chriscraft

I've seen plenty of stands built out of truck steel rims and drum brakes like BBQ pits, bird feeders and mail box post. I would like this build to look more factory built. Would like it to look like it was intended for leatherworking. Like it belongs in a leather work shop and blends with all the other well built leatherworking equipment. Maybe I am asking for too much from myself but I think I can pull this off. I am not trying to re-invent the wheel here but borrow what already exist. For example, I have this early 1900's Multum Drawing Table that was purpose built. It is smaller than your average drafting table from this era. It was built and designed by a well known manufacture of drafting equipment based out of Chicago. The base can be adjusted in height and the table top can rotate, tilt or be used in a flat horizontal position. This same wooden top was made to be removed and swapped out with another wooden top if you were working on multiple projects. I really like the simplicity of this design but it has to be beefed up to be able to take a beating like an anvil. This drawing table base is made from cast iron and is over 100 years old. I have no intention to try and use this for my purpose. The function and idea is what I will borrow. I wish this Multum Drawing Table was 100% original. I put it together from photos, all I had was the original cast base and rotating table neck/head. The wooden top and drawing chair are not original. After painting this chair to match, I arranged them together to make this look complete. Howard, I don't think I will need an arm rest. Maybe I just got used to working without touching my artwork. When I would rest my arm I would somehow damage my work as the paint would not be dry or smear stuff all over my project. One of the reasons I want this to rotate is to keep from touching my project over and over again. Chris

I found an old small wooden shipping crate last year at a local estate sale. It was only $10 so I purchased it. This wooden crate was very dirty and covered in water based latex paint. It cleaned up well but was a lot of effort. I was even able to remove the paint off the original metal tag. This old crate was from a local Milwaukee furniture builder, C. Niss & Sons, established 1867. Was used to ship furniture metal hinges that were being made in Chicago to Milwaukee. So this old wooden crate had some history that was covered in soot and paint. I was not able to save the cool black stenciling that was on the side panels. It scrubbed right off while removing the paint splatters. Now that I have it cleaned up. I've been using it as a background prop to photograph my leather goods. I even made some custom leather hinges from Hermann Oak leather and wrapped the rope lift handles with same leather. Secured with wood screws that I will replace with small black carriage bolts. The wooden crate has been working beautifully as a prop but its just missing something. Now I'd like to add a label to this old crate and what better logo to use than a Hermann Oak Leather Co. 1881 logo. I'm thinking of placing a large classic HO logo on the top lid. Some small faded black lettering that will read, "Property of Hermann Oak Leather Co." on the sides. This is a small wooden crate so I will also need to keep an eye open for a larger 6 foot long crate to match.

The strongest part (tightest grains) are the skin side that has all its natural marks. Skiving full grain leather to make it thinner is done from the flesh side as you mentioned. It's still full grain just just not as thick of a weight per square foot. The term "top grain" just means the top grain has been corrected to appear more uniform. They start by sanding the top grain and then stamp a faux pattern to make it look almost perfect. The name "top grain" makes it sound superior to any other leather but its not. Probably more to this process including glues and coatings that I care to understand as I don't use this type of leather. It might make it more stain resistant to be used on furniture. If they called it "corrected grain" maybe it would not sale. For example: Sir, would you like to purchase this corrected grain leather couch for $4,000?

I would still call it full grain leather as it is not mixed/glued to other synthetic layers.

Thanks, I haven't been doing leatherwork as long as some may think. I do have many years of experience in many other art mediums and most of those skills apply to leatherworking. Still need to build up my figure carving tool assortment as I still feel limited by what current tools I have. I'm getting good results and sometimes less is more as it applies in this case. Chris

This is the hydraulic telescoping transmission lift jack I was given. They had issues with the base cracking and bending so the shop just purchased a new telescoping jack. I was under the impression this jack had a leak and was not working but was told it lifts just fine. Was manufactured by Blackhawk Automotive Inc. and is a 1/2 Ton capacity. Looks vintage but I am not familiar with these lifts. The top plate rotates 360 degrees and has knobs to slant the top mount in different positions. I'm still not sure how many pieces I will borrow from this jack. It will need a better work base as this one is cracked and way too big for my purpose. It just looks very oily and dirty but will clean up well. Its a start for the free standing tooling station project.

cardinal leather, I've been scratching my head over what type of heavy duty swivel bearings to use. Maybe some 3/4 ton truck axle Timken roller bearings on a disk brake hub. Somehow fabricated to still be able to spin freely, this would be heavy but that's okay. Was even considering attaching a motorcycle disk brake with hydraulic brake pad to stop it from spinning while tooling. Being able to Frankenstein some automotive parts might work but may not the best way to tackle this project. That's why I just left it alone for a while. Here is my first sketch of the tooling station with a 12" working plate. I want to be able to swap out a larger 18" plate or smaller 8" plate. Base constructed from heavy wall steel pipe with a pin to adjust height. Simple foot pedal that will operate a stopping pin keeping the work rotating top from free spinning. This would be free standing as I want to keep less things from vibrating while tooling causing unnecessary noise. The semi-circular leatherworking tool storage station would be on locking rubber casters. That way if one needs more work space this can easily roll away. Also if one ever does any craft shows this would be a nice set up to display.

