Johanna

Where have you been getting your supplies so far? Many of the retailers have wholesale prices for businesses with tax numbers. What part of the world are you in? Welcome to leatherworker.net! Johanna

KAW, Since you control the quality of the rawhide you work with from start to finish, do you think that makes it better quality than what is available commercially, or is it more economical to do it yourself? Your work is so precise and meticulous, and I am really glad you shared pictures with us. I like the way you use the knots in your braids for function as well as aesthetics. Johanna

I think I understand the process a little better, now, looking at the pics. I knew there was a lot of work in making rawhide! It would be great if you would add a little more description of what you do, and why, because it looks like you have the whole thing down to a T. How many hides do you use in a month? Where do you get your raw hides from? Pardon my ignorance, but I'm used to leather & rawhide coming off a store shelf, and I'd love to learn more about your methods, if you have time to explain. Johanna

Dale Hietala, a gifted artist and a dear friend, succumbed to my relentless arm twisting and did a great step-by-step tutorial of how he carved a mountain lion. https://www.leatherworker.net/mtnlion/index.htm Give the page a moment or so to load. Thank you so much, Dale, for sharing with us! Johanna

See if Billy 2-Shews' explanation helps: http://leatherworker.net/technique.pdf Johanna

You mentioned the Hoosier Leathercrafters Guild as not being very active- I'm assuming you are in Indiana? The Central Indiana Leathercrafters Guild is alive and well- are you anywhere near Indianapolis? I'm near Ft. Wayne, but in Ohio. If you want to PM (private message) me where you are, maybe I can introduce you to some folks? You received some good advice above. Browsing this site is a good start, and are some good books available at Tandy. Pick a project you want to start with, a pick one of the simpler ones. Assemble the tools you need and give it a try. With each successful completed project, your skills and confidence will improve. You can always ask a question here and someone will likely know, and someone else will have something in their scrap bin to prove it. None of us got any good without a few mistakes! Welcome to leatherworker.net ! Have fun here. Johanna

Suze, Underneath the portion where you type your message is an "add this attachment" and a browse button. Once you've located the pic, then click "add this attachment" If you want it to appar in a particular part of the post, click "add into post" after putting your cursor in the desired position. Please please post some of your family's miniature work. I know everyone here would love to see it, even if it isn't "leather" talk. The folks here would appreciate all the thought that went into the details, trust me. If you don't want to take the pics, let me come over and take some, okay? Don't be shy, no one here bites. (you have to go to the adult area for that!) Post pics! It's easy! (hint hint) Johanna

Do you skin the animals and make your own rawhide, too? Beautiful braids and knots. Welcome to leatherworker.net! Johanna

Hey, Susie! Glad to see you! Now folks, I know most of you are aware of my utter lack of artistic and creative talent. That's because my cousin here got it all. She is also an active SCA member. If the leather bug does bite, Susie, you know you are always welcome in my shop. She taught me the golden rule..."there is no such thing as scraps, just stuff we haven't used yet." Welcome, Cuz! Johanna

I put the tools away when I'm done, and get them out again five minutes later, but it's easier than searching though everything to find the rivet setter or whatever. It's a few extra steps, but I don't mind. I like my kitchen the same way- when I go in to cook a meal, I don't want to clean up the last one that we ate before i can start. In the shop, I want to start each job with a clean bench, and all the tools where they belong. Since I put them away as I'm using them, clean up is never too hard. Tangent- I'm with you about kids in the shop! Especially little ones who don't know that the blade is sharp, the chemical is poison, the string shouldn't get wrapped around the neck... My kids are older, and if i go downstairs, they all want to follow. They get in my way, and they want to look at this and touch that while I'm trying to get something done. I made a rule that only one at a time could be by the bench, and the rest had to sit on the stairs, rotating every five minutes. It made me crazy trying to make sure no one was smacking my stamps into dry leather or on the marble, no one was chasing anyone with my spray bottle and someone else wasn't taking some of my better scraps to cut up and mangle. If I want to do a project with the kids, I organize it ahead of time, give each of them their own space and supplies, and try not to have anything distracting me while I keep an eye on them. It's not so much for their safety any more (my kids are 7, 9, 10 & 13) but the protection of my tools. Anyone who has ever watched someone use a belt strap cutter without scrap leather or a poundo board knows exactly what I mean. Biggest rule- NO ONE touches the head/round knives. They are all in sheathes, and there is no reason at all to get them out, for that is nothing but an accident that will involve the ER just waiting to happen. My husband says they will grow up and move out into their own homes someday. I hold on to that fantasy on the difficult days. 18 days until school starts. >YEAH!!< Johanna

Kathy had some technical difficulties. Not with the leather, obviously. Johanna

More sad news this morning. Dan Thomas, grandson of Darwin Ohlerking, asked me to pass this along to everyone: Hello Everyone, It is with a sad heart that I wish to inform the leather art community that Darwin Ohlerking passed away this morning (4 August 2007) after a brief battle with liver cancer. We did happen upon some of the posters' comments regrading my grandfather which we shared with him and he valued highly. If you wish to send words of sympathy or memories to his wife, you may e-mail them to me here and I will see to it that she receives them, or mail them to her directly at: Jo Ohlerking 515 N. Kirkwood Eagle Grove, IA 50533 Sincerely, Dan Thomas (grandson) Dan, I will be sure to send condolences to your grandmother. I admired your grandfather's work, and was lucky enough to meet him at several shows, years ago. He was generous with his time and explanations, and had many friends in the leatherworking community. He will be missed, and our sympathy is with your family. Johanna

