How much time would you estimate you spend doing leatherwork?

[abn]

Lately, with everything that's been going on both at work and at home, I'm lucky if I'm able to devote even two or three hours per week to leatherwork. My entire production for the month of October was one wristband. (Good thing I'm not relying on this hobby for any income!)

For the other hobbyists on this board, I'm curious... How much time would you estimate you spend each week doing leatherwork? When do you usually do it (evenings, mornings, etc)? And what are your strategies for setting aside time for this (and getting motivated, considering all the other things going on in your lives)?

Just wondering how the rest of you balance this...

Regards, -Alex

[Johanna]

Does time working on leatherworker.net count?

Zero, otherwise.

(Good topic, abn!)

Johanna

[abn]

Does time working on leatherworker.net count?

Nope. But as an aside, lately I'm sure I've been spending more time on this board than actually doing leatherwork. I wonder if that's a bad sign?

[ClayB]

I know exactly how you feel Alex. With a full time job, family, household stuff, neighbors and friends that want help with cattle or putting up a garage etc., it's hard to have any left to do leatherwork. I try and take a least one weekend day for myself to do some leatherwork. I tend to get more done in the winter with shorter days to work outside and colder temps. And I spend some time each morning and evening here on the forum trying to keep up. My leather work is for my own benefit, it helps me keep my sanity although I think it may be a losing battle these days.

[Art]

Hi Alex,

Lately I am lucky if I can get 3-5 hours a week and I am going to have to take a week off the day job to get the stuff done I have promised people for Christmas; and it is NOVEMBER, where did the year go. I keep promising myself the weekend is mine, I'm going to knock some of this stuff out, but that rarely happens anymore, and the Christmas season is ahead where we have to go to this or that relatives house for some function and all of them live more than three hours away. Hmmmmm, I have five extra hours a day if I don't sleep, and I can cut back on sex, that's an extra hour a month; I wonder how long I can do that.

Art

Lately, with everything that's been going on both at work and at home, I'm lucky if I'm able to devote even two or three hours per week to leatherwork. My entire production for the month of October was one wristband. (Good thing I'm not relying on this hobby for any income!)

For the other hobbyists on this board, I'm curious... How much time would you estimate you spend each week doing leatherwork? When do you usually do it (evenings, mornings, etc)? And what are your strategies for setting aside time for this (and getting motivated, considering all the other things going on in your lives)?

Just wondering how the rest of you balance this...

Regards, -Alex

[Zilla]

I'm lucky enough that my real job is only 4 days... So depending on that all nasty item called money I can get a days worth of playing in. As a side note everyone on my Christmas list is getting something leather instead of knitted LOL I noticed in the new TLF sales flyer there a lot of buy 3 at this price for belts and purses and all the basket weave tools are $5.

Kev

[gunfighter48]

Right now I'm spending about 4 - 5 hours a day making belts. But there is a big gun show Dec. 8th and 9th near me and I'm working on 32 heavy duty gun belts to take to the show. I will also be making some mag carriers and a few holster to take to the show. Between my full time job and taking care of my handicapped wife, I'm burning the late night oil!!!

[Washroad]

Several years ago I developed a sleep disorder. Too many years behind the wheel of a truck causes it. Anyway, I have a funny pattern. I'm awake all day, sometimes 4:30am, next day, 6:30am.

I have a lot going on at my house (constant state of remodel, which is what I get for buying a "fixer-upper"). So, on the weekends, if up early, I get coffee :coffee: :coffee: :coffee: , feed the dogs and at least look at the stuff I'm doing/supposed to be doing. I'll stay out there until my wife wakes up, sometimes 3 hours.

I get home from work before my wife usually, gives me an hour or so. She likes to go to bed usually 9:30pm, I'm not able to sleep yet, so I get another hour or so before I can finally fall asleep. (Been to the clinic, had the sleep test done, can't deal with the machine, lost 60 lbs and I'm better, lose some more I'll get more better. )

I'm posting from work right now. Sometimes when I have lacing to do I'll bring it to work and instead of going out for a smoke I will lace.

The thing I need to learn NOT to do: when I come home and feel like doing something with leather, it is best not to pour 3 ounces of Jack Daniels into a glass before starting.

