8thsinner

Thats a good link, and based on his upcoming response for the colour we need we will be using it. I still need Stainless steel buckle supplies. I can find brass, which might be okay but SS is preferable. Any other suggestions

I feel like i have been forced to report serious let downs with Bachelors of london this week. I have used bachelors for years on and off getting constant good service and fast reply times despite a few times when delivery notes have not been followed resulting in me paying to go to the local post office to collect things after multiple failed attempts of delivery, perhaps a mistake more of royal mail... Anyway, this week... Monday we call up to order, bolo cord, a cheap and emergency order to be fair, round lace, some perma lok needles, and a few other bits and pieces. I confirm all the pieces with the guy on the other end, and say I am going to pass him onto admin to sort out the credit card details, he says okay. Then fobs her off saying he will call back in an hour or so for confirmation when everything is ready to go. 3 hours later we call up again and we get, oh we haven't forgotten about you we are just busy... Despite the fact that we were ready to transfer money, and he agreed previously... okay...let it slide Tuesday We call up again at around 10am, saying whats happened to our order, Response - Oh we are just about to get to it, we will call you back shortly... 2pm we call again, We explain that this is a priority order for us. We need this by the weekend... response - which order, oh yes I see it here, the guy who was dealing with that is out to lunch... can you call back later 5pm we call again, explaining that this was a priority order yet again. Oh yes, well it's going to cost you extra to guarantee it there in the time frame you want it, well yes thats we called yesterday to order because we knew it would be here in time, sory but thats the way it is. Okay, eventually after much complaining this order was processed, and It might be here in time. Now I have been using bachelors for years for leather supplies and I have come to rely on their fast service, good help, sample supplies and what not and this time it was like dealing with another company. the people they seem to have in this week seem lazy, incompetent and downright couldn't be assed to do any work. Am I the only one to have received this lack of service recently, or am I expecting to much from a company that has previously excelled in all aspects of service. Should I look to other suppliers or stick with it?

I can't right now find my master page, and I am too busy to be honest this week to redo it, but if I have time I will do a small demo...

Theres no liner for one simple reason, the leather is already 2mm thick, after 12 hours of wearing, which was completely comfortable I might add, it was very warmed and molded, Any lining on top of that would have created a bath of sweat. Next one, will be done in tougher leather though, this was a little loose for all day wear. There are stays (bones in corset terminology) in there, fashioned quite cheaply from spring steel bands, but they are removable too.

Best way is to try it yourself. Never heard of it or thought about it, but if I did heres what I would do first... Get some old style cooling bandages, the ones with crystals not liquid. Steep them in warm water in a bucket with your dyes. When it has completely disolved, soak your burn material in it.... If you were just making smoke bombs I would say just use newspaper, but low heat burning woods might be the better way to go in this, and make sure the heat doesn't get to the leather. One pack normally has a long burn time and it doesn't smell good, so do it out side in an air tight container to let the dye move for ages, probably over night... Just make sure it's a big enough container for oxygen supply for the burn material, or keep a small hole which you can seal once it's all burned up.. Good luck and let me know if this works for you. I can't tell you this is a safe process, do some of your own research into chemical soloutions or you tube smoke bombs at least... Hope I have been some help. If it works though I am claiming the method...*S*

I am sure it was hard to get pics, but you did a good job. And I like how it turned out. I love the stitched knot work. Gives me the idea that I should compliment my corset design with a neck corset too...

After doing our first stall the other day I have a few more insights which I am going to take to the next stall on saturday ( a movement festival we were invited to after another stall holder there saw our work ) Raised platform, standing behind a table 3foot high looks wierd, but stick a cardboard box on one end of the table raising it another foot gives you a better look. (not like your lazing around. Raising and displaying pieces...a few other stalls had raised items which look more presentable, this time we are going with about 30 coke bottle tops, cut like an inch in thickness under our display cloth to raise the items. Hopefully this will be more presentable on two fronts, both supporting recycling and highlighting. We never had a free catologue notice, so people weren't happy all the time to just take one...Were changing that. In light of some of the above tips, we will also be braiding at the stall and promoting the custom thing more.... Good bump.

Thanks bevan. I feel that we have started the ball rolling now, just hope there are no big rocks coming down the hill to stop us... Has no one got anything to say on the actual corset?

Indeed, I was laughing out loud at this one. Made my day thanks.

You can create patterns in braiding using digital work... Braid yourself a foot or so of each braid style you can Round braid chevron gaucho etc Then take a program like photoshop, Remove all the colour from each braid and create linked paths with each relevant part of the braid, for example, every fifth colour on left wil be the same colour, do this for all ten parts. Create a multitude of colours in each path and link them all. Then to create patterns just insert chosen colours and play around with it, I have done this with upto 10 strands so far, it takes a long time to create but it is a cheap way to experiment. One more tip, create ten strands loose on top to represent starting line up and link these to the paths further down the braid...

This was our show piece being worn at our first stall yesterday, I thought you would like to see it as I remember some interest the other month when I started it. It was well received at the market. Speaking of, heres a look at the lay out we had. As you can see, we didn't have much, but for all the few people passing through we did very well, and lots of people were taking away our 43 page catologue.

I know tandy has a load of belt blanks and stuff, but the prices are pretty high. ANd I am not sure leprevo guarantee nickel and chemical free. I need Nickel free, preferably stainless steel belt buckles with thick leather blank already stained in black. 1" is even enough for a ranger belt style, but probably after more 1 1/2" or so for low profile image. I probably could dye it okay, but don't have much experience with that, so if anyone can help there I would really appreciate it. Or if anyone has a thick, black veg tan belt blank ready to go, I would be happy to pay for it...

At first I thought, S.A.K., swiss army knife.... Nice surprise, good work

I already asked abut this last week, and linked to our new face book but got no replies, I would like some opinions of the stuff we will be advertising at our first stall. Heres a direct link to the gallery, please have a look and leave some feedback. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?app=gallery&module=user&user=7332&do=view_album&album=387

I think plenty enough has been said about the holes. The only other major fault I can see is maybe in the design itself and the cutting of the inlay. The upper edge of the left side on the picture looks a little unevenly cut however, the width of the holes for the snake too might be too much. You could try burnishing the inside cuts before stitching with some good hardwood, and the dremel would be fine for that on slow. But the way the knife is pushed in, it's pushing out the snake by the ridge of the handle if you know what I mean. If the leather was better wet formed around the knife and the inlay a little thinner I think it would have been perfect. Sorry to sound so critical, I do like it just giving my opinion of what I can see and trying to help.