Blackbirdhills Andy

Here's my latest project; a medium sized beltbag for my local optician lady-of course it needed a built in pocket for her glasses! ;-)

Haha, good one james! :-) Another PLUS for the Hand-Stitch! Ah nice, never been to a knife show here, but sure love knifes! :-) I always feel like a little boy again when I'm stepping into a knife shop! haha :-) I have my 100 year old victoria knife with me all the time! (The 1st picture is how it looked when I found it, Pic2+3 I've treated it with some polish and love! ;-)

Exactly! Hope those Mosquitos are gone soon, I know how they suck! (literally! haha) Here's a -not so good- picture of that frontporch expirience; no kids, just my dog and some birds... :-) I'm currently getting into the whole tooling thing. that'll bring the two things together: my graphic design and the leather work, I have lots of ideas and I'm lookin forward to share some of my first carvings/toolings with you guys here... But first I have to finish my new workbench! :-)

Monica, That's exactly why I love hand-stitching! :-) Machines are way to fast for me, and I like to be in control of my work! Also, everytime I'm making a new piece, when I'm done with pattern making and cutting etc, I'm really excited about bringing all the things together by hand... It's almost a meditative experience... :-) I often do the sewing on my front-porch, that's even better! :-)

Hi Monica, Thanks a lot! And let me say: I like your work too! Specially those fiddle/mandolin influenced bags are very pretty! Do you still sew by hand? Sorry; I just saw that your stuff is hand-stitched! Very nice! :-)

Hi Kings'X, Thanks, seems to be a very nice community here! :-) I love your work, I'm honored about your kind words! Thanks a lot, Andy

Hey James, "Sälüü!" :-) I'm living in the Kanton Fribourg, near Bern (speaking swiss german). I'm living a simple life with little money (which is'nt always easy in switzerland), so it's more a "saving money" question than a "making money" one... haha Serious, I'm making a lot of my stuff for the everyday use, for riding, canoeing etc. by myself. This way I have the real deal and don't have to spend a fortune for it... Also, I found out that-if people see how the stuff is done-are willing to pay a fair price, and I hope that's gonna continue with the bigger projects I'm planning... I'm planning to sell my stuff on some Arts and Crafts Market in 2015, I can tell you more then... ;-) About the name: Yeah I know, I was thinking about changing the name- not into swiss german, but into german... But then again, I have nice Hangtags which where screenprinted by hand by a friend of mine, and I have all the other things with my logo on... So it's quite a decision to make... :-) You found a nice place there, I was visiting the USA a year ago, and I love Virginia and the Appalachian Mountains. Great Music Heritage! All the best, Andy

Thanks Davy, It's more like an obsession though! Haha :-)

Hi all, My name's Andy and I'm working as a self employed graphic designer here in switzerland. I started working with leather in 2013. Not willing to support the throw-away-society we're living in, my goal right from the beginning was to make rugged, durable goods and not following any trends... With studying many old pieces and having one of the best western saddle makers as a "mentor", I've learned a lot in a very short time. I'm only sewing by hand, the old-school way, almost everything is made as they did it a 100 years ago, and I'm trying to keep up with the quality standards of the old time. I recently found this platform here and I'm very thankful for all the posts and "how to" infos. Also since I'm still quite new to leather working, constructive criticsm is always welcome and I'm trying to learn from it! I'm currently planning to make my very first saddle in 2015, an internship to do this would be great, so if anyone here is willing to teach me, I'll be willing to travel! :-) Thanks for reading, Andy