MonicaJacobson

Thanks, everyone! And thanks for the advice, Greystone. The best thing about this forum is that there are so many good leatherworkers showing their work at every stage that it makes even difficult projects seem a lot less impossible.

Hi all, I've been working on my own until now, and after reading on here for a week and watching a few help videos, I regret every day I wasn't on here before! Oh well. A friend asked me to make a bag for her husband, which forced me into being a little bit more serious about leatherworking. Since then, I've made a few more. Tell me what you think! I know I've made a bunch of amateur mistakes... For one thing, my edging is inferior, I just found out that I shouldn't be using a stitching awl, and my dye work has definite problems. How on earth do you guys keep soft leather from going crooked as you sew it? It seems to be inevitable even if I count the holes. Do you start form the middle and each way?

Nice! I've been thinking of making a few camera straps, so it was helpful to see this!

Ha ha, this is awesome. Great job!

Wow, that's beautiful!

Cool book cover! And good idea -- mink oil sounds like something to have on hand. My husband had the idea of installing snaps directly into the inside sketchbook. Could be cool.

Oh well, it was silly to ask the question before I could post a picture of it. So here's a picture. My problem is that the paper lays on top of the flap holding the book into the cover. You can't comfortably write or draw on something so lumpy. Even without the blue strap it'd be bumpy. The only thing I've thought of is extending the leather flap all the way back to the spine of the interior book so that the surface is completely smooth and attaching it there somehow. Inside flap Very uninformative picture of the book in the cover (You might also notice that my dying is terrible. So it is... I've been resisting dip dying because of the cost, but I'm about to resign myself to it.) This person really got it figured out. (Also on etsy) However, that idea requires that you drill holes in a new sketch book after you've used up your old one. Most people wouldn't want to do that, I would wager. In further search of randomness, I've attached a diagram of the problem. Heh. I would just take more informative pictures of the actual leather cover, only it's in Texas and I'm in Georgia. Diagram Anyway, thanks for the help!

I hadn't even thought of that as a probvlem... maybe I should have! Heh. Thanks for the advice!

I made a large batch of presents (worked all of November and December) for my family back in Texas. I would especially like feedback on the art journal cover -- I need to figure out a way to make a journal cover that holds in the hardback journal/sketch book and doesn't interfere with sketching. If you see what I mean (I'll try to find the picture of it soon), the flap folds underneath and the square of stitching at the top and the bottom is a piece of leather that holds the flap closed and allows you to slip in a new cover. However, when you sketch, that means that the whole fold and strap makes a large bump all down the page. But none of the sketch book covers that I've seen deal with this problem. What are you supposed to do, use a piece of cardboard between the leather flap and your paper? That seems a bit lame. Here's an illustration for sale on etsy right now. It's a beautiful piece of work, but they are dealing with the same problem I am. If you try to draw in it, or even write, the flap of leather holding the book will interfere with your writing/drawing. Anyway, any help would be appreciated! By the way, the actual painting that I used on the art journal is by an amazing artist named Lisel Jane Ashlock. Monica

Thanks, King's X and Chief -- I'll be posting something in the show-off thread shortly. And Chief, another Georgian! Well, I'm from Texas, but my husband is from here. I was very surprised to move to Georgia and find that the trees grow so tall. After which, they fall down. Not a terribly pleasant surprise for a flat plains girl. But the shade is nice.

Hi Gary, welcome to LW! (Though I say it who should not -- I joined yesterday...) So.... I have a question for you already. I've been contemplating making very simple shoes (i.e. ballet flats) for a while now. How difficult is it to make them look nice? And do you need any special tools? Do you need to buy special soles, or can you, say.... bake some leather to make it particularly hard? Does anybody else here make shoes? As you can see, I have absolutely no idea. Thanks, Monica

Thanks very much for the feedback, and I'll certainly be ready to ask lots of questions.

Hi all! I started leatherworking about eight months ago, and I love it! I've joined this forum to hopefully learn some of the tricks of the trade and get inspired by other people's work! Thanks! Monica See some of my finished work here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TrimGoTrix?ref=si_shop And here's where I post work in progress: http://monica.martinjacobson.com/