CitizenKate

By the time I'm done carving, I can't see any ink on my projects at all. I think for the most part it must get buried in the tooling, but it also fades away over time. Here are photos of ones I did before carving, then another after. Kate

Aaron, It does fade slightly when the water hits it, but it stays clear and visible plenty long enough (without smearing) to cut the design in. I've also found it helps to give the ink some sitting time (about 5-15 minutes or so) before putting the water on the leather. I'll post more photos when I have a chance. Kate

What sort of content are you planning to offer from this site? Kate

I have to add my voice to the accolades, Schno. That is a gorgeous piece of leather work, and you really have done justice to the theme. Kate

That is beautiful, Ed. And I agree with what you say about the "blemishes". Kate

Thanks for the info, Russ and Holly. I'll probably try both. Kate

I had thought about grinding the prongs down, so I could do the holes in just one step, and was wondering if anyone had ever tried that. I use my diamond hole punch just to lightly mark the holes, and an awl to punch them, for the same reason Hilly mentions. The holes made by the punch in its current condition would be way too big. Kate

That one pegs my coolness meter, for sure. Very handsome man-bag! Kate

When I saw Holly's (and later Will's) coffee wraps, I just had to make one, too. Nothing too special, just a stamped border, a little spritz of brown dye around the edges. I'm beta testing this one right now, and so far it seems to work pretty well, except I quickly discovered that a wax finish is not a great idea when the item is going to come into contact with heat. Hmmmm... DU-UH! (Actually, I already knew that, but just wasn't thinking. Where was it you guys said we could buy that Clear-Lac stuff?) Thanks for the cool idea Holly! Kate

Here's a link to the manual for that machine, although I never have found it all that helpful. Nonetheless you might want to download it and keep it for reference. http://www.bootmaker.com/Landis_Model_30_splitter.pdf What is the splitter doing with the leather? Kate

I'm on the same path, and though I've learned a few good secrets along the way, and have had some success, I look forward to reading what those who are "ahead of me" have learned as well. My online strategy has been to sell my specialty items (game boards) directly from my own web site. Then I use Etsy to sell the "small" stuff I make from the pieces of leather leftover from the game boards. I also plan to expand out into other canned venues, just to increase exposure. I've gotten a few sales from Etsy, but successfully selling your work on Etsy involves almost constant promotion in order to get your work seen. That includes things like frequently listing new or renewed items in order to stay at the top of the default search results (which favors most recently-listed items), being involved on the forums, and various activities to promote your shop outside of Etsy. I, myself, have been on-and-off a lot there, so I haven't really had much of a chance to really get established, but there are a few leather artists who are very successful there. I actually think it could be better to sell my work in places that are less established (and less crowded) than Etsy, just because it would be easier to be seen there. It's also easier to be seen in those markets, due to the fact that their search engines don't favor the newest listings, as is done on Etsy. So if someone searches for an item similar to what I offer, my item will show up in their search results based more on relevancy, rather than on how recently it was listed. That's my theory. I'm planning to try it soon, and I'll let you know. But by far, the most sales have come from my own web site (even as outdated as it currently is - I'm working on that!) Right now, the orders are coming at a pace I can keep up with on a part-time basis, with little or no active promotion of the site in the last few years. If I really want to get swamped with orders, I can do one or two things that have proven fairly effective: Run a pay-per-click advertising campaign, Offer an auction on Ebay. Any time I have done either of these two things, my site has gotten a flurry of new traffic, and orders to follow. Running a pay-per-click ad campaign can be a little expensive, and has to be micro-managed, but it is very effective in delivering high-quality traffic to your site. Doing this will also provide a boost to your search engine rankings, since it causes links to your site to appear on thousands of other sites. Well worth the money and time, in my opinion. I've always made back what I've invested within a short time. Another thing you can do to improve traffic to your site, is to find other sites that have related content (especially if they have a "links" section) and ask the webmasters of those sites to add links to your site on theirs. Not only will those sites start steering traffic to your site, but the search engines will increase your site's ranking based the number of other sites referring to yours. My site gets a lot of traffic from the sites of Chess clubs, for example. Their webmasters were more than happy to add the link, once they saw what I had. I've never used Ebay as my primary venue, but it really does make for good advertising venue, a way to get your work in front of the eyes of a very large, worldwide audience who may not have otherwise wandered onto your site through the search engines. Sometimes I've made money from my auctions, sometimes not. But whenever I run an auction, the traffic and sales on my own site always take a leap. Okay, enough of my prattling... hope this is useful. Kat

Ray, that's a pretty broad topic. There are so many different scenarios, each with their own considerations. Are you thinking more of selling on-line, from your own web site or from canned online venues such as Etsy or Artfire, from craft fairs, retail store-front, or consignment? What are the markets you want to target? Kate

Looks phenomenal, as usual... can't imagine what issue anyone would have with that design. Kate

Not surprising, Russ - nice! Kate

Glad to have you, Arley. You are starting out the same way my dad did. He was also very much into shooting, reloading, and gunsmithing, and took up leatherwork in support of those passtimes. And at some point, it rubbed off on me and my siblings. We look forward to seeing what you come up with. Kate

That's amazing! How did you get that tea to stay in the cup with it sideways, like that? I like that nice, solid-looking bench you have. Did you build it? Kate

Here's your Happy Birthday video, Barra! Happy Birthday video Happy birthday! Kate

