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For those interested in a Lucris Cutting Press, there is currently one on Ebay Australia for sale http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/MA-Series-3-Cutting-Press-Craft-Clicking-Footwear-Saddlery-Leathercraft-Felt-ONO-/281278590736?pt=AU_Art_Supplies&hash=item417d82af10&_uhb=1 By the photos it looks like a slightly older model by the handle shape, I've never seen one on Ebay Australia before in the five years I've been looking. Not sure if the person selling it will post overseas as it does have pick up only but it couldn't hurt to ask. I'm in no way associated with the seller if it had been in WA I might of been able to spring for it but the extra funds needed for postage will put it over my budget at the moment so unfortunately it's come up at the wrong time for me but thought this might be a handy heads up for someone else who is looking for one.

You can find small stitch marker wheels in fabric stores, my mum uses one for some of the hand stitching she does on her quilts.

I'd drop them an email minimal Oz, I've been buying Ritza for quite awhile and I usually get my order within 1-2 weeks depending on what postage they decide to use.

Very cool, that's a fine looking scabbard you have there.

What size and thickness of leather are you wanting to die cut, I had Texas custom dies make me some mallet punches the biggest one is 6.8 inches long by 2.8 inches wide I can comfortably cut up to 4oz thick with it, it might be able to do a bit more but I don't have the strength for it.

I've got a couple of small bottles of stain and it's listed as an acrylic water based antique finish in the Fiebings book.The small bottles also have acrylic on them, so it looks like there still could be two versions of the stain.

If you want a bright blue out of the bottle Angelus is going to be your best bet, Fiebings blue is more like navy to me. In terms of brightness for the blue dyes I've used it's been Angelus, Craftsha (water based from Japan), Fiebings then Birdsall (Australian dye).

Same for me, I wish he would start posting his work here again some absolutely stunning carvings on his facebook page.

The book is the Leather Tools one it only has about half a page though. You might want to check out Kara Ginther's work she uses small woodcarving tools which might be a little difficult for you to hold like the swivel knife but it might give you an idea of how it looks compared to swivel knife bevel tool carving.

Yes, there is an example of it in one of the Al Stohlman books. I don't have my books handy at the moment so can't tell you exactly which one, I'll get back to you later unless someone else is able to chime in first.

That's some nice looking work there David.

Sorry about the links not working I've been replying from my iPad which I normally don't do so I'm not sure what is going on. Yep I agree looks like there is money to be made if you can pull it off, I've come from a graphic design background myself and marketing it right would have you on to a winner the trouble is leather is an expensive product compared to synthetic stuff and there is no getting around that. Directly working with a tannery to get the quantity it sounds like you want to use is likely going to be your best bet. Not to put a dampener on your enthusiasm to get started but to begin with you might find it beneficial to learn about the different leather tannages as I'm not sure at the moment that you quite understand the complexity of it ie your not going to be able to do alum or chrome tanning in your basement due to the types of chemicals used.

Ah ok most likely alum or chrome bit hard to tell without actually seeing it in person. One question what section of the market do you predominantly want to cater to high end (ie those who spend a lot on their gloves), kids, weekend warriors etc. I'm asking this because if you want to cater to the high end market and they find out you are using cheap veg tan lacing on their high end gloves it's not going to go down well especially if the dye bleeds, kids or the weekend warriors it's probably not going to matter so much. As you want to expand I would probably stay away from Tandy like Grandpa Joel I agree there mostly for craft grade stuff and after doing some more searching around I can't find anywhere that would recommend veg tan for lacing baseball gloves as a business it's just not the type used for them. I'm not sure where you are in the US but heres a tannery who seems to specialize in what you want http://www.tntanning...g...ndex.html even if they can't supply they would be able to give a better idea of the leather tanning characteristics you need.

I repair sports goods but as baseball isn't that big where I am I only know a little bit about the gloves and usually pass on them when they come in but I'll help where I can. I can say though I've never seen the lacing done in straight vegetable tan which is what your link is. The trouble I can see with dyeing it in thin strips is it might shrink and become extremely stiff I see you want the lacing to be stiff but with cheap veg tan it's likely to crack as well if it's not conditioned properly with some sort of oil then you will need to put a final finish on it as well as the dye may bleed if the leather surrounding it becomes damp sweaty or wet (not sure if you guys play when it's raining, cricket gets stopped here if it's heavy). Dip dyeing the whole hide might be possible but your going to need a large area to do it in, it's going to be messy and your still likely to have the stiffness and dye bleeding problem. With the strips and whole hide dyeing your also going to have a fairly increased labour time it's not going to be a quick process you might be looking at 2-3 days before the lace is ready to be used on a glove. There is also the cost of the dye,conditioner and finish as well as consumables like gloves, drying racks, containers etc to consider. I think this is probably why latigo is used as glove lacing as your not going to run into these problems with it, have you looked into buying directly from a tannery or buying it in spools instead of cut strips. I came across this place http://www.buyfastpitchgloves.com/glovecare/bulklace.html they seem to do quite a few colours so might be worth checking out for that option until you can locate a tannery.

