bikermutt07

They look great for the beginning. A few tips.... Look under how do I do that and find the pinned thread about casing leather. This will help even out your stamping. Good leather also will affect the stamping. I just recently learned to simplify the dying process. Lightly rub on some full strength fiebings pro dye and walk away for 24 hours. Don't saturate the piece and it will come out better. The good news is you are starting the way I just learned to start. I am doing a whole series of bracelets working up to making my first belt. Jumping around to different one off pieces was causing the basics to suffer. Then nvleatherworks, I believe, said pick one thing and do it over and over until you are good at it. Bracelets are a cheap way to learn leather basics. You don't need much material but you still have to do all the process steps. And you can do several at once. I dyed up about 20. 5/8" straps to work on. Now, I don't wear or love bracelets, and I don't even care to make belts. I need new belts and because I work with leather I should be able to make myself a few. But when I wear them I want them to look good. I don't have any tooling tips. I don't tool because years of construction work has spent up my hands. They hurt really bad just looking at a swivel knife. And since this is a hobby, I'm not down with the hobby hurting. Good luck.

You've come a long way, baby. That's awesome. I guess some people start out with a little more raw talent.

Yeah I made a cut out for my business logo.

Those are some great looking rigs. Is that a butterfly stamp on the first rig?

Thanks for sharing. Those are cool.

I was curious so I dug into my attachments from a few years ago and found this picture of my first 3 projects. They are in order from left to right. I have to give old grierwolfe from grierwolfe customs a nod for helping me get started. My large sheath was built following his tutorials on YouTube. I didn't know anything about this when I started.

Here's a little bonus tip for everybody. I have been laminating thin leathers together for bracelets. Total thickness of 4 ounces. Some of my strips were thinner than the ones I mated them too. So, I took my craftool pro (which is a round cut edge) and ran it perpendicular to the edge of the laminated piece. It shaved the excess off perfectly.

Here ya go.... http://www.greyghostgraphics.com/transfer.html

Welcome.

Superb execution. Your edges look fantastic.

Look into Springfield Leather. They carry Hermann Oak. You will never buy Tandy's stuff again. Once you work with it and see how much Tandy charges you won't go back to them for leather. I have a Tandy right down the street from me. And I'm in there often. But I'm buying sale and clearance items. Mostly hardware or a tool here and there. I won't pay their price for what little quality they offer in their leather. Please don't think I'm bashing them. The people are nice. And the store serves it's purpose, but much better leather can be had for what they charge.

And yet, it's perfectly usable. Good job.

Stitching is like fishing you can go as simple or extreme as you want. You can get some really good looking stitches with chisels. It's what I have for now. But you can refine it farther. This is where picking irons and matching thread with awl size will come into play. Even the depth you pierce the awl and how much tension you apply affect the final product. The experts around here have all of that figured out and their stitches look flawless. Mine not so much.

It still looks great. Thanks for sharing. I had a big crush on my middle school art teacher.

Great efforts. I won't even say for first try. They look farther along then first projects. Really good job.

I noticed home depot has ten packs of snaps with setters for 5 bucks. They also had 3/16 eyelets with a pair of pliers for like 4 bucks. These were located next to the rivets, staplers, and hot glue guns.

Wow, that's a pretty big chunk to bite off. It looks good, way better than my plastisized knife sheath.

Ha, holds 1 Starbucks or 1 grenade, your choice.

I was watching a thread and people started posting their first projects. It got me a little nostalgic. How far have we come since the beginning? I took up leather as a hobby after my wife and I lost our 2 week old son, Eddie. After his battle was fought I needed something to get my hands moving again. Her and I have come a long way since August of 2014. Some how we grew stronger through our experience. She got us into counseling almost immediately (big help). She has poured herself into her middle school teaching program like no one ever has. She is about to do her 2nd annual "The Arts are Always in" event. It even includes a fashion runway show out of upcycled goods with her advanced class. This is a huge undertaking. And I am very proud of her. I made a few leather goods to get me going and then kind of took a break from it. I hadn't done anything since probably November of 2014, then we had some unexpected space become available in our home last year. Since then I have been puttering when I can find the time. I enjoy myself when working with leather. I don't want to do it for a living. It's my little escape time. I want to do it for fun and if people want to buy what I make, great. But I'm not doing it for them. It's for me. So, the point of this thread is....... Show us your first ever project, and maybe share why you got into it. Here is my first piece.

That's what we're here for. Mine will have a life preserver and a parachute.

Sorry you can't do this anymore. You have made some really beautiful work.

Run it till you hear twistin metal and broken glass....... Ha, my dad says that.

Cool. I have that turtle on my wallet.

Even better.

It's the solution to the man purse. If there is no flap and you can hang a beer on it, it's not a purse. Make'em in black and call them the "tactical koozie". TaDAA!!!