lightingale

I ordered a maul and a pair of dremels a few weeks ago. Beary said it could be a few weeks before they arrive, as they're part of a show. I still check my mailbox everyday hoping it'll be in! My dremel is all set up and ready to go, I can't wait!

I make dog collars out of 8-9oz leather all the time, without issue. I find it the perfect weight if you're not going to double up or line it. Tandy's medium rivets have met my needs just fine at this weight, although I skive the buckle end a tad to help things fit together smoothly (1 side has about 1/4 of the thickness shaved off). Tandy (in Canada, at least) has Craftman 4-5oz (meh quality) sides on sale for only about $49, maybe USA has the same sale? It's a good deal, although you have to see them for yourself to pick out a good one.

Outstanding! Loving how you use metal accents to embellish the pieces! It looks very detailed, and you didn't even have to tool it. You're the best I've seen with using metal on dog collars... didn't you say in another thread you work with metal also?

Make sure you're using a hi-light stain (Eco Flo) or antique to get the resist effect. When I started out, I too, made the mistake of using dye and expecting the super shene to resist it. It didn't resist at all. I also learned that super shene does not resist Fiebing's antique pastes, either. It always helps to test a new combination of dyes/antiques/finishes on a piece of scrap, because some brands do not behave predictably together.

I could be wrong, but I've gotten similar effects from undiluted Fiebing's black and dark brown antique pastes. Looks like they resisted it, antiqued it, and finished it as normal.

It's been 5 months since I started this thread, and I've made about 20 sales so far (not all of them on Etsy). I'm with DoubleC in that I enjoy the custom work. I think perhaps the difference between those who enjoy custom work and those who don't is whether you're doing this for a living. With this as a hobby, I have unlimited time to work with a customer with their design ideas, and bring it to fruition. If I were doing this as a job, I wouldn't have the time for that kind of one-on-one contact and it would thus become tedious. I haven't had much time to come up with new designs for my Etsy store, as I've been busy with orders, and I got married this summer. I'm thinking in winter I'll have more time. I've also made a "shop" out of the spare bedroom, because my leather paraphernalia was taking up WAY too much space in the kitchen, even with those plastic space saver bins! Since April, I've learned to hand sew, to cut from a hide (instead of using precut straps), and to mix my own paints and dyes, sometimes including metallic pigment powders for effect. My tooling has improved a lot also. I check the new posts on this forum every other day or so, and I've learned a ton of things without even having experimented on them myself. I have more inspiration than time to put then to leather. I've also started a leather website and blog, and while it doesn't have that many posts yet, I have tons of ideas to post in the future! I've already made some fast-forward making-of videos of some collars. http://salukifeathers.com I'm nowhere near paying for my supplies. I think I'm at about 3-4k now in what I put out, including Barry King tools, a Bearman maul and leather burnishers, and a myriad of other tools, leathers, and dyes/liquids. I've made some of that back, and the "sinkhole" rate is slowly shrinking, though right now I'm still losing money as there's always another tool I want to try. I try to buy from Tandy only when things I want are on special, and so far my Elite membership has more than paid for itself. Everyone says that Tandy leather is no good, but I've found that their European single bends are excellent, and I bought a bunch at a steal price. Their stamping tools are still not the best, but you can't beat the price if you're starting out. I actually don't have trouble letting things go as I tend to make a "trial" run of a new technique first before selling it. I'll take pictures of it, post it, and have one of my dogs or a friend's dog wear it to see how well it stands up to regular wear. I'm always experimenting with different dyes and finishes (just recently picked up the entire Eco Flo Professional Waterstains plus edge dyes, finishes, and conditioners for $99 on sale), so it's good to see for myself how well it stands up to doggie abuse! Sometimes I fall in love with something I make, but every time I make it, it gets better and better, and I know I can always make it again, as I scan and save all my designs in Photoshop. Anyways, just wanted to post an update from the original .

The photography will really help you there. You can make a lightbox out of a cardboard box and white tissue paper (the dollar store kind you use to stuff into presents). If you google it, there are several guides on making one. Or, you can get a lightbox on ebay for around $15. You don't even need a lightbox if you take your pictures in a well lit area and are able to get good detail shots. Outside on a patio stone could work. I take mine on a mossy rock in a wooded part of our yard. You also have some blanks in your shop... you haven't written up your policies, you have no about page, no banner... potential customers really do care about that. While they're a pain to put together, it's expected of a serious Etsy seller to have all this. A helpful application to identify parts of your shop that need work is http://etsyshoptimizer.com/.

One of the dog collars that I sell the most is the one pictured below. It's black leather, and "antiqued" with Eco Flo Gold Frost. They also sell a Silver Frost.

There are dozens of ways to tool different kinds of fur and hair, and they're explained very well in the Stohlman "Figure Carving Finesse" book. You can get the ebook instantly on leathercraftlibrary here: https://www.leatherc...-stohlman.aspx? Not all of them need a hairblade. If you do get a hairblade, don't get the Tandy one... it sucks and can't be sharpened. The book is the best $20 you'll ever spend if you want to get into figure carving, I find.

This is interesting... I'm going to try this with a dog collar. I can see myself jumping up and down on cased leather on the driveway

Are you using a non-slip ruler (the kind with the cork back)? That might help keep you from wandering. If you're wandering away from the ruler, use the ruler on the other side of your cut.

I read somewhere that paints used on ceramics are superior to acrylics. I can't vouch for that though, as my craft store doesn't carry ceramic paints to test it out.

I'm fairly certain this is Block dying. You wrap a cloth around a wooden block and run that lightly on the leather so the dye gets on the raised parts, and not the depressions. It could be they tilted the block a bit over repeated applications on the outside of the belt to get that gradient effect. It also looks like they might have scraped off some of the dye. Someone else might have a better idea what they did.

