Kowboyboots

ebay has lots of them. I have picked up many at auctions, never know where you will find them, lot of people don't know what they are.

I have been self employed as a craftsman for nearly 35 yrs. Late September-mid October my business was the slowest it had ever been. Scared the heck out of me, OMG I never had a real job and don't know if I could it, LOL. Then for no reason the last of October biz picked up an I am booked up through Christmas now. Go figure! Luckily I am quite diverse on what I all do so I have several things to fall back on if the leather part slows down. I came from a working cattle/wheat ranch an my dad always preached diversity! Sure glade I listened. Good luck to you all in this trying time. Be interesting to see what happens next.

Timbo, thank you for sharing that info.

Very nice, love the work on the rope cans.

Nice, love the way you put the myspace page. The best music also!

I use a artist paint brush, what ever size works for what I am edging. Harder ones I think work best.

That is beautiful.

Hi everyone, Elliot got to me first, I will let you know if he changes his mind. josh I may have more around here some place, will let you know. Thanks for the interest. Kathy

That is very nice restore

Free, just pay shipping for 40 lbs from 99362 40 lbs of 6 to 10 oz leather I bought this thinking it was something I could use, but to thick for me, maybe you can use it. Savings is your! Colors include browns, whites, yellows, blacks. Size ranges from a several square inches to rather large pieces that are folded over in this box. The faded looking picture is of the side view through the plastic tote (tote not included). Kathy

Mike, PennyFabric & onecentfabric both sells scraps for around a $1 a pound, just ask them for how ever much you want and tell them what you are looking for. They will do their best for you. Their direct email is "fabsee38 @ yahoo.com" (take out the spaces) I have been buying from them for 3 yrs. Heather, you probably meet Andrea & Connie from Rodeo Cowgirls, they use to have their shop set up here with me. Did you find the copper spots? I have often spray painted my brass ones with that "hammered" copper paint, they turn out great. I stuck them slightly into a piece of Styrofoam stuff to paint them. Penny Fabrics pieces are always bigger then they say also. CalfHide prints Here is another place I have bought smaller hides, but seems they are just about as expensive as the full hides, LOL. I use ebay alot, can you tell. Another place that has a big assortment of concho's if you need them is Concho Cowboy If you want really off hides this is a great place, i buy my powder horns from them Chichester

I actually have a 3000 sq ft store with apartment I would like to get a saddle maker in, plus indoor & outdoor arena's, indoor & outdoor stalls, pastures, lots of room. Been letting the college rodeo team live here the last 7 yrs, but just needed a break from them this yr, lol

www.kowboyboots.com click any where on the page an it will go to the web shots. Folks laugh when they come to see me. All my furniture is covered with blankets, matching of course, because I never use it , I sleep or work/play. I been looking for a saddle maker/horse trainer to rent part of this place to. I have great set up an lots of room to share. Single in his 50 would be a plus, LOL, but not mandatory!

That is incredible art work, thank you for posting the links.

I have bought several of those acid wash ones on eBay, both whole & pieces. The pieces I got again from penny fabrics, in fact they have some on there today along with some scrap zebra print.

I buy most of my scraps from Penny Fabric & One Cent Fabric (brothers) on ebay. Pieces are well priced an they are so wonderful & dependable. Also Leatherwise has small sample pieces for sale all the time. Their prices are a little higher but not bad if you just need a little. I also buy most of my hair on full hides on eBay. Only thing I didn't like on most of the hides was the edges was trimmed an I like the raw edges for some of my looks. I know any of these folks if you get a hold of them will try to find what you are looking for. Good luck. Leatherwise PennyFabric OneCentFabric

I have Feiblings Mahogany antique not sure how it compares, but its at least 20 yrs old, LOL

tool Box I bought 2 of these at my local BiMart for under $30 each. They are perfect for my tools an looks cool in my shop. Costco has them quite often also.

Yes I was very lucky to know Cliff so well. Needless to say I spent a lot of time at my grandparents. One story I will never forget is I got a Tandy magazine one time an it had Cliff obituary in it. I went down to him an showed him, he was a little upset he was dead an no one told him, LOL. When he moved up here it was to get out of Hollywood, the drinking etc...he worked with the Washington State Penitentiary alcohol unit, not many knew where he was and not many of us know or appreciated who he was at the time. His silver work was totally awesome, I wish I had gotten interested int that before he really passed. Thank you for the welcome. Kathy

I realized I jumped right into this forum with out introducing myself a couple weeks ago. You all just think I am the girl with all the toys to do anything with. Actually as far back as the early 70's I started earning money with leather craft. Although i don't tool any more i did get my start tooling as my grandmother lived next door to the master leather craftsman Cliff Ketchum. Cliff took me in as a student when I was 14. I was so lucky! I went on to make extra money in college making belts for 100's of college rodeo kids then got hired by Dan Baker of Thunderbird Leather to tool wallets. At that time Thunderbird was the largest supplier of western wallets in the US. I was able to tool 40 wallets a day, he had some prisoners assemble them. After several years though I burnt out on tooling. Continued to make a living at my crafts though, to the point I never have had as they say a "real job". Went into screen printing, sign making then laser engraving, my late husband & I bought the second laser Universal put out, so I have been lasering for a long time. From there I got back into working with leather. Now the full turn around, I still do all the other things but my main business is making things covered in leather for western stores all over the world. As well as awards & badges for SASS, CMSA, CAS shoots, PRCA & horse shows. LOVE every minute of it too. Being one of the lucky ones, I live & work in my barn which is 10,000 sq ft, the main office/work area is 1000 sq ft. I had to make the choice a long time ago between living in a nice house with a small shop or living in the barn (which I have made nice) with a big shop. It was the right choice for me. From all the other diversified craft things I do and my late husbands denture business, I have acquired a lot of neat tools & machines that I continue to use for things they were not intended for, LOL. I live in South Eastern WA town of Walla Walla. I have built up a massive collection of clip art over the yrs, if you even need something you can't find, please feel free to ask, if I have it I will certainly share it. Look forward to becoming acquainted with many of you. Thank you for the welcome already received.

That is so beautiful.

I can't find a single card around here, but I found a name badge made the same way. I did get my thin leather from Oregon leather, but you would just have to feel to make sure it will go through the printer ok. I found with my printers the Epsom printers work best. The ones you drop the paper in the back an it feeds right through. Not the the ones that pick it up from the bottom & roll through. When picking a leather, just find one that feels like card stock thickness. Remember this was not something I was trying to do, it was an accident, the first picture is the original one I dropped in the printer. Of course I don't have any samples of the big things I did, seems like I finish them an out the door, never even got pictures of them. Only thing i seem to have to show people is the mistakes, LOL.

You members are going to start wondering about me and some of my toys I have. Believe me I have a machine for everything. For molding the leather around things I got to playing around with my vacuum sealer for food the other day. By gosh it did a good job, just sucked it right around the flask I was molding the leather around. I was a little worried about mold, but it didn't have to stay in there that long. I left it sealed for about 24 hours, it held its shape then finished drying. I was wondering if my vulcanizer would work, but hadn't time to try it it yet. Give it a try! Kathy

This is also a great way to make business cards. In fact that is what I had gotten this thin leather for was to laser business cards on.

I can't remember where I been getting it. I go through a lot of leather. Let me see if I can find my last invoice.