MonicaJacobson

Always excited to see what you make!

Quite nice! Keep it up.

Very slick looking. I love the way the strap tucks in.

Very nice!

I don't do braiding myself, but from what I've seen, yours is quite nice! Your carving might need a little more practice, but it is not at all terrible, either. I also don't do sheridan, so yours is way beyond mine.

Good point, mlapaglia

I don't know what the white conditioner would be.... maybe check the label. If it's just a conditioner, it won't seal anything. And in that case, any water that gets on that back will transfer straight onto someone's clothes. There's a variety of sealing options: saddle lac, super sheen, mop-n-glow cut 50/50 with water, or resolene cut 50/50 with water. I use the resolene, and put on 3 light coats, one every 12 hours.

I really want one, maybe sometime soon.

Thanks, AP. I'll have to see if I can find larger pictures of that stuff. It looks cool.

Nice work, Dave. I especially like the re-purposed coins. Did you seal the antiquing? Just asking, because when I first used it, I didn't read the bottle and didn't notice it was water soluble. Maybe I'm the only serial label ignorer around. Also, I think your stamps would work better if you case the leather. You get it wet on both sides (people vary on how much), roll it up, pop it in a bag, and let it sit overnight in the 'fridge. Next day pull it out and let it dry until it's still cold, but has returned pretty much to the normal color of the leather. You'll be amazed at the better impression you get with the stamp. Also, it helps to have a marble slab to stamp on. People get them from marble cabinet makers for practically free. Anyway, nice, and congrats on coming up with your own design. That's something that will help you out a lot in leatherworking.

Cool wallets! You may end up sticking to floral designs, but I think these are pretty sweet.

Cool small bag, as well. Aren't you ridiculously thorough.

LOL, Texas Jack. Wow.

I Love these, Trevor.

Nice thing is, if you move the lever lower, your leg should keep the thread from catching.

That is sweet. Both the car and the trunk.

Sweet tooling and dying...

Nice little case! I really like that stamp.

Wow, the resin is a very cool touch.

Once you get to 8spi and beyond, you have to look for smaller thread and needles, so 7.5 seems a good way to go.

Meleon, it looks quite nice. I think, like cyberwolfe said, it'll age nicely. Besides, you could always call it intentional, like some sort of wood grain thing.

Cool, thanks Tom!

I know, there's something really nice about a bag lined with a cool fabric. I'm teetering on the edge, trying to decide about lining. But then you have to figure out how to get it to stay on without fraying, etc. Folded between two layers of leather with edge tape or something? I've seen so many bags that are fine, but the frayed lining really makes you feel like the bag is toast. Saddle stitching isn't hard, and it's actually very relaxing. You do have to plan on everything taking a while, but there's a separate market for things that are saddle stitched, so it's not a complete waste of time. Thanks, likewise! I'm interested to see what you keep making. I love the mixed leather and fabric, and there are so many things you can do with that. By the way, I am seriously in love with the gold silk lining you used on the Lulu evening bag. Really gives it some serious class. Using recycled fabric and leather forces your products into unusual circumstances and looks that I think really make it look unique. But they also don't look cobbled together like so many upcycled and recycled things. They look like very intentional fashion statements, and I think that's cool.

My husband says the dyes contain heavy metals, and while that's not really a problem for occasional use it could become problematic if you handle the stuff every day for twenty years. As I'm hoping to do leatherworking for more than twenty years, I figure I should use gloves. Unless I forget. Which happens all the time. Thanks! I'm really trying to make a man-bag this time. I keep trying and things go south. Or feminine, I should say. The piping is just an extra strip of leather folded between the gusset and the bag - I've never even done piping in fabric before, so I can only assume that's the normal way to do it. I'm sewing it all by hand, mostly because I get so frustrated with machines. And I'm short on machine work space. And long on small children who would just love to mess with the settings on a sewing machine. Yes, I was gluing a few straps together (clamped while they dried) before sewing them on. It probably would get damaged (though I think not too bad, unless I'm heavy-handed), but I'm actually replacing the whole top of the gusset, so that shouldn't be a problem.