I've been thinking of fabricating a swivel work station that can lock in any position (360 degrees) and easily unlock to rotate via foot pedal. Most of my tooling projects are less than one square foot and this would be ideal. I also want this to be heavy duty, adjustable in height and can be secured to my concete floor. just want this to be a solid station. Ive had a basic sketch for almost two years and have done nothing with this. I've just been given a non working heavy duty transmission jack that has a swivel head that will work. So this will be my next project. Anyone use anything similar? Working out of a work bench is okay but this new rotating work station might be better. Will not know till I try it.

1800's Classic Salmon Fly Pattern detail.

Troy, one of they ways I've used light under my work is when I am layering a drawing or in this case building a pattern. First, you need to have a pattern in order to trace it with tracing film. To help create/design a pattern, a light box/table comes in handy. Starting with the rough sketch of your pattern idea on paper, this rough sketch isn't a clean line drawing yet and may have many lines you don't want to use. One may need to trace over your own hand drawing to refine these lines. During this process, your using paper and not tracing film, the light base will let you see through the layers of paper as you refine your final drawing/pattern. I like my final work to end up centered on good quality paper. This will be your original that you can now copy or trace with clear tracing film. So if you already have a clean line drawing of your pattern, then one doesn't need a light source under your work, you need light over your work to help you see what your tracing onto the clear film. I enclosed some pictures that show my original sketch (pattern idea)that I had for a possible belt pattern I wanted to tool. You can also see my refined cleaned up line pattern I created using my light table. With this final line pattern on paper I can now make my clear film transfer sheet. I have a professional drafting light table with a second drafting light over my work. This table has a drafting roller straight edge and a positional floating arm that when moved anywhere along the tabe will always be a true 90 degree angle or any angle as it can rotate 360 degrees. These drafting tools are used to square your paper/work and will help you layout any vertical lines. The rolling straight edge is used for all my horizontal lines. I tape the top corners of my project after I square it so it doesn't move but I'm still able to flip the paper to layer any underline drawings. If I need light under my work, I turn off the overhead light and turn on my light table to light the base. Switching my light source from under and over as needed. I had used one of these professional drafting light tables back when I was 14 years old. It was at my local public library and one could check out the room to used this table in one hour incrimates. It was an amazing tool when drawing and I always wanted one of these tables after this day. It was another 18 years before I could get one. One can get by and use a small portable light box this same way with hand held t-squares and right angle protractors. I did for many years. These larger light tables are stable and become a nice work station that is always ready to go. Yes they take up some space but don't we need a well lighted work station to transfer patterns anyway. I don't always turn on my light table and use it as a regular drawing table. I can assure you that every professional tattoo shop has one of these light tables on site. Whether it be a purpose built professional table as mine or a home build table, they are needed to create artwork/designs that will be transferred onto your skin to be tattooed. Like our leatherwork patterns, once hand tooled onto leather, it can not be removed similar to a tattoo, why not just make your pattern accurate before transferring onto your leather project.

I'm working on a classic Salmon fly pattern on one of my fly box cases. I upgraded my wooden mold to a solid T-6061 aluminum block that I made. I spent many hours building this aluminum block, cutting, hand filling and sanding to get it right. I hand tool after wet molding and this aluminum block is a good solid base for my tooling. Made this block a standard fly box size so I will get many years of use from it. Chris

I have not made any yet but will be making a fly fishing fly box case next month or so. The one I have seen is wet molded top and bottom and zips together like any other small case. The inside has sheep shearling and cork to attach the hooks. Sorry I can not post any pictures of the one I have found as it is not my work. Just do a search on the web for fly fishing cases and many examples will pop up. Depending on what type of fish species your friend goes after will determine the hook size. They can be really small, 1/4"-1/2" long for Trout and up to 2"-3" long for Salmon. A simple Leather Fly Wallet will be an easier item to build. It's a proven design for storing hand tied flies that has been around for over 100 years. Its not an impressive build but depending on what kind of gift you are after. These simplified leather fly wallets don't look like they take more than a few hours to build vs. a custom wet formed case with hand tooled designs that may take 15-30+ hours to build. Again, sorry I don't have any examples to post.

Wonderful idea on a way to get some leatherwork training. I've been reading about these crowd funding programs and they sound ideal. You should also look into gofundme as this is more of a donation based fund raiser. Your story behind the trip that fell through should also be included.

