corter

thanks! concerning the leather, most of my customers prefer to receive their wallets in a raw form. this allows them to tan and oil their pieces as they wish, and watch them evolve. you can go here to see my little "user gallery" i just put together...here's my personal wallet after about a year. this is a very popular practice in japan, there's a big americana style over there that's oddly enough carrying back over here (the style of wallet i make is actually a japanese take on western american wallets). the concept behind it is that your wallet comes new like a canvas, and with wear will become a piece that's shaped and worn to your body and your lifestyle. We do this with raw selvedge denim, as well. here's a couple watch bands on my watch also, forgot I made these:

as usual, i've been super busy! here's some new work for me, I got a stitching groover a while back and it's probably my favorite tool now, it makes everything way more tidy and straight! now all i need to do is get out of college so i can focus on actually running a business this one had a crazy amount of storage to it

thanks guys! jordan- i realized after that i absolutely need to get some flaps designed into my next bag, so that's what i'm working on now. i have very little time for it though, so i doubt it'll be finished soon (not even done with the sketches)

well, i still haven't recovered from my laptop exploding, still haven't saved up enough for photoshop...but life goes on, and heres a bunch of stuff i've made over the sumer, including my first saddlebag for my bike. nothing fancy, and slightly flawd, but i still really enjoy having it for longer trips. everythings still hand stitched, never got my hands on a sewing machine. wach'all think?

yea, i have to say i didnt know what to expect...that's amazing! awesome work mate

that mask is really amazing, nice job!

ok cool, thanks so much! the salrite is looking like the machine for me, brand new with a good company to back it

awesome! i'm worried about the walking foot though, won't it leave marks on the leather? i really don't want that, i watched the video on the sailrite website and while it looks like the perfect machine for my needs, there were very visible marks on the underside of the leather when they sewed it.

thanks art! Should have included more information, as I've been researching on here and really can't pinpoint what it is that i need. I don't think i need a cylinder arm, and infact I don't have room in my tiny boston apartment for one. I only do wallets, possibly some hip bags but nothing huge. 4 layers of leather is the most i've ever sewed, i usually do 2-3. as this is my first forray into a sewing machine, and i'm a college student, an industrial machine is way out of my league. I have about $5-600 to spend, so i want to get the most bang for the buck. I agree that it's best to save and get a nice machine now so i won't have to upgrade, but unfortunately i can't do that right now. that's basically the reason I asked about an older singer machine, it looked very well built and all metal, and the one i found was rebuilt and refurbished for a decent price. It got me thinking i could buy a cheaper used one and take it in to get serviced myself, maybe save a bit more money. I know it's not the absolute best for my needs, but it seems to certainly be capable enough. Are there more machines like this? I couldnt really find much information about the ones you listed.

ok, so i've been looking around, and what does anyone know about the singer 15-91? it seems like a nice durable machine and it's small, so it would fit in my apt.

so my business is growing to the point where i need to start getting wallets made faster. i'm working on finding some sort of mill or shop (amish type thing) that can make my stock products for me, but i'd also like to get a machine right now to do my custom work. i've done a bit of research but i'm basically looking for suggestions on good (pref. used) machines. I need to be able to sew 4-5 layers of 4-5oz leather at the most, so it doesn't need to be super super tough, but it cant be a fabric machine. any thoughts?

the purple is the shell, and the natural is an overlay

thanks guys! ken- i do burnish! then I use beeswax, so i think that's what you're seeing?

well, my computer's shot (again) so these are all rough processed in iphoto, i need to rebuy all my programs. here's some more recent work, all wallets but one notably is a purple long wallet for my mom for mothers day. I think last monday marked 8 months i've been into leatherwork, i'm pretty happy with where i'm at I tried doing a burst dye effect, it came out allright:

i'm back! sorry, been a long month or so, but my computer blew up again. i need to buy cs3 (if anyone has a copy i could..err...borrow...that'd be great) then i'm going to get started on everything! sorry for the wait guys!

ahh. when i painted guitars in highschool i would just post pictures of them on craigslist all over the country, like bait even if i didnt have one to sell. then someone without fail would email me with "you know, i'm not interested in the one you're selling, but i really want a clapton relic, could you do that?" ad i'd do it. made me desent money as a 17 year old haha

i dont sell on ebay though, you do? stuff would sell way beter on etsy, i dont think i would ever sell on ebay

i've been thinking about making an etsy site, however i'm not sure how well my stuff would sell there as it tends to cost a lot more than the $5 goco cards i usually see selling. I don't think we should become a storefront as it'd just be counter productive: we all make leather goods, it'd be like car salesmen selling to each other lol. But teaming up with -or- getting a link on etsy would allow us to go over there and maybe get more exposure, sell more if you will. granted, i havent really looked into etsy all that much, i visit poppytalk.blogspot.com daily though and they love etsy

Yea spider, that's awesome. Reminds me i need to learn how to mold....and carve...and do everything besides cut and sew haha. great job on that

so so so good, such a great concept haha. i'd totally rock one of those, you should patent and sell the idea to shops!

that's absolutely insane. wow

thanks guys. i didnt stitch up the bags myself, i bought them from a packaging supplier with a box order i put in. they're a cotton blend bag, but i dont think the cotton is bleached so it looks really nice and natural. pretty cheap too, i think like .30/ea or something. ken- i wouldnt use burlap, maybe a natural cotton fabric or something (burlap kinda smells and might scratch the leather before it's even worn maybe?). that would be very nice though, I think it's a super classy look, and you could print your logo onto it very easily as well

a couple people wanted to see some of my work, so here's a little sneak peak at m new branding. this is a bag that wallets will ship in, there's also a box and some packaging that i'm not done printing. everything's hand printed, designed by myself. I really wanted to stay far away from the "leatherwork" stereotype, no bull horns/motorcycles because my customers aren't really that type. I went with a more crafty theme- etch like illustration and handset-looking type with a classic typeface a la mid 1800's new england more coming later

wow, thanks guys, theres so many of yall! i'm working on a couple right now, in the summer i may be able to do one a week and get everyone's done by fall. I'm finishing up my own right now, I just printed some packaging and i'm working on my website, waiting on my stamp to come in early next week. Just keep posting in this thread if you'd like one, i'm going to use it as my list. pictures of my packaging/logo and more logos to come

nope, it's a dee that i believe is used to handbags. thanks again for the kind words everyone!