Talltales08

Nope, elbow is fine...lol Thumb finally returned to normal so I'm going to pay close attention to how I'm holding the tool next time.

I can only hope not.

Everyone around the table was talking about hitting their fingers, at that moment I nearly hit mine..lol

DOUBLE U LEATHER: Glad to hear you have so much work in front of you, congrats. As of a few seconds ago, the pain in my thumb is all but gone. I'm sure, as many have suggested, I was holding the tool wrong. You know how it goes, we all have to find our own comfort zone. I'll take your suggestions and not put a death grip on it in the future...lol Thanks everyone

It's still an hour drive to get there but it's free so.........................One day I'll buy a camera and post some stuff.

That may be it, as it wasn't going anywhere..lol My first class I had a bad case of the "bounces". Second week we did a Celtic Knot and I need a lot of work with the cutting tool. This week it was a flower of some sort. Still need work with the cutting tool but a little better. I have a very long way to go, but love the look of tooled leather, it's a real art form.

I had my thumb down on the shaft of the tool as close to the leather as it could be (as I recall). To me, this gave me the control to avoid the dreaded "bounce" and also to help guide the tool where I wanted it. I'll take a few days to let it stop then keep you posted as to the results.

I was thinking along those lines...it'll take awhile but I'll figure it out in time..thanks

Like most of you, I've seen some pretty awesome leather products on the net. A few of the things that I'm interested in making is leather armor, bracers and corsets. I'm a slave to intricate detail and would want to incorporate that to future projects once I get the basics down. The question is: Do you do the tool work first then water harden/mold or after you have the leather in the shape you want?

Saturday is leather class day at my local Tandy's. I went to my third class, and if I wasn't hooked before I am now. I finally felt comfortable holding the stamping tool just right, or so I thought. I didn't notice it till later in the day, but there's a slight "tingle" in the tip of my thumb on my left hand, the one that holds the tool. The tingle is still there, and though not painful, I can't wait for it to go away. Is this some sort of nerve damage that goes with this craft? Will it go away? I'll be gratefull for any input you have.

I figured there was. It just seemed to me we had went to all that trouble to "purdy up" that square then covered it up at the end...of course, I haven't looked at it since it dried so I maybe changing my toon ...lol

After tooling for the first time yesturday, I liked the looked of the tooled leather. We were asked to pick a color of dye and we each picked a different one. I chose a light brown but didn't like any of them as much as I did the plain tooled look. Is there away just to go with that look?

That's what instructor told us...That was probably the toughest thing to learn so might as well get it started on it.

Hi, Just got back from my very first leather class. We learned how to do the basket weave...or should I say that we learned that it's not as easy as some of you make it look...lol

I get the itch from time to time to get back into it. It's a fairly cheap craft to get into if you have a good craft shop near by. I think even at today's prices you can get started for around $50 bucks. The burners rarely go bad and you don't need all the tips they have. In fact, I used the shader tip for everything, and found that the thinner the the "blade" the better I liked it. The only thing I hated about it was transfering the pattern onto the wood. I've posted a few of the pics of the pyro work I did on wood in the gallery. The thing I did on Ebay was Tarot boxs which at the time (around 2000) did very well.

I have my first class in leather working in the morning, bought a starter kit last week but still haven't done anything other than look it over. Like most, I'm interested in the craft/art first. If somewhere down the line I can make a buck off of it, so much the better. Some time ago, I got into Pyrograpghy, or woodburning. I had a pretty good thing going with it on Ebay till I just got tired of it. It was very time consuming and hard on my hands to hold that hot burning tool for hours at a time. The results were well worth the time invested. Sorry to say, that was several computers ago and no pictures servived. I do have some pictures of a part of a table I was burning that was never completed...hope to have those posted soon.

Hi, I was wondering if anyones sole income came from their leather work? Do you make a select few items that you know you can produce fairly quickly? How much time in a 24 hour day do you spend working on your items? Thanks

I've always been intereted in leather working so I finally went to my local Tandy store, bought a deluxe starter kit for around $80 and can't wait to get started. I've found a ton of interesting posts (and I'm still in my first 10 minutes on the site) with tips and how to's to help me get going. Thanks all