Hello and greetings from North-Eastern Indiana! I am a biker for twenty-plus years now and hate trends and fads. The bagger trend turned me off to full-dress bikes (which seem to be all the rave these days) and I recently sold my brand new Harley-Davidson Street Glide for a thirty-one year old Shovelhead (always dug that legendary sound). My taste in retro-nostalgia and the need for something different amidst a sea of cookie-cutter dealership-boutique over-the-counter patches sent me looking for a few unique leather patches to sew on my leather jacket. Imagine my surprise when I searched the internet and came up pretty much empty handed! A few old threads on some tired old forum advertising a couple of patches posted years ago were all I found. I was quite disappointed!
Having seen a few pathetic examples online and having tooled a bit of leather in middle school in the 70’s got me to thinking about doing my own patches! I am an artist and enjoying air brushing, tattooing, pin-striping, pen & ink, water color and acrylic painting. I also indulge in wood-working and have been a musician for twenty-five years, so arts and crafts and creativity are in abundance! It got me to thinking about trying my own hand at leather-crafting! If I can tattoo, airbrush and paint and draw, why couldn’t I do leather-craft?
A trip to Tandy Leather provided me with a beginners kit and a few pieces of cheap scrap leather to practice on. My wife scoffed at me for indulging in yet another random and fleeting interest, but I dumped the cash anyhow, and to be honest with you, found myself quickly becoming addicted to the craft! Included are a few examples of some patches I designed from the single piece of scrap leather I purchased about a month ago! Granted my skill-level and technique leave a bit to be desired at the moment, but much like every other interest I have, practice makes perfect and I will persevere until I get it “perfect”!
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