sewing (Artisan Toro), and I've been learning by doing. This is my first attempt at a lambskin dog collar. I'm happy with the stitching, the tension is right and the stitches are even. I wrappped the blue lambskin around a 4-5oz veg tan "stabilizer", and then cut another piece of lambskin for the lining to hide the seam at the back. I have two questions: 1. How do I finish the seam? I saw in a Youtube video that someone burned the thread ends with a match. Is that the right way to do it? Should I have attempted to backstitch two stitches (risking not going back exactly into the same holes)? 2. What's the best way to do a lining? I wasn't able to skive this lambskin, as it's incredibly soft. The edges stick out awkwardly and look... bad. How can this be improved? I'm temped to take a fine pair of scissors and try to cut it down as close to the seam as possible, as the glue is not near the edges. What do you think?

Ah, I figured it out. I wasn't aligning the pin with the hole in the bobbin, so the bobbin wasn't in all the way, and jammed up against the trip latch. There was too much friction to spin. I need to stop being intimidated by this machine! Leaving this thread here in case it helps someone else in future.

I'm still struggling to get the hang of the Artisan Toro 3200. I'm trying to wind my first bobbin, but the winder does not spin. I've followed all the instructions in the manual. I've tried with the "bobbin winder trip latch" both down and up, and it makes no difference. Is there a step I'm missing to engage the bobbin winder? I don't see any lever anywhere to do so. I've attached a photo of the machine.

I can attest to this, Scholastica, as I went through the same thing this week on 3oz leather. Thought I was doomed until I put it back in the die and pressed a bit harder.

My local leather supplier had this lovely bright red side (an extra from someone's large custom colour order) that I could not resist taking home.. it's unlike anything I've seen before. I think the base leather is from Wickett & Craig. It feels like regular latigo, and I was able to cut a swivel knife pattern on my first project (attached photo). On the invoice, it's listed as "motor latigo". What is that?

Thanks for the walkthrough! I absoloutely love this look and have been looking into its methodology for dog collars. Did you use a welting foot on your sewing machine to get the stitch line so close to the piping? Or just use a single toe?

This is gorgeous and beautifully put together! Can I ask how you did the straps? It looks like a folded edge with a strip of snake sewn on top?

In art class, one of my teachers' mantra was "art is 10% talent and 90% hard work". Talent is only a small part of the equation. It's a matter of doing, learning, practice, and experience. And inspiration, as Twin said.

Very nice experiment! I'd given up trying to resist with the stains and dye that I normally use, and just paint around with a brush or use liquid latex. This experiment makes a very good case for Clear-Lac. I've never seen it in Canada... where do you get yours?

You don't need expensive or fancy brushes, the synthetic ones will do just fine. Walmart sells a pack of 10 or so brushes in different sizes. The best shape for detail is the round brush. The end tapers off so you can make fine lines. Round brushes meant for watercolour are my favourite. Be sure to have a separate brush set for blues, reds, yellows, and blacks because it's hard to clean the brush completely of oil dyes, the the "old" colour you last used can bleed into your project the next time you use the brush with a different colour. I find dye reducer to be the best solution for cleaning brushes.

After spending a few hours researching it, a source of washers is what would be the difference between buying the jig or not. I'd rather not have to punch and drill each one by hand.

What a neat idea! It didn't cross my mind that I could craft my own rivets from copper wire, but I'm loving the idea. I'll look into this further. Thanks for the suggestion!