The price from Abbey will be cheaper for us as we don't have to pay their VAT that's where the discount comes from. I mostly buy needles and dye from Birdsall, haven't actually been in there yet would be nice to see it in person one day.

I buy from Abbey in the UK as well, no one in Australia stocks it. There is something similar called Zircon available from here http://mrecht.com.au/products-categories/thread/polyester-braided-thread-zircon/ and also Mox available from Birdsall or ebay. I use Tiger though as it comes in more colours, Zircon and Mox only come in black, brown, yellow and white. I buy my needles from Birdsall though

Great looking bag Gamber,just one thing to keep in mind though if you start promoting your work with this sort of artwork and want to sell it you might want to look into copyright and trademark law as you might run the risk of an infringement at some time. There is one forum I've heard of for selling leather stuff, I'm not a member though so I'm not sure how it exactly works might be worth checking out though http://supertalk.superfuture.com/ Your bag would also fit in with the style the custom denim jeans kiddies like so you might want to do some searching for those kind of forums as well.

The Stohlman Step by Step by Peter is available through Tandy but not the Coloring one. Jimmy, Hidecrafters has closed and their stock was bought out by DoubleK Leather they have the book listed on their website here http://doublekleather.com/index.php/shop-online/educational/books/the-main-technique-detail

I ended up getting my copy off ebay as I had trouble getting hold of Peter as well a few years ago, gave me a quote for shipping which I was happy with but I couldn't get hold of him again to do the payment. I think he has a Facebook page you could maybe try that.

Craftsha and Batik from Japan have a grey dye, they are both water based dye though. I prefer the Craftsha over the Batik as it has a funny smell to me kind of like vinegar, don't let the water based put you off though they are much better quality the Ecoflo stuff. I got it from Goods Japan he doesn't seem to have the Craftsha listed at the moment but should be able to get it in. Here is their colour chart http://www.craftsha....em/senryou.html you might have to run that through google translate. Just had a look at my colour test swatch and it's about two shades darker on leather.

I did some experiments with this a few years ago minus the liquid pectin though, you can get some really nice colours especially if you are after bright vibrant ones the trouble is they are not very light fast and fade pretty quickly so I wouldn't use them on anything that gets a lot of light.

Just mostly a preference thing I think I started using it cause the leather stuff I repair used it originally. I do like that it sits flatter and doesn't fray again a preference thing. Not sure if it's because I'm a lefty but I found linen difficult to work with, braided polyester thread does seem to be more popular in Australia, New Zealand and the UK compared to the US from what I've seen though. TXAG you will be a lot happier with the John James much better quality compared to the others. I use 001 size with 1mm thick Tiger on 7-8 oz leather. Just had a look at the website I ordered from in Australia and it says size 1 the packaging has 001 on it though so yours could be 002 and 004.

Hi Bob, I'm a little unsure as to what you want to do as sometimes the terms are a little different between Australia and the US ie are you wanting to draw a design onto leather like what I showed in my picture, cut the design with a knife for bevelling or make a craftaid (tapoff) to be able to push the design into the leather or even actually cut the product pieces out. If it's the last one the knives aren't big or strong enough to be able to that on the small hobby cutters. Your Mimaki cutter should work for design tracing as long as it has flat tables attached front and back, it may work work without them but I can see the stylus possibly going out of alignment due to the weight of the leather hanging over the edges. Didn't know that about Photoshop CC having 3D print, I'm still on CS6 none of the print shops I work with wanted to use Adobes new rent only option so I didn't see the need to upgrade yet.

Hi Bob, Not sure of how much you know about the process from what you wrote but you will need some more software other than photoshop to make a compatible file for the 3D printer. 3D printers use stl files and photoshop can't generate those it can export obj which you can then convert to stl, the cheapest ie free way to do it is with Blender www.blender.org I have used Shapeways and for small stuff 3D printing it's great if you want to do larger tracings though say A5 and above another idea would be to use a flatbed vinyl cutter with stylus attachment. As with the hobby 3D printers they can have a tendency to warp large modeIs, I plan on getting my own 3D printer sometime for smaller stuff but don't have the space for one at the moment. For larger tracing designs I'm currently using a Klic n Kut Maxx www.knkusa.com here is an example of the tracing it can do, it can trace directly onto leather up to 12oz thick. Let me know if you would like any further information on either process.

They don't have American bladders, only rugby and the valves are different, I tried to buy from them at one time as I repair old rugby/Australian and American footballs but they were difficult to deal with as they weren't set up for online payments. I ended up buying from a place in the UK called http://sportsballuk.co.uk the fellow has been ill though so I'm not 100% sure if he is still doing them or not. You used to be able to get replacement bladders from the Wilson factory in Ada, Ohio cost between $5-$15 can't remember exactly as it's only for US residents, if you are only making one ball it will probably be easier to just buy a cheap ball and get the bladder out of that as the Wilson bladders are made of TPU and designed to fit their footballs with the cheaper balls the bladders are butyl or latex and you have more leeway with the fit. Let me know if you need any help with the best way to sew it together as there is a knack to it if your using certain types of leathers.