When they judge at shows, they do look for a finished interior, but it does not need to be colored. They do expect that the flesh side is smooth. With vegetable tanned leather, sometimes water and a good burnish, or rub with canvas or deerskin is sufficient. If an item is going to be worn, I prefer to use Leather Balm or some kind of wax for the burnish, because my skin is very sensitive, and it will break out in hives when I sweat on the raw leather. If I were entering an item in competition, I would wax it just for show, for a customer, it would depend on how well the leather took the standard water rub. Johanna

I have been going through the board and fixing links in signatures to be "clickable" (My Eighth Grade English teacher would have had a cow over that word!) If you have a website, consider adding the link to your signature so that interested persons can check out your work. Here's an example of how a "clickable" link looks: abnLeather bracket url= http://addy close bracket words you want to show url w/ a bracket Anyway, if I screwed up your signature, either fix it or yell at me. I'm not going to say I caught them all, but I know I fixed at least 50 last night. If you don't have a website, and want one, send me a PM. Johanna

21 days...21 days...21 days... Johanna

Sandpaper? Johanna

I excerpted this from an article I found in "Sunset" written by Peter Fish. King's Saddlery and King Ropes, 184 N. Main St., Sheridan, WY 82801; (800) 443-8919 Johanna

I think a problem is that many leatherworkers are not far enough "in the black" to even think about hiring help. If you approach someone who is willing to teach, you can't exect to be paid, at least not in this vocation. If that's okay with you, then by all means ask- and take some samples or pics of your work so they can get an idea of where you are at, skill-wise, and see that you are serious. Luke is right- back in the 40s-70s, leatherworkers and saddlers were reluctant to share their secrets. Some might not have wanted competition, some would have not been able to get their price if folks knew how easy it was to sew a seam or set a rivet. I think that old-school silence is over, and this board is evidence of that. People here ask questions and get answers, and no one seems too worried about spilling trade secrets. One leatherworker told me, "Why should I care if I tell how I do it? No one can duplicate MY work!" Makes sense to me. There's an old saying, "Each one, teach one." If 400 leatherworkers taught 400 leatherworkers who taught 400 more leatherworkers...well, you get the idea. I think there is plenty of work for everybody to go around. Azmal, it sounds like you had a bad experience with your teacher. Were the terms of your agreement spelled out ahead of time, or did you just fall into a situation? I don't think you need to worry about protecting what you know any more. You've shown an ability to do your own thing, in your own style. Grumpy, one thing to keep in mind about leatherworkers is that the majority of them are solitary kinds of people. They may not be receptive to having someone in the shop, just because they would be expected to hold conversations. I suspect some folks here type more words than they actually say in the course of a day! So don't get discouraged if no one says, "Yes!" right away. It might not have anything to do with you, just that some folks like to work alone. That said, if you can possibly attend the IFoLG show in Ft. Worth in October this year, you will meet people from all over the world who share an interest in leather, and will talk for that weekend, anyway! You will be able to put faces to many of the names you see on this board. And when you assess the crowd, you will be surprised at the variety- suits and jeans, old and young, happy and grumpy (oh, wait, those are dwarves!) but you get the idea. Plus you can play with all the vendor stuff! Let us know how your search goes. Johanna

I second Billy P's book suggestions. Good choices for the basics and a little extra to grow on. Beezachoppa is here, along with some other seat makers. David Theobald and Beeze both did step-by-step "how to build a seat" posts, and I just sit here and wish I had a bike to put one on, while I clean the drool from the keyboard. I like Bettie Page, too. Want access to the adult section? Welcome to leatherworker.net ! I may be biased, but I think we have some of the greatest leather talent in the world here already, and we're kinda new. Glad to have you here. Johanna

Matthew- he's looking for a braider, not the hair. If you don't get an answer soon, Kevin, let me know- I can think of at least three people off the top of my head who could do some nice work for you. Johanna

I am looking for a leather worker for a friend to do some custom motorcycle tank consoles and tool bags. He is OLD SCHOOL and refuses to get a computer. Do you do these types of requests or do you have contact information of anyone who does? Thanks for your help. Sincerely, KV2 PM Johanna for email addy

Luke, Office 2000 is your Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook etc. It's software to run on your Windows computer. When you boot the computer, what does the splash screen say? Which flavor of Windows do you have? Johanna

Luke, what OS version do you have? Johanna

July 25, 2007 Ban on Kangaroo Hides Puzzles Australians Here

Gremlin should be very proud of her leatherwork. I see you kept her busy burnishing too! I think it's great you have such an enthusiastic partner. You and Gremlin are sharing some special time- and it's true- they do grow up fast! One of mine was a baby just a short time ago, and now has an earpiece attached to a cord that runs somewhere in his pants doing I don't know what, and he doesn't talk much these days. Sigh. Thanks for sharing the story about Wallace, too. I had three Rottweilers, and they were not the evil beasts people thought. However, I knew I was the safest woman in town at night in bed! Nice work, Hoyden, keep tapping! Johanna