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Common Sense wins again. Great tip Bruce.

Looks pretty damn authentic to me...

Just 2 inches. Latigo lining might be interesting...I'll look through Zack White's bargain bin the next time I head that way...probably next week. This pic is on on Steve Mason's saddle blog. The upper right piece is what I'm talking about.

Beautiful work, again. What size are these "paintings"? What sewing machine are you using" What kind of time is involved.

Thanx Rayban. The next one will have that Latigo keeper doohingy, instead of the Dee Ring, with the reverse loop billet hanging of that. I have to get me a makers stamp.

Thanx everyone. What more saddle touches do YOU think can be added? I like the litle doodad addon the saddlers put their Makers Stamps on, the one with the slot...don't know what its called or what it's used for, but it's kewl. Then there is always the leather conchos...

I was trying to come up with a new design for a guitar strap, while I was drooling over saddle pictures. This is just a prototype. I didn't want to make the standard Western tooled type strap, but did want to incorporate a saddle feel to the piece. So...I used stainless steel D ring, and SS Bridle buckle, along with a turned back looped Billet strap. For the stain I used 3 parts Pure Neatsfoot oil, and 1 Part Feibing's Walnut Oil Dye. I can't afford lining leather yet, and there's no sense to sewing an entire single piece of leather, so I just pseudo-stitched for the look. I've got a few other ideas I could add, but for now, I think this gives a little bit of the saddle feel.

Wow! Just Wow!

There were too many funny titles running through my head for this Topic, so I just kept it simple. Anyways, there's a sea change apparently in the Woman's Bag Market. They need to carry more and more. For the fast moving Modern Woman, they practically need to carry Luggage around all day, so the Stores are asking the manufacturers to reinforce their product: "Although women are keen to carry a laptop and mobile phone charger along with their tissues and lip gloss, the bags are often unable to cope.To help them take the strain, Asda - which carried out the research --has asked its suppliers to strengthen the stitching and weight-bearing straps for the supermarket's range. " You big city leatherworkers might want to take note: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/fema...in_page_id=1879

Good tip skipknives... Here it is. The ad says it won't hurt jeweled stones. This might work on the ceramics? http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=4244

Happy Happy Bruce! Just remember: "Everyday You wake up, is a GOOD Day!"

Good tips broncobuster! What are you selling, when you're not sewing? Motorcyclists have a wide range of things they like. From Cuffs to Saddlebags. What's the best ones for you? What are they making you slave over most in the shop? Up there, doing that many shows! You have a limited time frame to put all those together, unless you are setting up indoors, or in the Blizzards...lol

The white stuff seems softer, and it takes more to lay down on a piece of leather. The red stuff seems harder, and goes down better. It seems to strop better too My opinion, if you can find red, use that. Of course, I was wrong once ...lol

Well, this thread goes further and further away from Street Shows! I guess websites are the modern equivalent nowadays. If you don't have a site, I would suggest getting Johanna to work on it right away. They take time to setup right and judging from her Administration, and Marketing of this Site, You are getting top quality Services. Make sure you have her setup the ability to shop online, with at least Paypal. Nothing worse than a site you have to call or write to price or buy. Online is IMPULSE. By themselves they aren't worth the powder to blow them to hell, though. Your website can sit for months and not get a single hit, never mind a customer. After you tell your friends and neighbors to look, what do you do? You have to promote. Business cards and advertisements that have the site on them. You have to join all kinds of forums, and Social Network sites to spread the word. You have to have a niche. If you spend hours promoting the site, you may start getting lucky with what product you become associated with. Guitar straps, Business cases...it doesn't matter, as long as Google starts bringing you up in the first few pages of searches. Someone searches for credit card cases, and your site comes up ahead of Macy's. That's when the site should start to pay off. The promotion of your site becomes a full time job. if you do a good enough job, enough orders come in and you are able to let the site sort of run on its own, with maybe just an hour or two now and then. When my wife and I were making container gardens, I had a simple little html site for purchasing. Nothing happened until I started joining all the garden forums, and yakking it up. Pretty soon afterwards, orders on the site started coming in from far and wide. When I slowed down the web promotions, so it went with the sales. I've got a fancy Drupal CMS site, that I started to blog my lefty stuff with. Mostly I was concerned about learning the CMS software. I got bored with both the software, and the blogging. The only good thing is the ability to allow joint Book writing. If you all want to write a leather book, I'ld be glad to help out on my site. I'm going to set up a site for my leather by spring. It will take me that long to rebuild my skill level to somewhere near marketable. In the meantime, I was hoping to figure some street shows, to earn enough money to invest in some leather and tools. As far as the Walmart crowd is concerned... Unless you have the skill level and product to attract the types of customers you want, you need to have the $300 belt as well as the $15 machine embossed blanks bought from TLC and others. That's business. When I had my shop eons ago, I sold anything and everything. From beads and Navajo jewelry to hash pipes. It doesn't matter. If you are paying for rent, you need to have something...anything that someone will part with a buck for. All the trucker's wallets, and cell phone cases you can produce, won't make enough money to pay the rent, and the doctor's bills. You physically can't produce enough, unless you have a specialty that demands real money, like Saddles, and Equestrian gear, or $650 Motorcycle seats. I'm ramblin' now. Actually, I've been rambling for at least three or four paragraphs...lol

If my translator is correct, Tjäderläderis is charging $16 a foot for belt leather!!! I don't know how much a krona can buy, but that's a lot of Coronas!!!