Edited November 2, 2007 by Washroad

[rawhide1]

I'm glad i'm not the only one that has trouble finding time. Ya would think with my job scheldule 24hr on 48hr off I would have time. But with my wife working 3rd shift as a RN and three kids 8,4 in Dec,and my boy turning two in Jan. I spend all my time chasing the two little ones especially the boy. So the wife gets up at 2:30 or so and then we pick the oldest one up from school and get home and I cook supper and make sure homework and the kids chores are done. So my wife can ride her horses and do chores (5 hayburners,4 dogs,4 cats,rabbit, and a fish) it's dark thirty and time to put kids in bed and the wife to go back to work if she's scheldued. Now my wife does aplenty around the house (pay bills,laundry,baths for kids ect..)So i'm not griping about it and I feel it's important for her to have time with her hoss's. Because I diffently married a hell of a lot better than she did. But trying to braid especially rawhide while trying to watch those two little counter monkeys just doesn't seem to work real well and I can try to braid while on duty after 17:00hrs but calls always seem to come in at the wrong time. So I usally just braid at home after 22:00hrs for a couple of hrs. With all that said I wouldn't change a thing if I could. Kids are great the wife is great and i'm finner than frog hair. Sorry for rambling so much but it's nice to know i'm not the only one with no time. Mike

[freak]

I'm like most, there is no set or norm for the number of hours i get a week. Sometimes i get mucho time in and some, like most it seems, i get none a week. I try to do what i can on Saturday and hope to finish a piece up at nite thru the following week. If it's raining i'm at home and if i have my to do list done or at a point to where i can take a break from it i do my leather work.

I find that many times i can waste all my leather time on just drawing my design, over and over and over and over and over again.....

A project always takes twice as long as i think it will all so. What up with that ?!

[Patrice]

Well...i'm not proud of myself.

I'm working 35h/week, and since i met my new girfriend in july this year, i spend my whole weekend with her (she's living in Trois-Rivières, about 1h30 from Montréal). And, as she is a university teachers without a permanent job, she's working in Montréal and Saint-Hyacinthe, so she come visit me monday and wednesday night, i'm left with very little time.

In fact, i've been away from practicing leathercraft from about 3 months. I still read and watch some video by Georges Hurst, but, this forum is what keep's me in touch with the leather hobby.

But, rejoice for i'm about to make some leather gift for some members of my family and for my girlfriend. So, i must begin right now

P.s. Is it just me or other like the smell of veg tan leather? Ah.... leather, truly a noble material to work with

Edited November 8, 2007 by Patrice

[leatherworker]

well. i have it a bit better off than most. i'm in school from 9:30 until 12 or 2 most days and then i have family obligations, mostly watching my nephew. then i go home and cook dinner while my girlfriend works on her work. and then i do mine. then if there is any time left i do some leather work. we've been together for almost 2 years, so she knows when i need to work on my leather. i tend to do most of my work at night, and i would love to do some work on the weekends but mostly it's taken up by family obligations and enjoying the cold weather!

i'd say i work on leather about 5 to 6 hours on a very very good week. others none at all.

amy

Edited November 9, 2007 by leatherworker

[Srigs]

To meet the demand with my holsters, I average 10 to 20 hours a week. This fall it has been harder due to an outside project that needed to get done and head to the cabin a couple weekends a month.

[Mike Phelps]

In a fit of pique I quit my graveyard shift job just over a year ago. Not recommended as I was the major source of income for a household of six. The wife told me it would be good to take some time to plot a new course and concentrate on my leatherwork. By the first of the year I was trying to cope with pneumonia and fell into a blue funk. I guess those things happen when your confined to a house that has folks with PTS and clinical depression. Some of my work ethic that I was so proud of got misplaced amongst all the disarray.

Recently I've gotten back to spending at least 8 hours a day at the bench. The creative juices are flowing again and I feel better than I have in a long time. Now if I can bump it up to 10-12 hours a day and put all the energy into it that I used to dedicate to the cooperate world time clock I can make it at this leather work yet.

