Buddahcjcc

Not that I dont follow advice, the guy was trying to not sell me anything until I came back to thew place with drawings, a layout, all kinds of planning (this is a place two or more hours away). If I said that in a way that made it look like I dont take any advice, that wasnt my intent. I just tend to tackle things probably tougher than I should to start something. Thats how I learn. Um maybe the better way to explain it is he was trying to get me to work with a plan when my creative method works best without a plan... Dunno how to explain it though. Ive tried drawing up plans and such, it tends to kill my interest. Ill look at the video. I find it hard to learn to tie knots or anything from pictures lol Like the sheath video. He says to put the leather in the oven as low as it gets. Im assuming thats why it became that dark brown. Im dying it black so that color may not matter. But Ive read elsewhere that putting ikt in the oven it a bad idea. I decided to try it out to see as I didnt have a place to ask anyone their thoughts. Its less that I wont accept advice. Im asking because you all are more ecperienced than I am. Im just really bad at communicating from what Ive heard in the past and now lol Thx a lot for your ideas and advice!

Im cosplaying (for the first time ever) as a Death Eater from Harry Potter or my version of one (as he has a staff I carved myself and they dont use then that I know of in HP). Ill include pictures of the whole costume so you can see what Im going for. https://www.etsy.com...search_type=all for the cloak http://www.ebay.com/...y-/141139507630 the mask (Im thinking of painting the silver bits a lilac to match the cloak, and maybe making the bracers (well the next one I make) with either a lilac/purple trim or not painting it and haming the bracers with a silver trim http://www.ebay.com/...=item4acf96586c as the pants http://www.ebay.com/...=item460bbe32d6 as the shirt http://imgur.com/a/baSd1#0 thats the alblum for the staff I carved Then making black dyed bracers/wand sheath What Im looking to do in a leatherworking vein is making bracers and on one of those bracers, placing a friction sheath for a wand, Ive started work on that sheath already, and have the top part drying atm. I havea rotary hole punch, hand punches as well, but most of my other tools are just a utility knife. Sorry about the huge picture, I didnt realize it was formatted so big -.- but thats the top part of the friction sheath and the want that will be going in it. http://youtu.be/SIOGDykXJFQ is the tutorial I used on that.As for the bracers, this alblum (to avoid posting lots of gigantic pics) has my attempts at making bracers so far: http://imgur.com/a/Pu94t#0 The tutorial I used for the bracers is here: http://www.geocities...er_tutorial.htm Im using a big (to me anyways) sheet of leather, it was marked 7/9 dunno what that means but the guy who was their bracer maker suggested it for my work - mind you he also tried very hard to get me to not buy anything at all and in fact had me talked out of the whole idea at one point, but I decided I know how my creative process works better than he does (he was saying that I basically CANT make a bracer without having detailed plans laid out in advance to what Im going to do. MY process on creating things doesnt work like that lol). Also, my process works best if I do things to learn them if that makes sense. ALSO; I tend to do things way outside of my experience range because thats HOW I learn. When I suggested that I was going to make a bracer with a friction sheath wand holder as my first ever leather working wroject, my friend (who has much, much more experience with this than I fo - so he knows what he's talking about, it just doesnt work well for me) suggested I try things WAAAY easier first, but that never appeals to me. Im a jump in with both feet kind of guy. The main issues Im having atm is how do I finish the ends of the leather and barring actually having the tool (the nearest leatherworking shop to me is about a two hour drive so I have to do as much as I can without the tools before I think of going all the way out there to think of getting them), how can I finish them? Ive had a friend tell me a bit about endging but Im finding I have no idea what he's talking about and was hoping for some help on that part. Im also having a bit of an issue with getting the bracer to fit "right". Im a big guy, my wrists are smaller around than my forearm pretty significantly (hey, Im workin on it, I lost 8 pounds recently) how would I adjust that to the fit? Also; Im torn between making the bracers look traditional (here meaning how I see them in other pictures) and having eyelets with laces or buying some smaller buckles and having three or so straps that secure the bracer to my wrist (Im leaning heavily on that one because another part of the costume are Tanker boots and they "lace up" without laces, they are leather straps and buckles, so it would go together Lastly; I have no idea how to stitch leather. I got the rotary tool because when I went to Lowe's looking for an awl, the guy there (who said he was a leatherworker) said the punch would be better for the holes for the stitches. Any help/assistance in all this would be amazing!