fredk

Sometimes its what the item is called can make the difference if it sells or not and to whom it sells I'd never even heard of a 'valet tray' until I saw them on this forum I made a few, showed them to my sales agents - 'What is it?' A valet tray 'What's that for?'' uh, its a key or watch tray 'oh, right, a key tray, nice, I can sell those' Then I made some larger hex shaped ones. 'Too big' ah, but these are 'dice trays' 'The gamers will like these, stop their dice going all over the table or onto the floor' Thus the hex-shaped valet tray is a gamer's 'dice tray' and I include one with my board games set

Unlike the co-ordinator my sister had when she was a home-visit carer. That co-ordinator never allowed time to get between the homes, eg, 08.00 to 08.30 at Mrs Smiths, 08.30 to 09.00 at Mr Jones et cetera but it was at least 10 minutes to get from one to the other. The co-ordinator even had her going to homes far and wide whilst other carers did visits within the area my sister had to pass through, going into the areas best served by those other carers. Remember those Venn diagrams at school? with overlapping circles? like that

This may not add much but may amuse yaw'l This goes back a long time, pre-internet days. Time when we used fax machines I needed some parts for my old Cadillac, a '78 Coupe DeVille. I sourced the parts from a breaker in Alaska, of all places. They sent the parts out afternoon their time via FEDEX. The parts were in Northern Ireland about 36 hours later! That's the good part. The parcel then spent the next 25 days in FEDEX depots FEDEX had two depots in N.I. One serving the west of the country and one serving the east side. My parcel spent over 3 weeks being transferred between the depots When someone had drawn a line on the map of N.I. to show which area each depot delivered into the person had used a broad tip marker [sharpie?] and the thick line had gone right through and over my house! [I was shown the map later] On one side my neighbour was delivered by FEDEX West and a neighbour on the other side was delivered by FEDEX East, but neither depot could decide which of them I came under. What didn't help was that nearly all the FEDEX workers were not N.I. people so they had no idea that either depot could have delivered. It was resolved when they got in a part-time driver who knew me. Officially, he had me 'redirect' my parcel to my place of work then he delivered it there the same day Eventually FEDEX closed their depots and handed deliveries to another courier company, which had a single depot for the whole country

When I was involved in medieval presentations my wifey used to do the sales stall. I used to and sometimes still make a certain style of hat. I had made 4 for family to wear, we wore it under out chainmaille coifs. I'd also made about 20 for sales After a lunch break we went to put our hats and armour back on. Hats were gone. Wifey says, she had sold them. Why? Because 'I'd sold all the rest and I needed a few more. Anyway, shure, you can make more when we get home'. At £10 per, even though they were used and looked it, wasn't to be sniffed at. Actually, those customers were more than happy with the used look and yes I have made more. Actually I'm re-designing it so it not only looks better but is easier & quicker to make, but that Mark 2 will be made beside the Mark 1 Also at that particular sale I'd made small shields out of hardboard. They were about 10 inches across and 15 inches long. I'd painted them up with designs on them. They were strung together to hang along the frontage of the stall, to attract attention. When it came to pack up - there were no shields. Wifey had sold them as well! at £3 each. People bought them for their children That led on to a whole new line in my wooden toy business - White faced hardboard shields, un painted, with two leather straps riveted on, size 12 x 16 inches and also small toy wood swords*, with or without scabbards. I also downsized a real style of medieval hat, it looks like the stereotypical 'Robin Hood' hat - which I called it. A friend got me a big bag full of pheasant feathers in swop for a hat. [* wifey sold our wooden practice swords and daggers as well ! ] At later events we would clear between 40 and 60 shields per day, only about 10 swords, very few hats though. At one two day event we cleared 150 shields. At these No.3 son ran a 'paint your own shield' stall. £5 for shield and for child to paint it This is what our childrens' medieval pack consisted of [shield is painted as an example] Leather still used in the making For 'Viking' events I made a small wooden axe. A friend was making the round shields None of these things were planned from the outset - ' I'm going to make this & that and gonna sell them' Their production stemmed from the requests and wants of the buying public, to satisfy what they were prepared to buy

For small patterns/templates or ones which can be folded I use plastic document wallets. I use a marker pen [sharpie?] to write on the outside what's inside. Notes about the pattern are put in with it. Then these wallets are stored in a fold-up crate box

That

Here is my plastic pull-out thingy. Made from a scrap piece of acrylic, its 3mm thick by 6cm wide and 8cm long, the slot is about 4mm wide and 5cm long. I think it took me about 1/2 hour to make Boring, innit?

