chuck123wapati

So my wife just showed me something on fake book. A page popped up on her fb page of this sweet little old man, standing in his leather shop. His messge is " Sadly, My wife and I decided to quit. Underperforming advertising, over-purchasing of inventory, and a bank account that is running dry; has left us with no other choice but to close up shop for good. My family and I feel defeated because despite our best efforts we cannot profitably run this shop. If you want anything from our store, make sure to order before we close. We will be closing in the coming weeks, and potentially earlier depending on the inventory stock levels. This is your last chance to shop these pieces before they’re gone for good. Shop our closing sale before the pieces you want to sell out!" Click on his pic and you go to this site https://samaye.co/collections/leather-purses How do you price your stuff to compete with total bullshit lies?

oh yea now she has a new shop and rents space to other artists, sells vaping goods as well as other odds and ends.

Sorry about the hooker thing but thats just the reality of life, pretty hookers fetch more , pretty leather fetches more. some people like red headed hookers, some like western style tooling, people buy what they like if they can afford it then settle for less if they cant. Mean wage was thrown in there to wake folks up to the fact that there are real jobs tied to this trade and people use the data to run their businesses which you and I are competing with so yea it still matters. None of us would hire a person to sew belts on a machine, or run a clicker press stamping out widgets for top dollar that would be just stupid business but we tend to sell our own labor for top dollar no matter our skill level, experience or part of the assembly process we are doing whereas a business can cut cost in all those same areas. thus making cheaper products of the same quality. Thats how Henry ford did it, one person doing one thing cheaper then on to the next guy. LOL all you need to is find someone that will do piece work for sewing and you can save yourself $x dollars a piece on your own time. I guess the simple way to say it is that sometimes we price our own selves out of the competition but then blame others who can do the work cheaper. Oh and flea markets rock my friend it wasn't my intention to knock them and i hope you didn't take it that way you just wont get the same selling power in a flea market as you would say a high end store.

i understand that but i was talking all things even, wages included. i understand that but i was talking all things even, wages included.

It looks like an owl to me and a pretty good one , use a lifter to lift the eye lids it will also make the eyeballs look in set and rounder

i know my daughter is one lol and I'm very proud!! https://twisteddelusionsink.com/ it took a few years.

i agree 100 % with your statement but I wasn't exactly comparing brake work and art work i was asking why a slower tooler given the same artistic ability would charge more because he cant tool as fast as the next guy.

to answer your question how long did it take, where you selling, how good is your work? You wont get top dollar at the local flea market period. us bureau of labor stats says the mean wage for leather workers is $14.70 an hour. Is your work above average to OTHER people? A person can slap any number on something and say its worth it but the reality is will someone buy it at that price. I've worked flat rate before as a mechanic, if a brake job for example job takes two hours you get two hours pay no matter how long it takes. in leather terms a wallet may take a fast tooler two hours but me it takes three how ethical is it to charge more for my time because I'm slower? Being slower and less trained my time is worth less not more i cant charge people wont pay 20 an hour if I'm not worth it.

A1 leather work there plus those blades are very nice.

that is an awesome looking rig. i like that braided pattern you did, what did you use?

you lucky dog all i get are the first trys. That is some nice work!!

they would be cool framed and hung on the wall.

great looking work my friend!! cant wait to buy his first cd.

thats pretty cool indeed!

lol if i had an extra 12 k to spend I would be setting in an ice hut drinking hot toddies and jigging for walleyes and buyin my leather goods already made.

you print them out and make sure the 1/2" squares the pattern is drawn on are 1/2" . that will take some resizing I'm sure.

I'll bet you can, cant wait to see it !!

search function is your friend.

funny thing yesterday i went over to a customers house to pick up some work. His wife showed me her quilting sewing machine over $12, 000 bucks she has into it and its just her hobby. doesn't sell just makes and gives away but man its awesome. just program the thing and it sews, it even counts the stitches, all she does is adjust her quilt. Any pic any design. She uses her regular machine for the front piece but this bugger for the quilting of the complete piece. i admire quilters for the amount of sewing they accomplish, my granny made them by hand back in the 70,s and 80s still using only a treadle singer her dad bought her as a young woman. You know when I can afford a machine, if i ever can, better than my Chinese patcher, i will surely get it and use it and love it just like everyone else, heck i love my patcher and my old singer slantomatic. But on one hand it seems kind of anti climatic sometimes i mean a guy spend hours hand making, hand tooling a project then in the end drop the hand sewing and pull out the old machine. In the end there is no right or wrong way only the way each of us wants to do it or in my case can afford to do it lol. On the other hand and honestly I would use one if i had one unless i had a customer who wanted different. I'm not a top shelf guy my tooling work isn't good enough and will never be at my age I'm past having the time to gain the experience.

your work is definitely top notch stuff. I don't mind hand sewing its kind of relaxing. plus i can do it out in the back yard in the summer or just about anywhere.

Bingo. Someone has to make the stuff on the top shelf.

Dang man that is some work there, you got your basket weave down pat. What leather?

If you sold it and got what you wanted for it then yes it was worth your time. If you want to make more faster and charge less then buy a machine.

Nice !! and it only cost 14 cents. Man i love your logic Bro!!