Jbrandon

A look at what I've been up to lately. The cup holders are gifts for the groomsmen and the journal is for the groom from the bride.

I made eight belts for groomsmen wedding gifts recently. I couldn't get all the guys together to measure because they were spread out all over the state. So I told them to send me two measurements, one from the fold of the belt where it connects to the buckle, to the hole that they use on the belt they are currently wearing. Then I wanted a measurement from the same hole to the hook on the buckle that they will wear on this new belt. Yes switching buckles changes the center line of the belt. (They wanted names centered on the back) so obviously the measurement without the buckle will be shorter but amazingly two of them had them switched. When I questioned them on it they said not it was correct....... I then had them lay their belt on the floor with a tape measure beside it and something pointing to the correct hole. I made them off of the picture measurements. The worst part was that two or three of them had totally wrong measurements. Never heard from anybody about belts not fitting so I guess it worked.

Well as far as plans for making one I just looked over the one my friend had. Much like yours it was coming apart. Then I just built it. I'm the world's worst at not making a keeper pattern or template for future use. I only make one about 50% of the time. Really it's just a piece of 4-5 oz. leather sewn to another piece of 2-3 oz leather with the straps sewn in place it's pretty simple to make.

So I guess it's safe to say by customization you mean names, initials etc? I would definitely leave feedback on him. Also what the customer service lady told you about getting them back and inspecting, I try it and see what happens. It won't cost you to try it I guess? If nothing else you can have em back for advertising.

Have you sold this yet?

Well once it dried completely, the cool pattern went away and it turned out pretty nice after all. And I'm judging how nice it turned out by how much my wife loves it. Plus I've already had six orders for it.......

It's starting to even out the more it's dries.

Ok so my wife found this little hand bag/purse kit that she wanted me to make for her, so I brought it to the fire station with me today so I could dye it. After I dyed both sides with fieblings dark brown I sat it out in the engine bay on top of a big box fan, that is covered in expanded metal, to help with the drying process. See pictures. The crazy part is the lighter part of the pattern is where it was touching the metal. I would have thought that, that part would have been darker since it wouldn't have dried as much.....? Either way I'm glad I didn't set it on the the other way. Although it is unique I must say.

The original design had the tabs on the outside of the wallet which I changed because I felt like when you slid it in your pocket it might catch one of the tabs and push your cards out. I'm thinking about making one for myself because it makes getting cards out easy but a wallet with moving parts is just asking for something to break. Also I like for my card slots to be where nothing can fall out when it's closed.

The outside piece is 5-6 oz. and the inside piece is 3-4 oz. If I remember correctly.

You insert cards in the end of the wallet and when you pull the tab it slides your card up and about 1/3 of the way out. You can see a generic card in the third picture.

A friend of mine gave me a wallet he bought from some retail store that was already falling apart after only having it for a few weeks, so I made him a new one like it.

I'd love to see a finished picture when you get a chance.

The stool that's in my workshop is just a plain bar stool that I've been wanting to add something like that to. How are you going to attach it? I was considering brass tacks but don't want to be sitting on those with no padding....

Thanks.

I remember seeing a post on here one time where someone was having trouble with their antique not staying in place. On these straps there are a few spots where I didn't stamp deep enough and you can see where the antique came off. Another good tip is to make sure it's completely dry before adding your finish coat.

Wow you must really like your sofa.....

Simple but effective.

It's a triangular piece of plastic that is sewn in between two layers of leather. It came off of an old iPad case the client gave me for measurements.

Ok so I still have to put a coat of resolene on it and finish the edges but I can't get to that until tomorrow. I wanted to post pictures of it anyway.

Yes I did do the lacing. If I remember correctly there's about 50 foot of lacing on it. No it didn't change the sound.

So I covered the guitar about a year or so ago and we just now got together on the strap.

Why is it that my tooling looks like it is not as defined after I dye the piece? I recently made a belt that looked good, for my skill level, but after I applied a dye and finish is appeared not as deep and defined??? Or maybe I just thought it looked good and once I really looked it over, it wasn't as good as I thought. Any ideas?

tell me what you think?

Thanks. I forgot to mention that the center's will have a colored crystal in them. After I finish them I will repost pictures. Just wanted some advice on the raw product.