Nice, clean construction, and interesting design and leather. What kind of leather did you use?

After much searching, discussions with my father in law, and my husband spending an hour on the phone with different kitchen counter manufacturers, we've come to the conclusion that the quartz/epoxy product will be just as solid / hard as the granite without the potential micro-fractures that a mined stone can come with. There are different mixtures of the product, and some can be more brittle than others, so if using it one has to be certain they're getting the right one. It can also be gotten for about $25 per square foot. Apparently the "kitchen counter" product at $100 and the "floor and bench" product at $25 are identical (from our perspective), just sold and marketed differently. I don't need the entire table top to be in stone, and if it was going to be in the $100 per square foot range that we were originally told I'd definitely reduce the "tooling" space down, though at $25 the whole top would be about $400 so that's the direction we're leaning now. Your thoughts and comments are much appreciated.

The plans for the "Cadillac" of leather workbenches (everything you think you might want) are posted by Ben in one of the replies to this thread.

I'm getting a custom workbench, taking a lot of inspiration from Ben's plans. We got a quote, and hit a snag... the 1.25 inch thick granite top for the 2.5 by 8 foot bench will be about $1600 for a solid piece. We're looking into decresing the expense by using blocks (12" x `12") or other options, and have come across Quartz as a potential alternative. As it was explained to us, the Quartz countertop is actually ground up Quartz mixed with epoxy, then dried / formed into the shape and size for your counter (or in our case desk top). Does anyone have any experience working on this type of surface? I'm most interested in assuring that the minute vibrations from tooling would be well dissipated as they are in the thick piece of granite (what I'm working on now).

If you use your own products, keep a few of your business cards in your wallet. I've handed out quite a few cards while walking my dog and people stop to admire her collar. Maybe you can get some friends on board... for example, make them a guitar strap for 50% off in exchange for them carrying a few of your cards with them in case someone asks where he got it. I even got a sale from my mother-in-law's neighbor who admired my MIL's dog's collar. I made a shop on Etsy to get started, so that I had a site to send people to so they could look at examples and prices, and go so far as to make an order. If you use facebook and have a lot of friends with the same interest, put a couple of photos on there too. I show a rare breed of dog (saluki) and have over 100 facebook friends around the world who are also into my breed. You don't need to sound spammy, just a "look what I made today!" friendly post. I once posted a photo of a finished collar that I was particularly proud of, and made a sale from a doggie friend.

That's... adorable! With that clasp, it looks a bit like a teensy purse. The construction looks flawless from what I can see. How did you do your edges?

I'd say go for the BK knife. It's miles better than the Tandy one. It won't break your bank and you can order something that fits you comfortably. (I have small hands so the extra small barrel he sent me was a godsend). If you decide leathercraft isn't for you, you can sell it easily enough. In my opinion, the swivel knife is one of the most important (if not THE most important) tool in leathercraft tooling. The knifework is the foundation for the rest of the carving.

Hehe, Papr, I spent a good couple of hours yesterday researching the exact same thing! I developed a pinched-nerve-turned-muscle-spasm in my right shoulder, and I think my tooling posture and tools contributed some to it, so I was trying to find something more ergonomic to pound with. Like you, I'm still using the yellow poly Tandy mallet that came with my first kit. Right now, I'm leaning towards the tapered mallets of Barry King http://www.barrykingtools.com/hammermallets.htm, which I'll order when some snowbird relatives of mine go to Florida for the winter (it's MUCH cheaper to have it sent to them so they can mail it up to Canada) and there are a bunch of other BK tools on my wishlist. The one I'd like is the small one at 16oz and is about $55. A lot of folks on this forum swear by the Beary mauls, and the consensus is that if you only get one maul, to get one that's 16oz. The Beary mauls are $75 plus shipping http://leatherburnishers.com/BearMauls.html, (and I'd probably get nailed with duties... I love living in Canada but that is one huge downside about getting specialty goods only available in the US), which makes them a tad pricey. How much of the Beary mauls' appeal are the fancy looks? They give you your choice of wood for the handles which you can even have hand carved or capped in gold tone. I really don't give a flying hoot what the tool looks like, as long as it serves me well. My biggest concern with the mauls, is that there seems to be a smaller "sweet spot" for hitting the tool. Mallets look easier to use. I'd rather pay more attention to where I'm placing the tool than where I'm striking the maul. Any opinions on this?

I have the same book, and I agree, the wastepaper basket is stunning. I've also given some thought into making it, and here's how I'd do it: I would get a cheap metal wastepaper bucket to wrap the leather around. My reasoning for this, is that sometimes garbage can get icky, and I'd rather it end up on the easy to clean metal than the leather. So, you just have to use the bucket to derive the pattern. You can probably use the cheap basket to derive the pattern and use as a form to wrap the leather around and remove it once it's assembled. For the bottom, Ann Stohlman's sewing book describes how to hand sew corners. Just my thoughts. I haven't gotten around to trying this, yet.

I got one of BK's swivel knifes a couple of months ago, and I love it. He even made the barrel extra short to accomodate my small hands. I don't know what he does with the steel, but the blade rarely needs stropping. I'll definitely order again (I'd like a filigree swivel knife and a few more stamps), but I'll have some American family bring it across the border to Canada next time. Shipping + duties were OUCH.

Gorgeous! Nice tooling and braiding work too. Is that hand-stitched?

WOW. Ben, I printed out your PDFs of your custom workbench. I think I drooled a little when I saw it. I love the idea of making the entire top out of granite with a small lip to keep tools from rolling off (happens to me all the time, the cat knocks things down and my dogs think they're fair game as chewtoys!). I was originally going to request a lot of drawers, but your slide out pegboards are brilliant. Your workbench plan is now my main inspiration!