LANMind

Agreed, the crew in HBG is great. I met Monica at ComicCon in NYC this year, and I plan to take some of their classes. And yeah, it's hard parsing time out for everything! Cheers

Keplerts is a bit closer than you are He/She/They are about an hour away. Can I friend you on FB?

I should be finishing up the final edit on my book tonight or tomorrow night. I figure I'll be working with the leather on Saturday, which gets me thinking: it would be nice if there was a group of folks in my area (Keplerts?). Has anyone one else started one? Anyone have any tips on starting something like that? I do better in a herd. (Ha)

I suspect a certain amount of insanity is a form of fuel for many of the folks who work at such hobbies

Agreed. I'm already seeing that working with leather is an expensive past time, but for the higher end pieces I want I expect to save a little bit. Still, when it comes right down to it, I think if you figure in the cost of materials and the tools, probably most of the leather crafters aren't even getting minimum wage for their time. It is what it is. Anyway, I understand the great satisfaction of making something useful oneself. Cheers! Monica - your violin themed leather bag is sheer genius! Corey

Thanks, everyone. I'm one of those people who has about ten interests but time for about two at any one time. I'm a little creative - in fact, I'm finishing the final edit on a SciFi book I've written. I hope to have it for sale on Amazon by December. But at this point, the writing is pretty much in the rear view mirror and the business of making the pieces fall in place is taking up much of my free time. I decided to look into leather craft, initially, because I wanted a nice sporran. What I found was considerably more expensive than I felt I wanted to pay, particularly since it seemed to me that I was capable of like workmanship. I needed a creative outlet, so I began to watch videos, and here I am. I've purchased the basics of the tools, and now I will slowly begin to get used to them. Realistically, I doubt I'm capable of the type of tooling many of you can hammer out, but I'll make things that are functional, and maybe a bit better. We'll see. I'm definitely interested in bags. I will do some simple ones, just gathering some experience, then move onto my sporran. I think that will be water molded. I also want to do a nice messenger bag, but by the time I get to that point I'll be starting from scratch. Kits are fine, but I feel like they're pretty much done already - except for the tooling. I would like to do bracelets, and maybe a nice 3.5" kilt belt, but down the road I want to do some armor. That's ambitious, maybe. I like Celtic patterns. I wish I could obtain that one Craftool Celtic heart stamp, but it only comes in a set of twelve, and I don't want to dish out that much money yet. Anyway, have a great night, and I'll see you folks here

Uh, I made a coaster last night :S I'm really just getting started, but I have been watching a bunch of videos in research, and I'm not seeing anything that is going to be beyond my abilities. It will just take time and practice.

Greetings and felicitations! My name is Corey, and I am just beginning to learn about leathercraft. I would like to meet other folks who share an interest. Have a great day, ​Sláinte! Health!​ Corey Furman