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Been working on building my portfolio of things I can make and have patterns for as I start down the path of making this craft a part time job. It has been fun to create my own designs and figure out seam allowances. I’ve got a couple small wallets, field notes cover, boxes, dopp bag, shotgun shell holder, purses, radio straps w/pouch, glove holder and still to come is a small clutch bag, messenger bag, duffle bag. Anything else I should add to my list.

So here's my first attempt at drawing a floral design. Please critique.

Hello, all! I am trying to draw my own patterns so my carving will custom fit on any project. Also, I want to learn how to draw my own patterns in order to be completely original. Here is my first attempt at drawing Sheridan free hand. I made the pattern up off the top of my head. Please feel free to critique.

For anyone who might be interested, it's not too late sign up. I still have a few seats left in some of the workshops and I will be accepting walk-ins, first come first serve for any remaining seats. Contact the Leather Crafters & Saddlers Journal for more info (715) 362-5393. This is GREAT SHOW in a beautiful facility. Feb 21-26. Don't miss your chance to see a great variety of vendors under one roof. And be sure to stop by my booth, located in the foyer, and say hello! See you there!!! y

Hey y'all! A family member has asked me to reupholster her wheelchair with tooled leather. On the back she wants a log with four children sitting on it, facing away, so we see their backs. She wants them to have angel wings and the log to have a branch coming off it with four leaves, one for each child's name. I'm a decent drawer, but this is beyond me. The children need to be sized according to age: 11, 9, 6, and 2. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Ola folks! Last week I was at my brother's, who spends half his life above a drawing pad, and he asked me if I could make a sort of case to store a A3 drawing pad, pencils, sharpener/eraser, combined with a flap that doubles as a cover and a holder for the sheet that he's working on. So we did some brainstorming and came up with the design as shown in the pictures. 1) The walls are basically layers of leather cut out in strips of 1 cm (25/64 inch) build up till about 1,6 cm (5/8 inch). 2) Underneath that comes a sheet of leather that covers the whole thing, but doesn't fold over on the front over the whole length. It only closes the main compartment for the drawing pad. 3) On top comes another sheet, that gets glued/stitched to the walls of the main compartment, and folds over and closes the compartments for pencils etc. I hope it's a bit clear what I mean from the description and the drawings, if not, please ask! Now for the input requested: 1) Does this look viable construction-wise? I warned him that it's going to be a bit bulky/heavy, but as he's like a 6ft 6 drawing giant, he said that's not an issue 2) The stitching bothers me. I'm planning on gluing the walls together first and then attach the top and bottom. But how on earth will I be able to stitch through 2 cm of leather? Pre-drill holes in the walls first, glue top an bottom and pierce those with an awl? 3) Anyone got an idea on how to attach press studs to the outside of the walls? It's to get the smaller compartment to close. After that is complete, I need to attach a big flap, consisting of 2 sheets of leather with some thin hardboard (or something similar) in between, that he can fold close so it's resting on top of the case (just as big as the major compartment, so the rest stays accessible), with his drawing on the inside, or open so he can draw on the flat backside. I'm thinking of maybe placing magnets on the edge of that flap and in between the walls and the top leather sheet and bottom sheet, so it's easily open-able and close-able in either position. If it's easier I can draw that up aswell and include it in a next post. So yeah, there you have it, big (crazy) plan, for which I would really appreciate some input from the way more knowledgeable people around here! Cheers, Aäron

hi guys, i am hoping someone will be able to let me know how the designs in the example images are created. i am a novice leatherworker but most of the tools/techniques i have seen for tooling leather involve mainly stamping. but in these examples a tool is being used to remove some of the leather, kind of like a stitch-groover, but i imagine it must be different somehow since the ends of the lines all taper nicely to a point, which i don't think you can achieve with a standard stitch-groover. also i would like to point out (in case there is some confusion) these examples are *not my own work*; they are from 'wasteland oddities' vendor on etsy.com, linked here: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/WastelandOddities?ref=l2-shopheader-name i would have liked to reach out to creator directly but i don't have a facebook account and don't want one. anyways, any advice on how this tooling effect is achieved would be greatly appreciated. thanks!