That's really useful, Kathy. I will do it that way, the names you mentionned are quite famous in the field I am learning.
I finally found vegetable tanned leather in Switzerland, all quite far away but mailing works well. I have the impression that the very few tools I found here are quite expensive and so I order them from the USA. I am just trying to build up knowledge of "chemical" suppliers for glues, finishing, paints, etc... for it's less expensive to avoid extra charges from customs from the USA, but US brand names are not easily available here and so I have to figure out what can be an equivalent product.
Attached is a view from my balcony, taken this summer (I like the sky). Immagine you land in Milan by plane (neares tintl. airport, about 40 minutes away). you are in flat land (the plain of the Po River with Lombardy, Piemont, Veneto etcc.. basically Northern Italy) then you drive North to the Switzerland border. After about 20 minutes you can see the first mountains of the Alps, the one you can see in the pictures. These are actually pre-Alps (about 3-4500 feet), the real ones come just beyond them (Mount Blanc, Mattherhorn, Eiger etc...), about 1 more hour drive and more if you move alond the crest directions...