yodersj

I have a older leathercraft book that talks about gold leafing. If I recall correctly the gist was stamping the gold leaf into the leather. Will be glad to dig it up and type out that part of the chapter, if anyone is interested. What I've been using is liquid gold leaf. Stinks and the fumes are bad for you, so get a good filter mask if you want to use it. What I do is apply a sealer first, let dry (over night typically, but I think I've moved on as early as four hours). Then the liquid gold leaf. After that dries (see sealer drying), I apply a coat of triple thick clear acrylic glaze over top. I have found that without two coats of the sealer Fiebing's oil dye will cause a reaction after about 3-4 weeks, it goes dark at least with the brass liquid leaf. Fiebing's acrylic dye will cause tiny dark spots to appear (smaller reaction) with no sealer at all. Here is roughly what I'm using: http://decoart.com/cgi-bin/Products.cgi?Multi-Purpose_Sealer http://www.amazon.com/Plaid-6110-Liquid-Leaf-oz-Classic/dp/B000BZX2GS http://decoart.com/cgi-bin/Products.cgi?Triple_Thick_Gloss_Glaze I have also experimented with DecoArt's Metallics "Glorious Gold" acrylic. While I didn't use the sealer, I did top coat it with the clear glaze after drying. For small, thin areas it is almost equivalent to the liquid leaf. I've not tried either on larger areas. https://decoart.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Session_ID=c7ee2181adfaeaed43c2a1e3b48158cd&Screen=PROD&Store_Code=D&Product_Code=DAO71-3&Category_Code=DM Here are pictures of a test strip I did. I didn't try too hard to stay in the lines of the stamps, so don't judge it by that.

Read the thread WScott linked. Good stuff there. Another second on the lower-priced, small take-aways. Sometimes when the kids snap those up, they bring the parent(s) and/or friends back to the booth. That doesn't have to be all you have, but once we started including those things it seemed we had more repeat business within the same day or the next (if a multi-day show). Have a plan for what to do if sugary, wet, sticky hands handle your goods. Similar considerations for anything delicate. This can factor into your table arrangement. We wound up buying PVC tubing to raise the legs of our table, which was a straight leg type rather than the "X". We have more than just leather and dealing in salvaged, re-purposed antiques really drove this. We did keep the table low enough for it to be still be viewable if an adult was in a wheel chair and will hold up or bring around products for anyone shorter. For non-sale items - tape (scotch & duct), bottled water, and trail bars have saved us many times. Add plastic sheeting when doing outside shows. If inside and you want to hang a banner, get the 3M poster stuff that can be easily removed. The building owners/facilities manager will greatly appreciate it. Most of all, have fun and make friends. Your fellow crafters there will give you more tips that are specific to your area and show types.

Welcome and a second on checking out Zack White. I'll admit it has been about 18 years since I did business with them (got out of leather work for a time, now shipping is a little high for what I want). However, I hope to make a trip in the next few months to visit the store. They were wonderful to do business with when I dealt with them back when and I'm happy to see they are still around.

Hello all, Just got back into leatherwork after a 15 year hiatus (started back about 3 years ago). Started back with mostly small stuff - wristbands and stamping. Progressed into some mixed media, in the form of wire work and gold leaf, with a few larger pieces - a couple of messenger bags. Just a month ago I tried my hand at carving again, jumping right into with figure carving. Dyeing has never been a strong point for me, so I've been looking around for tips as I test ideas on scraps. Being a fan of Fiebings's oil dyes, these new fangled Eco-Flo water-based dyes have been confusing until another leather worker I met pointed out I would get better results with the Pro line. I'm kind of sad it is getting hard to find the oil dye at my local Tandy. Now that I've got something I want to add color to, I ran across this forum again (found it a while back, but was in a rush and forgot to come back to sign up) while digging for tips. At any rate, there's great information here. Not sure I can contribute much yet, but will be happy to help when and if I can to repay what I've learned already from here and what I will learn in the time to come. If you are interested, though the pictures aren't good, here is the saddle I made 20 years ago: http://www.flatmtn.c...e/saddle-making . While some of my newer work can be seen here (just the leatherwork): https://plus.google....320359304421697 Thank you all, Stephanie