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I had a Home Depot 5 gallon bucket filled with "SCRAP PIECES" and did not want to throw them away. What to do with these? I decided to dump them all on the work table and think about it. OK! I am going to cut all the pieces into some modular usable form such as 2" x 2", 2" x 4", etc until my table had only what seemed more usable stuff to work with. Now what? I then laid out all the pieces in piles of similar sizes and then with blue masking tape made a 20" x 20" square on the pattern table (plastic sewing sheet with 1" square markings). From here I placed the cutouts in some sort of pattern that pleased my own eye. Each of you would find this a fun and creative adventure and come up with a unique solution. It took a few hours and requires some more cutting and sorting. OK! This is good. Now what? I then decided to make a pillow out of it. I pulled down from my stock of stuff some heavy RED CANVAS, from "Maker's Supply" and glued all the pieces very "carefully" with contact cement on to the canvas. Having done this I then sewed the glued creation to the canvas and proceeded to make a pillow using the same canvas as back and a 2" gusset with a number 5 zipper, then stole a pillow from my bed before the my wife saw what I was doing and stuffed it. I used up half a bucket of old scrap, spent $10 on canvas, and filled a couple of days with a fun project that produced a heavy duty reading pillow that my wife has taken control of. The second half of the scrap bucket will be MY pillow. The project opened up a whole new and creative way to use my shop, my leather and my time.

Help! I have 3 tubs total of scrap leather I have accumulated over time. 1 tub oil tan, 1 tub veg, and 1 tub chrome tanned. I have drawn a blank on what to do with it, I don't like the idea of throwing any away if I don't have too. I just need ideas on simple easy projects that don't require much time that way I can continue with my normal day to day. Key fobs are the only thing I can think of right now, but it gets boring doing just those! The pieces range from the size of a standard rounded key fob, to a large journal. any advice would be appreciated in fact any projects are welcomed easy or hard, because I hope this post might help others who are in the same boat

Always got scrap. Always cleaning up (never done). I know some people who can't throw out anything, but I'm not one of em. I save enough scraps for assorted tasks, but always still have some. I'm not talking about stuff 2-finger size, that's already in the trash. Some pieces are more that a square foot. Some with scratches or wrinkles, some cosmetically okay but from teh edge and thus not that firm, etc. I mean stuff that could be used for testing dye / stain colors trying out new finishes setting sewing machine tension and stitch lenght (and thread color against a given leather color) embossing fillers exotic leather backers testing patterns (first dry run only -- if it was firm enough to trust for the pattern, it would be firm enough to use!) chew toy for the dog chew toy for the wife whatever else you think of The leather is FREE, just either pick it up or pay the shipping. Here's the one 'rule'... I want this to go to the new guy. Some you folks been at the leather bench for 10+ years got scrap already.. don't ask for this just to packrat it away with some you already have This not in teh "for sale" area, cuz it aint for sale. There will be more time to time... not gonna "schedule' it. Best place to list? Shortly I'll get a quick picture of what currently needs to go away. If it's been a week since i posted this and you're now seeing it, the leather is gone... somebody took it,OR I pitched it, but it's gone.

Need exotic scraps to do inlays. Interested in everything. Let me know if you have anything.