I have made a couple but they were light tables and not boxes. I used thick 1/4 inch glass and fogged it myself with white enamel spray paint on one side. This side goes toward the fluorescent bulbs. You might want to use more than one fixture as my first one was not bright enough. On my second light table build I used two double fluorescent bulb fixtures and it worked great. They were installed about two inches away from the glass. My light table glass was counter sunk to the table top had approx. 24"x36" working area. I had this table for 10 years without any issues. The smaller portable light boxes I have seen operate on two 100 watt light bulbs. The box is angled so the glass surface is pitched toward you to give a better drawing/tracing angle. These boxes are molded from plastic so they are portable and not heavy. Building one from wood will add extra weight but it will not be expensive to build.

I used to have a small airbrush t-shirt business that started by making high school logos. I was 15 y/o and began making custom t-shirts of my school mascot for myself and friends. I lived in Texas and everyone knows that high school football is a big deal in Texas. I was approached by our varsity football coach to make a few t-shirts for himself and his family. After that, I was in and everyone wanted one. From this experience I found that going directly to the team coach was easier to get permission from the school. The coach would push for the school to grant permission in writing to reproduce their high school logos. When searching for more work from other schools, The principal way and school board way was always slow and a few times I ended up being told "NO" in the form of a letter weeks later. I resorted going to the FB team head coach and they would see the quality of my work and grant me permission. By the time I was out of high school, I had permission from all the local high schools. I even had my own custom mascot designs. I began using my same designs with different school names in my regional area. I even had a few screen printing t-shirt shops approach me for permission to reproduce my original designs. I even had some that would just mass produce my designs without ever asking me. This lead to me designing high school class t-shirts and year book cover artwork. Even branched out and began making logos for the youth football teams that didn't have any team logos. I have designed many school mascot logos and painted them on school warehouse trucks, school buses, car windows during district and state games.I have even made plenty of football game break though banners in my day. I would say make your sample key fob and have it approved by a coach as his fund raiser. Donate .50 cents for every one you sell to any school charity. This will always work, it did for me for many years. Good Luck. Chris

I was showing one of my closest friends my new projector set up. He doesn't not draw or produce any art. He has always known me as a freehand artist. He began to tell me that he has always been amazed at my fine motor function and hand eye coordination. Seen me create designs out of memory and work from photographs to produce photo realistic paintings. I think he was disappointed in some way that I was excited about my new setup. Even though I took time to explain, I knew inside he was not convinced. So I added, in all the years you have known me, how many items have you purchased from me? The answer was, none. So in the end, it doesn't change anything between us. I have never considered myself true artist. I have produced thousands of freehand drawings that many consider to be works of art. But I've never been paid an artist salary for any art that I've produced. Tracing your own art or a pattern layout is an art form. It takes skill to do it correctly and even more skill to master the use of a pencil or in our world, a swivel knife. I don't think someone would pay us more for our hand tooled leatherwork art if we were to just freehand cut designs without the use of guides such as templates or patterns. If that we're the difference between a $100 item vs. a $1000 leather product then sign me up. I would also hand make all the tools to go along with being a purist. Till that day comes ill just be known as building crafts and be paid craft fees. Chris

I took a photo of a trout from a fishing magazine and enlarged it to 10" wide, also reduced it to 4" wide. My table top to celling mounted projector height can scale images anywhere in between 4"-10" to fit my leather projects like a wallet or a book/tablet cover. If I need a smaller size pattern then I will need to use a smaller size image. What I really like about this projector set up is I can hand draw designs in a small comfortable size on paper and then scale them smaller or larger on my leather project. The cartoon of the red Land Rover D90 is my original drawing that I made in 2006. This Red truck was drawn 5 inches wide using prismacolors and I was now able to project the image and scale it to fit the larger size illustration board. This same method will be used when transferring designs onto my leather projects.

This will now be a great addition to my small leather work shop. Here you can see the enlarged hand drawn lettering fit to the project. I can now draw lettering and original designs on my drafting table and transfer them in a smaller or larger scale faster than before.

This color photo projector in nothing more than a box, lights and a mirror. This unit has a built in fan to help cool of heat the 500 watt bulbs produce. I like the way this .250 aluminum plate worked out as a mounting bracket.

I had never opened my projector before today. It needed to be opened as I was not using the correct factory table top mount and had to drill out a few mounting holes. I also took this time to clean the cob webs out and dust that had accumulated over the years.