As you've used watercolours before, you'll already have a working knowledge of how spirit dyes will behave and how to use them to the best effect. Painting with spirit dyes on leather is nearly identical to normal watercolour, with these main differences: 1. You're painting on a 3D surface (your carving). As the dyes are translucent, you want to layer your colours. The effect in the photo is obtained with a very dilute dye (dilute it with dye reducer or rubbing alcohol), and allowing the pigment to pool in the deeper parts of the tooling. You can enhance this by brushing more and more concentrated pigment in these areas, allowing them to blend "wet-in-wet" (to use watercolour speak). "Washing" the area you want to paint with dilute dye, dye reducer or rubbing alcohol will make it easier to get an even coat. Be careful with "bleeding", as the dye will want to run into the lowest parts of the carving and can sometimes follow down a bevelled line when you don't want it to. Another thing to watch out for: don't do layers and layers of alcohol-based dye on large areas. I tried to do this on a collar once to get a gradient on the whole thing. Alcohol tends to dry out the leather to the point that no amount of oiling or conditioning can bring it back. 2. Dye absorbs into the leather faster than it does on watercolour paper. Anywhere you touch with the loaded brush will be dyed, and the longer the brush touches the leather, the more dye is applied (as it soaks into the leather). Therefore, you need to plan your strokes and work quickly. If you "overwork" an area, it will end up with more pigment and appear darker, or splotchy. 3. In watercolour, the white of the paper showing through the translucent paints is the "white" of the painting. If you're painting a swan, there is no pigment on the whitest part of the feathers. In leather, the lightest you can achieve is the tan of the undyed leather. This makes some colours difficult or impossible to attain without using opaque acrylic paints, such as light blue. Also, the base tan colour of the leather will darken over time as the item is used, exposed to sunlight, and conditioned. Consider this when choosing your colours! Hope this helps! This is a really interesting topic, and I'll plan to make a blog post with photos and maybe video at some point in the near future.

I like my Osborne awl. It's better than some more expensive awls I've tried in terms of the size/length of the blade and the shape of the handle. It did need a little sharpening, but that's to be expected. To sharpen, I used a ceramic stone and then some rouge on a strip of cardboard. the awl rarely needs sharpening now, and it gets a lot of use! Groove your leather and run your stitch wheel on it. Use a stitching pony to hold your leather. Support the back side with a hunk of wax or a wine cork if you need to. I punch my holes first, and then put my awl down to sew them up, as I only have short stretches on my dog collars. If you're sewing long lengths, learn to hold the awl in your right hand (if you're right handed) while you're sewing and punch holes as you go.

Hi, I don't see any included pictures in this post? Try replying to the original topic you've created. The folks who helped you there can see that it's a topic they're involved in, which will help them find you. It will also get bumped to the top of the "new content" list when you reply on it.

This is tricky. I have well over 300 sales on Etsy (in addition to a hundred or so outside Etsy) so I'll weigh in with my experiences. All of my dog collars, like your guitar straps, are custom made to the customer's size specifications. Usually, they'll pick a design from my Etsy storefront (with occasional changes in colour) and specify their desired size. No problem. I keep a whiteboard with all my current orders and I'm able to gauge when an item will be complete and ready to ship out. The MOST IMPORTANT thing is COMMUNICATION with your customer. As soon as you see that a sale has been made, or even if you're still in the communication part and feel you're about to close the sale, be up-front about your turnaround time. Overestimate by a week or two, as it's much better to be pleasantly early than disappointingly late. YOU get to set this date, so be realistic to yourself! Last year, there were a few of months during which I could not humanly complete orders for dog collars as quickly as they were coming in. To help mitigate issues with shipping expectations (rather than closing the shop), I maintained a chart on a page of my blog where I listed every order I had (with vague details like order date, size, and design, so that each customer would know which one was theirs without making their details public), and update it as each batch of orders was completed and shipped out. Every customer got a message/email within a day of their initial order date with a link to this chart and a reasonable range of time during which their order would be completed. They could check it any time to see when their order came up on my queue. I only had one customer ask to cancel the purchase. Better to cancel/refund early than deal with an irate customer later on. So far, no one has complained about my wait times, although one of my feedback (which is still perfect score) mentions a long transit time... though this was for a package going from Canada to Australia. I only accepted Paypal, as Etsy direct wasn't available for Canadians at when I started, and when they did release it, I saw that they took a larger cut than Paypal did, so I never offered it. I did offer custom designs, and would draw/create the design with revisions before being paid for the item, which I would do in my spare time. Sometimes I would even craft the item before being paid. Even if the customer liked the item, not all these sales followed through, in which case I'd be stuck with a custom-sized item with a custom design that would be difficult to sell. Don't make this mistake. For the first few months after opening an Etsy shop in early 2012, custom designs were very welcome, as sales were not too frequent, and I had time in between to tinker with them, plus these designs could become new Etsy listings and/or show pieces later on. After my shop got some traction, it would sometimes take a few weeks (up to a month) to finalize a (free, no money was exchanged) design, because I prioritized my time to paid orders first. The (free!) design time ruffled some feathers too, so I've decided going forward not to offer custom designs unless paid up front (at which point if would go into my queue and become a priority). I'm still debating what I should charge for custom design services - what a reasonable hourly rate should be. I know this next bit isn't very relevant to your question, but this has been my experience and may help you sometime... my Etsy shop has been on "vacation" for the last 2 months, because I developed a pinched nerve in my shoulder in October (after a months-long bout of crazy amounts of collar orders) that I ignored until I couldn't ignore it anymore. The nerve has only gotten worse since, so I'm now seeking professional help with it (I had thought it would get better on it's own.. I'm still in my 20s and I've never before had health problem like this that hasn't resolved itself). So this is a word of caution for you... don't burn yourself out! I've been extremely lucky in that my Etsy shop took off, and hopefully yours will too. There's a HUGE market for folks who want custom crafted leather items to their specification and design. If so, if at some point you feel overwhelmed, you need to sit back, see what you're making per hour of work, and what your body can physically take. Raise your prices and/or take a break if you start to get in over your head! You love your craft, and there are few things more gratifying than having someone express their appreciation by paying you for an item you've made. However... be kind to yourself and remember that your health comes first!