Hallo Arno, herzlich willkommen auf LeatherWorker.net. Your work really caught my eye because of how clean the lines and stitching are. That belt loop design is also very original. Thanks for posting. I look forward to seeing more of your work. Kate

Storm, I see you're veering into some classic ornamental art, which is one of my favorite subjects for leather carving. Though I love well-executed western floral and Sheridan floral, there are many, many other genres of ornamental art that also work well with leather that are virtually untapped by leather artists. No exaggeration, the possibilities are limitless. Can't wait to see what else you come up with. Thanks for posting that. Kate

I actually did this the day I got the first message, and they immediately banned him. Then, I got ANOTHER one on Wednesday, and without even replying this time, I turned him in, too. They're getting easier to spot... Hello seller Am <user name>, from WASHINGTON [...yeah, right] so i will like to purchase your item from etsy. so i will like to ask you some question about your item... How much is the last price your item [You read the listing, didn't you?] Will you like to recieve cashier cheque as payment [Read the listing. No.] why do you want to sell it [That's a good one... duh, to make some money?] Are you the true owner of the item [No, man, I just sell other people's stuff.] if so you can mail me true this email..... <email address> [!at] yahoo.com Etsy informed me this person had multiple accounts and was spamming hundreds of sellers; all those accounts were immediately shut down. As to the question of how banks work in cases of credit card or check fraud, they do hold whomever accepted the transaction liable in the case of a fraudulent transaction. You may not think that is fair or legal, but not only is it legal, it is normal procedure for even the most "reputable" banks. Think about it - whatever they do, it's going to be unfair to someone, whether it's the business who accepted a fraudulent credit card transaction or the independent artisan who accepted a bad check. For that matter, it's really no more fair to expect the banks to eat fraudulent transactions, because they are no more responsible for what happened than the person who accepted the transaction, maybe even less so. But the person who is primarily responsible for the fraud is nowhere to be found. So in view of that bit of harsh reality, it is incumbent on us as business people to be careful who we do business with, and how we conduct business to protect ourselves. Back to my original post... it's been 10 days now since the first guy said he sent the check, and I haven't seen it, nor have I heard from him, so it looks like he was lying about having sent the check and meanwhile has moved on to greener pastures. Thanks for your input, everyone. Hopefully, a lot more of us are aware of this and will know how to avoid getting duped by these schmucks. Kate

I've been doing business with Texas Custom for years, and Heather and Kirk are great to work with. I send them actual-sized PDF's of my drawings, with dimensions, and they nail it perfectly every time. Their pricing is also very reasonable. Kate

There are numerous topics where 'Roo has discussed her airbrushes of choice. I have sprayed all types of acrylic finishes (the *shenes and Resolene) and liquid wax finishes (Bee-Natural is my favorite). Tan-kote would probably work, but I haven't had a chance to test that theory. It is a little heavier than the other finishes. I think there is an attachment that lets you split your air hose between two air tools. Or you can just fit your hose with a quick-coupler, and you can quickly change between different air tools. Also, don't forget to get a respirator, and consider ventilation in your work space. You do not want to be breathing the overspray. Kate

I'm dumb-struck, Ed... it's beautiful! Kate

It depends a little on what kind of spraying you want to do, Ray. If you're just going to spray on washes or wide patterns (like you would if you were shading the edges of a piece of leather), a single-action sprayer or siphon-feed double-action airbrush will probably do. Single vs. Double Action: Single-action is the cheapest, and easiest to operate - just point and shoot, and you can control the size of the spray pattern somewhat by varying the distance of the spray from your work. Double-action gives you more control of the spray as you're spraying, without having to stop spraying to make adjustments, but takes a little practice to get used to how the trigger works. If you plan to do some really intricate airbrushing, a gravity-feed double-action airbrush will give you ultimate control, and allow you to go from a 3-inch spray pattern down to a spray the width of a pencil tip in one seamless action, but not without some practice and edumacation (i.e., book larnin'). Siphon feed vs gravity feed: Siphon feed is very handy, because you can just swap out color cups to change colors. With gravity feed, you have to empty and clean the cup when changing colors, and sometimes have to also clean out the spray path before adding the next color. The trade-off there is convenience vs. control. That being said, I have two sprayers. One is an el-cheapo single-action Harbor Freight special that I use for spraying on finishes. Excellent way to put on finish! Super hassle-free. My other is a Badger double-action gravity feed, which I've used on hundreds of projects since 2003. I do all kinds of airbrushing with it, so the versatility is great. But changing colors is a bit of a hassle at times, so if you don't need to be able to spray fine lines, do yourself a favor and get a siphon feed if you go with double-action. I don't usually recommend one brand or another. I've tried Paasche, Iwata, and Badger, and they're all fine. I do like the Iwata, but have never liked it enough to pay the high price for it. My compressor is just a plain, old 135psi shop compressor I picked up on sale at the local Sears store for $75, with a moisture trap installed. If you don't like a noisy compressor, that's the advantage of paying more for one that is designed for airbrushing. They are quite a bit more expensive, though. Aside from that, air is air, and as far as driving an airbrush, one source of air is like any other. Hope this helps... Can you tell us a little more about what you're interested in doing? Kate

Well, I've heard there is a fine line separating artistic genius from insanity. Glad you stopped in, Victor, and let us feast our eyes on some more of your fabulous geekery. Kate