A hundred bucks for handsewn leather is Cheap!!!! Even if you figure only $15 an hour...4 or 5 hrs into the project, plus material, adds up quick! That guy know his market, so he was hoping to be at the price break he needed, I guess. That's where a sewing machine comes in for us guys.....The prototypes, and custom stuff is one thing. When you have to manufacture, it's another.

If you weren't in the West, I'ld say "That's Yankee Ingenuity". The bags...They look nice from that pic. How did you attach the bag onto the fender, and keep it from the spokes? I'm drooling for the pickup!double exclamation! See, that's what I'm trying to fathom. What is selling out there at the street fairs, and what price break. Is any of the fancy stuff moving, or is it all basic belts, and items. It's not everyone who can afford to set up a shop, considering the rent nowadays. And for sure we aren't all saddle caliber, but just about everyone on this board has the skill to make nice things. I can't believe there isn't a whole bunch of street vendors here, with a wealth of experience....

Nicely done. I like the red table color coming through the grommet holes....maybe a red liner, or red jewel snaps

I have had modest spending lately, just basics so far, but I have been lucky enough to live within 40 minutes of Zack White, and 45 min from a TLC. I know the belt leather I have bought from Zack's has been top notch; smoother backs, snappy tooling, and clean tops. The Bridle leather I got from there , may not be sedgewick, but it was real nice, soft as a babies ... , well, you know. He has a good supply of horse hardware; stainless buckles, d rings, etc. I haven't tried the tooling sides yet, but they look good. (He doesn't carry Herman oak anymore, although I did see two 4 oz Hermans sitting there. The TLC in Raleigh is small but clean, and the Mgr./Asst mgr seem pretty nice. If you deal there, ask about what's on the clearance table. I picked up some good stuff cheap.

Sounds like a nice day. Ogden doesn't seem like a rich town by any means, so what you saw is probably equal to the rest of the country. Sure would like to see a pic of the bicycle bag. That's kinda clever of you. Saddlebags in town might not work, but bike bags...hmmmm. Do you make one kind of cell phone case, or several to match the many kinds of phones?

Alright, who's the King or Queen of the Town and County Fairs? I'll bet most leather workers start off selling to friends and neighbors, then possibly a small word of mouth gets going. It's at that point, you start thinking about doing small shows, and street fairs. A long time ago, in a land far away, there were a lot of leather stalls at the shows...at least on the East Coast, now, they are few and far between. Is the lack of competition good? Or is it a sign the work isn't appreciated as much nowadays? In Canada, and the wild and wooly West, things appear to be different...at least from the info on this board. Between the Rodeos, and Western Days, it looks like its still possible to eke a living. The trendy art at the shows I've been too include pottery, glass, metal, wood, but hardly a leather stall. The ones I have seen, are the old stamped belt, and trucker's wallet kind of guy in a leather hat, lots of keys, cowboy boots, and biker denims. Motorcyle Goods, and Renaissance Fair work seems to be doing okay. What have You been selling at these shows? What's the best selling article You make? Are You sizing your belts, or just cutting them to fit right then and there? What kind of orders for custom are you getting during the fair days? Is everyone specializing nowadays, like every other business seems to be? Just in general, if You are doing shows, give us all a quick glimpse at how much inventory to carry. What kind of product sells best? What's the best price points? Over the past decades, I've sold my pottery, my woodwork, some hypertufa container gardens, etc. But I haven't done a leather show since the butterflies on belts days. What's the lowdown?????

Beautiful Work. I like that you used the stitching as part of the pattern. Well molded too. What type of wood is that?

Whenever I made templates, I would always transfer to a cheap skin, like suede, or pig first. It gave me a better handle on the reality of leather versus the posterboard, or paper template. You might even use the leather you intend to, but in miniature version, to see how things bend or foldover. With one piece bags, the bottom of the gussett is important...too round...too square...There is a goldilock moment to the gussets that is "just right" for the shape of your bag, and they are usually thinner at the top, than at the bottom.

You are mighty lucky Bev!! If only this forum was around 35 years ago.....

A long time ago, they used to sell a dauber that was square, instead of the round ones. I can't find them anywhere, but they went a long way to solving this problem. The solution might also be in the technique. If you aren't having the problem on the front grain side, just the liner side, it may be the "angle of the dangle". Try dyeing the edges first, before assembly, that way any of the bleeding would be hidden.