I make my own packaging that is similar to what you describe, mostly. All you need is some basic office things. I put little jars of leather conditioner in resealable 4 x 4" poly bags that I get at the dollar store (40 bags for $1). Label was designed in photoshop and prints 4 per page on a nice quality cardstock paper. I use a sliding paper cutter to cut the labels to size, fold them in half, and staple them over the top of the poly bag. You can easily punch a hole at the top so you can hang it. I also would not package leather in plastic because I've had leather get mildewy after just a few months (I was storing scrap in big ziploc bags). Maybe it would be ok if you punched some holes in the bag?

Good to know. Thanks you both. Will check what (few, all sourced from Tandy) rivets I have and replace them with copper, brass, or stainless steel if needed.

I did not realize this about the currency on their website. Given what I know of the folks in-store, they probably don't even realize it themselves. They still owe me in back-orders from a couple of years ago from online orders. I don't think they have the infrastructure and know-how for online selling like Tandy or Springfield, and last time I was in-store (about a year ago, we're not around there often) they said they were hiring someone to help in this. My in-store experience has been perfect.. they're friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. In online orders, I've learned to call them before they ship to be sure things are in order. I also spoke with an acquaintance today who is involved in the sale and distribution of leather goods on a large scale. He confirmed that it's the dollar difference that's causing the hike in prices across the board for Canadians. It's not just Tandy, it's everyone.

As a brand-spanking new owner of an Artisan Toro 3200 as of this weekend (an unexpected new owner at that, because my husband is awesome and loves to surprise me), I can understand why a lot of these terms seem confusing at first. An our or two of research will answer these questions at the basic level. My advice, read this sticky from the leather sewing machine subforum. If you're like me, you need a visual, so watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYo2ST0m7f8 Yes, you need a walking foot. Read/watch the above links and you'll see why. You're "walking" to your next stitch (the machine kinds of grips the leather where it needs to go), and you have much more control with a much lower chance of things catching or skidding where they shouldn't. For bridles, you probably need it to sew through two layers of 8-9oz. leather, at the thickest. You want a machine that's rated to handle MORE than this, so that you can get it to do what you want with ease and without stressing the motor. Disclaimer: I haven't had the opportunity to play with my shiny toy yet, so I can't speak for how leather sewing machines work in practice at this point. My machine is supposedly the "jack of all trades", though a few parts need to be interchanged to make it more suited for different weights of leather or fabric. More experienced folks: feel free to correct me if I got something wrong.

Moore Pearsall is good, though you need to call ahead so you can go when the owner/employee is available. I'll be visiting Tundra for the first time this week. I didn't realize they were so close! Another possibility is Faulk leather, in Toronto. Not sure how much veg tan they carry.