MartinS129

Sorry, I should have done it. Hope that helps.

Hello, I bought these pieces on Ebay just to try out exotic leather for the first time. They were listed as reptile leather so I have no idea what animal are they from - would anyone have an idea, please? Thank you and have a nice day, Martin

Hello, my name is Martin and I am from Czech Republic. My first leatherworking project was about a year ago. I did not have any tools and I worked with absolutely inappropriately thick leather, but it was fun and I loved the smell of vegetable tanned leather. Then in November 2014 I decided to make a belt for me and my friend. So I bought pre-cut strips of leather and alcohol based dyes, pricking wheel and awl, I worked on an old pastry board, for cutting I used a scalpel and my grandfather gave me revolving hole punch my grandgrandfather used to work with (he was a cobbler). I was happy with the outcome so it motivated me to work more with leather. I ordered some tools on Ebay from China and for the Christmass of 2014 I got a butt of 7-8 ounce leather. With which I made a few little projects, some bracelets and belts. On the picture is a atomizer sheath I made for my girlfriend. This year I really haven't had much time because of my study. I could only work on my leathercrafting about 1-2 saturdays a month. But during that time I was able to look into some books, I have seen a lot of videos and some posts on this lovely forum. So my knowledge slowly expanded. My lack of time for actually working with leather I compensated with buying more tools I thought I would need later. As here in the Czech Republic there are not many places to shop I mostly shopped online - definitely my most favorite shop is Leathercrafttools.com. My most favorite leather project so far is this simple handbag (here without a strap) I made for my girlfriend. Lately I have tried some leather carving and stamping. Firstly I worked with chinese stamps but it was impossible to get a decent result. So after investing in a few of old Tandy stamps I attempted a floral design which I drew (drawing is a bit of a problem for me as you can see). I have just read Sheridan style carving but I haven't had much time for practice. Next week I will hopefully have some time to draw a neater design and some more "Sheridan style" stamps will arrive, so I hope the next outcome will be much better. My latest leather projects are a wallet and a cardholder, which were really fun. Following two months I will have more time so I will be able to produce more and focus on larger projects I have on mind for a while. Also I will be able to read trough this wonderfull forum for a bit and get to know things that are not clear to me at the moment. What I like about leathercrafting is that I can see progress from project to project and with everything I have just done I know I can make it better next time. One last thing I did this weekend was a stitching clamp, as I didn't want to spend fortune on it. I must admit that working with wood is much more difficult. If you read all this thank you for your time and I hope to see you around. Have a nice day, Martin