I just use boxes, and more boxes, and note books All just cut leather pieces go into one big box. Then as each set of items progresses it goes into its own box. At the mo I'm making some coin purses, some coin wallets, some hex trays and other things. Now there is a box for the dyed but not assembled coin purses et cetera. Notes are written as to how many of the item are in the box and what stage they are at, eg '6 coin purses, rivet hole punched, dyed' With the likes of the coin purses which need a split-ring I put the required number [plus a couple extra] in a plastic bag with them so I'm not having to hunt for the rings later When the items are done they get tossed into my 'sales' box For game boards; cut boards are stacked in one area. Boards prepared for covering are stacked in another place and boards with their first leather cover are stacked in yet another [safer] area

If you like chilli dishes you'll like curry. Altho its a hot spice it is different. I hate chilli but I'll eat curry

btw, on the odd occasion when I reckoned a thread was too grubby, I pulled the thread out and re-stitched with new clean thread Thread is cheap. You'll spend / waste more time trying to clean a length of thread worth less than 0.1c than its worth. Pull it out and re-stitch and be done with it. Also trying various solutions on the thread to try to clean it may damage the leather or its finish, and that bit is ultimately worth more

Yes, a seam through both outsides. Bevel the edges of both the base plug and the inside of the sides. then sew through at an angle. Like doing a dice cup Basketweave Dice Cup by Gerald Poissonnier.pdf see the drawings on this

1. draw string bag, open, bead to the right 2. pull/push the bead along the lace and pouch closes There is a more elaborate system of two laces and 4 beads, two on each side, in which you pull two opposing beads to close the purse and you pull the other two opposing beads to open the purse I buy the beads with holes already through them. They are sold for and meant for jewellery making. My choice of bead is on the design of the bead and its size. A drill will soon make the hole the right size Then there are these; two hole toggle buttons; these are large ones, about 30mm across. Will do the same job as the single hole smaller bead but for larger applications

I learnt to call that tie a 'shoe-lace' tie and the thingy is a 'toggle' or 'woggle'. As used by some scouts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woggle You could make your own or use very large buttons or beads For small drawstring bags I use a large wood bead

Here's part of the harbour in my town, on a nice spring afternoon last week, at low tide. The orange and blue boat is the local deep-water RNLI Lifeboat If the weather is decent tomorrow I'll take more photos to show youse

No, this is the wurst

We should start two threads 1. for our food 2. for photos of our places

I can' I can't answer you directly but istr that there was a long discussion about this some time ago. But I can't find it yet Try here;

I use a rubber/latex based glue which is called Copydex in the UK. You may have something similar there On Amazon Ca; https://www.amazon.ca/Copydex-260920-COPYDEX-ADHESIVE-45981652/dp/B0001OZIFW

No, its because we abused the bags. Every year my mother used to buy me a new satchel and new shoes for the new school year, even if I didn't need the new satchel. If the old school satchel was still good it went back to the shop [a main shoe shop] and it was sold on to people who could not afford a new one

imo I reckon a rug could be used, more so if it has come from a reputable store If you think upon it, the rug is going to get walked on, and far more abuse than any coat is going to get. No store wants to refund you your money in a weeks time because the rug shed or ripped up so quickly. A few years ago a friend passed on to her son a sheep skin rug which she had bought in the late 1970s, about 42 years previous. The rug was still in good condition although it did need cleaning Last year I checked out some hair-on rugs in Ikea. They all seemed to be top quality. I didn't need one so I didn't buy but I might have gone for one of the sheep skin ones

You have to balance what you want to make with what customers' want. I make what I want but I'm also open to making something a customer wants, as long as its in my experience to do it. [One item which comes to mind was a car owner asked for covers for part of his car front seats. An area of the car seats were badly worn. I made the covers and he just glued them in place.] I'm also building up a stock of small items that I hope will make sales I once knew a prominent Ulster artist. She painted 'pet portraits' and the occasional human portrait. She once told me that she really hated doing these paintings. So why do you do them? I asked Her reply, 'because they pay the bills and allow me to paint what I really want to do' If you can, try going on journeys to nowhere on buses and trains and observe people. Go to a town centre and sit with a sandwich and coffee and observe people passing by. I've been using buses and trains, going to town cafes. I have a small sketch book full of ideas of things I've seen, designs of bags, purses and even wallets and so much more that other passengers or people walking by have. Go into fashion stores and look at the 'leather' items~* on sale. These are the things that some people will buy * on this, No.3 son drew my attention to a certain style of back-pack bag in a top fashion store. The bag was available in many colours and there was a sales offer on them. £125 instead of £160. The bag was an exact copy of the school bag we in Ulster used to use 50 years ago. I managed to find a price for those bags, about £2.50 in 1971-ish, or about £80 today, so not terribly expensive in comparrison; https://www.scaramangashop.co.uk/Fashion-and-Furniture-Blog/wp-content/uploads/bag4.jpg When I was involved in historical presentation groups a lot of my sales were to the group members and some to the public, about 70 / 30 % Since I left that and the groups have died away I'm doing mostly things just for family, and giving the odd item to friends. But I'm also building up a small stock of a range of items for when we are allowed to go out and do outside markets et cetera again. I have two 'sales agents' in two countries who both want stock, but at the moment and since March 2020 they can't get to the places they wanted to take my items A few years ago I thought I had nice earner all lined up. A certain shop keeper wanted me to make a range of certain things. He wanted quality as his only other source was from overseas and the quality was abysmal. During negotiations the shop keep disappeared and the shop locked up. It took almost 18 months till I found out where he was - in prison for fraud! His brother took over the shop and doesn't want my items, he's happy selling tat

Be warned; Some of these need complete rebuilding and parts filed and machined to make them work

You should read 'The Chicago Massacre of 1812'. I got it as e-book

This thread and today's date reminds me that I used to have a friend who bred rabbits for fun. He was an ex-submariner and had served during the UK-Argie Falklands War, which started 40 years ago today. Never called PTSD, he used to into his garden and pet and watch his rabbits whenever he was stressed out