Danielle, the reason I am replying is that I was once in your position. With your skill level, your obviously on the top notch end of airbrushed leathers. I too used to do this skill level of work and would run into the same issue when making a sale. I would use expensive materials like automotive base coats on leather jackets to make my artwork stick and never come off. To the customer, this meant nothing as they expected any paint not to rub off no matter how cheap or expensive one would price it. It took me many many years to understand why I was having a hard time trying to get artist prices for artist type work on leather jackets. I mean, people owned 30 thousand dollar motorcycles and would pay hundreds of dollars for quality leathers then expect to pay a few 20 dollar bills for airbrushed work on this gear. I was always puzzled by this and thought at first it was due to my lack of skill. As years went by, I got faster at painting jackets and my work also improved. Still, I was always disappointed in the amount customers wanted to spend. I finally just started naming my price and was firm, non negotiable, if you could not afford it then maybe this was not for you. This was the beginning of me not giving my work away and cutting myself short. It was also the end of me airbrushing leathers as I never picked up another leather jacket sale. I was not rude, they just were not willing to spend $300 on artwork and that was fine by me. My bread and butter became selling airbrushed t-shirts, same quality of work and time to make them. Let me use your classic Frankie black and white photo for example. I could take a $12 solid color t-shirt and airbrush this same image, most I was going to get would be $65-$95 to the right monster fan. But these were not flying off my shelf. I would sell no more that 2-3 of these each year. Take the same classic Frankie image and airbrush it on a leather jacket and most I could get was double. Also I was only running into 2 or 3 classic Frank fans per year and I had a shop inside a high traffic mall and a portable airbrushing trailer setup for fairs and festivals. I got thousands of " great job" comments and many pats on the back from other airbrush artist. Obviously if your a known artist, you could get more for your work. What I mean by a known artist is one that focuses on one niche market. Has original artwork and developed a following over time. I was not a well known airbrush artist like the ones that appear on magazines and have published instructional books. But I had mad skills and could keep up with the best. The only way I was able to support my family by airbrushing was to sell airbrushed t-shirts priced under $18. I could paint these simplified designs in under 5 minutes each and have a steady income of $900-$1500 each week by staying booked at outdoor fair events and indoor malls during winter. Every time I would attemt to stray away from simple t-shirt designs I could not make more than $150 per week. One can not survive and support a family on $150 each week here in the US. I had a love for this type of airbrush artwork from the age of 15 y/o and the only reason I airbrushed for so many years. If I could do it all over again, I would stray away from wearable items unless I was only painting for the popular stars. Your average consumer will always have a budget and will never see this type of artwork as an investment if painted on clothing. Items designed for the stars that are worn by that star will always gain value if ever available for sale. For that reason I decided to either convert to airbrushing on canvas to be appreciated as an artist or stop airbrushing all together. I chose the later and picked up a regular job as it was easier. Danielle, Your type of leatherwork is different from what one can find on this forum. Even though you only paint on leather and don't construct the leather item, it still is a wearable leather product that some of us run into the same pricing issues. Thor is right about using your connection with Alice Cooper and aim at making reproduction vest for his fans. Many artist already do this with great success. We don't know the story of how you ended up airbrushing leathers for Alice Cooper and if it was commissioned work or just donated on your behalf. Whatever the reason it sure looks great on him. Chris

As you can see, when using a projector as a tool, one doesn't have to copy every line. If you compare my finished example you can see that I changed the background layout and added some other detail to the yellow fin tuna design originally taken from the beer label. This is how I use the projector and still have artistic freedom to create vs. copy. Chris

okay billybopp, this was a quick demonstration on using an opaque projector. Originally I was just going to dye and antique this test piece but decided to add color instead. I had applied more cuts for the purpose of using the antique paste on this test piece than if I had planned ahead to just paint. I only had access to my paint brushes so that's what I used to apply the Angelus acrylic leather paint. I know I have some nice illustration quality airbrushes stored away that I need to find to blend and fade colors easier than just using a paint brush. It worked out okay for this test but could have been better with the right tools. This demo also shows you that one needs to plan your cuts ahead as too many may be a bit too much. But that's another chapter in laying out your design for tooling. I still need to have a metal plate welded to my bracket so I can finish my over head mounting plate.

From my understanding on patents, all have key points that make it unique. Each key point has to be changed 51% if one wanted to attemt to copy without infringement. Like mentioned, today it takes a bunch of money to have a patent. Most companies don't bother with wording or design patents as that would be tossing cash out the window. Instead, they focus on unique materials used such as metals, chemical products and man made materials. Now if one was to alter it by 51% you end up with a material that might be useless. When using natural material such as wood, leather, I don't think anyone can own a patent on such materials.

Some people think that using a projector as an art tool is considered cheating or not really drawing at all. Since one is not taking the time to layout your design by hand and making this a speed way of producing art. I guess it all depends on how one uses this tool. I for one use it as a guide and don't always follow and copy every line. That was the way I used my projector when I used to airbrush. I was never taught how to properly use this tool. Well, I was never really taught how to use an airbrush or pencil, pen, paint brush, pastels, charcoals, prismacolors, acrylics and even this swivel knife. I just picked them up one day and started doing it. Tools are designed to save you time and making you get to the fun part faster. Chris