Bille

Tony Sugimoto carved some full roses, and we posted 6 short videos covering rose petal carving on Youtube. A good primer on doing leaves as well. Takes all of 6 minutes for him... longer for the rest of us. Pay special attention to how he uses the beveler and the other tools. That delicate touch is what I'm working on still. http://youtu.be/Z0IgsmzpEiI

Hi all. I signed up to this site some time back, when I first built leathercraftstudio.com for a leather artist here in Japan. I'm guessing some of you may have seen our video on YouTube about leather detailing and carving - I'm surprised at the number of views. Surely there aren't 300,000 people interested in making this stuff?? Leathercraft Studio offered a couple free videos to people who signed up, and the plan was to eventually sell instructional DVDs. My job was the computer stuff (though I have some experience sourcing clothes manufacturers in China). Some 3 years later, the internet has changed and I still didn't have video number one. My situation changed as well, so I decided to try something new. I am now spending time with Sugimoto-san (Tony), and taking advantage of his 40-50 years of making and carving leather to learn for myself. At the same time, we are finally getting some videos completed, so we'll be able to share Tony's work and experience. I intend to create a product line, for better or worse, so we'll see how that turns out. I am as basic as they come, but I'm lucky enough to have a great teacher - so I'm happy to share what I learn - and looking forward to picking up many of the great ideas I see here. If you would like to download a video on making a basket weave belt, signing up for more info at leathercraftstudio.com will get you a grand total of 1 or 2 emails, one with a link to that video. It's fairly basic tooling, but has some good advice for anyone. The website itself is in a holding pattern until i get around to it again. Anyhow, looking forward to hearing from you and learning from you. Bille (I'm a guy, sorry!) The picture was done by Tony 30 years ago. Found it scraping around the back shed for fabrics. Considering it wasn't well sheltered, it aged pretty well.

As good a place as any for my first post... I played guitar and gave it up when I realized that rock and roll stardom wasn't coming and, at the same time, was looking for some extra cash. Bye-bye Hollow body Guild Bluesbird. Picked it up again seriously when I was in China and seriously depressed. Got the best $50 guitar in the shop and banged away on it. I learned depression is good for musical creativity. So, I have a couple more guitars now, and still play as much as I can. I bought an electric for old times sake and to surprise the kids - I'm sure the neighbors love it too. A Chinese master tried to teach me the erhu (the two stringed Chinese violin) for a year. It was very much like backgammon. Easy to learn the basics, hard as heck to master. Still hope for the kids, though. And, by the way, is there a welcome new guys thread around here? Or did I miss it? Nice to meet you all anyway!