kaerkes

high quality work here!

Salud to everyone! We show you another mushroom carving to add to our fungi collection. All critcs are wellcome!

kjiasjiasjias! appearence usually lies! you just have to look all those respetable old man wearing impeccable suits... who could think they are not just thieves, but serial killers too. (i am speaking about politicians).

thank you both of you for your comments! i aprreciate each idea/advice. greydrakkon: we make turns between the artisans too keep an eye on the possible thieves, we place ourselves in the middle of the room(outside of the kiosks) so the certain risk you comment are more or less controled. about the info paper you are more than right, we will follow your advice! about the color contrast we will try to choose another kiosk for this season. taintedelephant: very nice ideas again, the keyrings will look really nice with these setup!

yes! it is provided buy the market, i really dont like the setup, this is the reason i started the thread. thanks for the feedback taintedelephant!

wellcome carlson! i'm impressed... those shoes! difficult to believe you can do these magnifique shoes at your age and with only 5 months on the craft. you have a nice future like an artisan.

brilliant clean work!

really beautiifull and inspirng words jazzman. i also think in leathercraft as a shelter for this crazy world, as in other traditional manual works is not difficult to find in leather some kind of well-being feeling that definetly can enrich, even transform, our lives. just getting lost in a personal project in which you explore your creativity and express yourselve can get a therapeutic effect, if you add that you have to be aware of present moment and you can imagine that this is a good thing to put your time on. so... keep on working!

Salud to everyone! I start this thread asking for your leathercraft stalls/kiosks to sell your works in markets or streets. I think i have a lot to improve in this particular issue and I think it would be very interesting to see how we organice our stuff for selling. I start sharing our little stall on an indoor handcraft market in a small village of my area.

absolut amazing result jlsleather!

thank you very much fot the feedback! OdinUk. You are totally right, it look much better with an elaborate lacing work. Twin oaks, i understand this halo effect you talk about. Is that the tool that you suggest? http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g138/mahtosapa/leather%20tooling/LTT026.jpg I really have a few tooling tools, so maybe i have to start thingking on buying others to complete my basic kit.

I would like to share an impressive documentary done in our country about the rotten industry of leather in india. It is in spanish so i know it will be difficult for most of us but maybe you can find subtitles online. Modern slavery(usually with children involve), lethal toxic products and of course huge transnacional companys making their dirty money. A great journalist work discovering again that what we buy cheap in the first world it is expensive for lives and enviroment a thousand miles away from us. So choose your suppliers right! http://www.rtve.es/television/20150415/documentos-tv-bangladesh-cuero-toxico/691540.shtml

Hi! Another unusual subjects for leather carving. Kill bill and pulp fiction custom wallets, using the shade of the main characters. Any critique is wellcome!

Relly clean edges, nice works Slim! aquinn: i think it is hard to find a standard on the humidity issue, each tann leather is different and unique. I use to put water in different layers until i see that it takes some time to get dry in the surface, then i inmediatly start to cut and emboss, in elaborate patterns i use to put more water when the skin is getting to dry. I supose it is a question of practice until you know the ideal humidity factor, nowadays i recognice it just for the color of the surface!. Sorry for my english! it is hard to explain this things!

Thank you monica! Mushrooms (specially boletus) are really easy to carve, just a few simple rounded lines and it become realistic with the colour. This tiara model is the fruit of lots of brain pains, searching how to do it clean and quick. Finally the solution was to attach the carved items into the lacing rope with simple sewing thread trough the holes on the flowers/butterflys.

This is the ing attitude mate!

Rage against these machine! Nevertheless this trhread has give lots of good ideas to make similar effects just with hands. Thank you all for your contributions!

kjiasjiasjias! You really make me laugh jazzman! You only have to have 2 words in mind: patience and hard work! We have been hammering on leather only 2 years at this moment but lots and lots of hours fixed at the desk. We think like everything in life, practice is the phillosofer stone here. i think everybody can do maginfique things putting passion and perseveration on it. Innate talent is rare, most of us have to improve little by little trough hard-ing-working, and try-error circes.... Thanks for your funny words!

Thank you Thor! Your traditional carvings are awesome as well. And how to say about your log "cabin"... I love woodworking too and it is more than impressive. A god advice again respect the capitalist tourist, here the thing is bad in general, even worst for the artisans. The truth is that it is a very sad situation, we have to earn a living by having multiple jobs, we are artisans but farmers and pine resin harversters too!. Even working like beasts is definetly not easy to survive here. For that reason we have decide to expand our frontiers by open an etsy shop at the end of the year... About our leather: We have only one supplier, our man is Genaro, who represents now the 5th generation of his family tradition on leather tanning. Visiting his "tenería" is like walk into a past century where he manteins alive all the traition of veg tanning. He lives in a town at 30 kilometers of our village so it is not exactly the "andaluz" tan that you search but in our opinion his work whith the skin is magnifique. I give you your web, for sure the most modern tool that he uses: /www.elcurtidorartesano.com You can find the contact on the site, he dont speak english so if you have problems to contact just tell us!

Thank you for the feedback! You are right, not very common subject, i like to introduce strange references in some of our carving works. Although traditional subjects as sheridan style or celtic and nature patterns are amazing, we cannot ressist to include freak references that we love in special pieces. In this "freak" section we include subjets from mangas, bands, movies, books or artists that we love. We are going to post more of this material soon. Have a nice weekend!

Thank you all for the feedback! I am truly fascinating with this forum, crowded of high quality leather artisans, i think all your knowledge would take my crafts to a new level! Monica: I enter in your shop and i have to say your work is impressive. Clean, elegant, original. And yes, in the future i will take seriously your advice and learn how to stitch properly.

Hi! I'd like to share one piece that kept me hitting the hammer a long time. It was for a tablet case for a friends and these are the main characters of an awesome manga of Hiroaki Samura, called Blade of the inmortal. I am not used to carve such detailed patterns so it was really challenging to me. Hope you like it and as allways all critiques are well recieved.

Thank you for the answers! And Rohn i abolutely agree with your comment, the bag whould loook much better with an elaborate lacing like you say. The fact is here in my country it is very hard to sell this items with its truly price, just the tooling and colouring the butterfly takes me a lot of hours, if i spend more time lacing the piece will become a "luxury item" a few people could buy. Conclusion: i have to practice and improve all my skills to work faster to be able to increase the quality of my work with details like lacing.

Holy shit! Serious carving skills in this piece but i have just get in touch (trough this post) with Vitalys gallcaery for the first time and i have to say it: you are a legend on tooling. Pure handcraft at its best.

I use to have the same problem, my own personal solution is increase patience(very difficult some times). I leave the pieces 48 hours(!!!) before finishing layer.