If the new medication that the doc wants the wife to try works and she can kick her depression and hold down a "regular" job, something that she has never been able to do.

With a little luck, the grace of God, and some determination we're going to kick the black dog's ass.

Mike

[Jordan]

I know exactly what you are saying about dealing with PTS and Depression it is very difficult to handle at times, the wife experienced 2 car crashes, neck surgery PTS, major depression etc. I developed HBP, Diabetes, nerve damage, chronic pain etc etc. All in the last 4 years. So needless to say things have been pretty messed up. Working with leather has been a real plus in improving my outlook on stuff, now if I can figure out how to pay for everything and win the beauracratic battle for SSDI, we should be ok.... Man, when it rains it pours! But It could be alot worse so I try not to whine too much.

[sheathmaker]

Well, I retired from the real world of employment at 62 and I'm about to become 75. When I retired I, at my wife of 51 years suggestion, I created a really well equipped shop to help me devote time to my "hobby" of leather craft. I've made just about everything from saddles and horse tack to chaps and chinks, and of course belts, purses, picture frames etc. etc. etc.ad nauseum.

About three years ago I started making custom sheaths for a knife maker and that has grown to about 26 custom knife makers and I turn out between 350 and 500 custom sheaths a year going nation wide and international. Since my shop is right here at my home I work from about 10:AM to whenever I decide to quit for the day, but never less than about 8 hours and that generally is a 7 day week. Sounds like quite a lot for an old guy, but I love every minute of it and consequently I don't feel like I'm working at all. I also attend all the major knife shows in the nation and that's good for a continuing flow of orders.

My "retirement" is truly blessed because I do every day just whatever I want to, and of course, that's "playing" in my shop.

Paul

[TZHunter]

I only get about 3-5 hours/week, almost always in the evenings, or on weekend. As a hobby (without time pressure of orders, etc) I enjoy thinking through and planning every detail (mentally or on paper). . . this "thinking" part of the process is relaxing and therapeutic for me in a somewhat stressful administrative job. So I enjoy the preparation for a project as well as the actually sewing or making of the project. To preserve this as a healthy hobby, I've personally decided I won't sell anything, but I do often make things for friends as gifts. . . If I'm doing this as a hobby to relieve stress as one goal, the last thing I want is a customer complaining about an insignificant detail that doesn't please him/her. I love this so much, I'm afraid if it became a "job", my appreciation for it could change.

[Billy P]

Mike and Jordan, I really know what ya'll are going through. Back in 2002 I went to pick p some paperwork for my wife to get an ultrasound for a lump on her breast. The nurse asked me if I was alright and I said I guess so, anyway she was insistant that I see the Dr. right then. Next thing I know I'm going to the hospital for test too, and when they got the results haven't worked since. Already had severe Diabetes, that had caused me to have 2 heart attacks (badly weakened my arteries) also caused lung damage (pulmonary fibrosis). I alread had diabetic neuropthany, (sp) whic means severe nerve damage in ankle and especially right hand. I can't pick up a dime off the floor in I can't see it, because I can't feel it. I also can't feel much that is soft like toliet paper, tissue paper, etc. My wife has hade surgery on her back 4 times, once on her neck, and 2 times on her right shoulder for torn rotator cuff. It took me over 2 years to get my SS Disablity started and It likes alot being what I made working. When you go from a little over a thousand a week to little over a thousand a month, now that's a big cut in pay. We both stay depressed. I am in the process of getting my leather working stuff movered into the house. It has been costing me about $75 or $80 a month extra on my power bill to cool and heat my little dogg house so I'm moving it into the extra room in the house to save money. Another thing about that is I've almost always worked in the house on my leather stuff and my wife says, plus I agree with her that I'll get more done in here than in the shop. When I'm out there in the dogg house I tend to worry about her falling or trying to do too much and that effects how much I do and how long I stay out there. She and I have been together for 30 years and while I might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer sometimes I'm smart enough to know who looks out for me, after all these years she is still my best friend. If I see something I want or need to work with leather and she knows it she'll end up getting it for me. Anyway I just wanted you guys to know that some of the rest of us know about and are going through the same things as you are. Ya'll will be in our prayers. Until Later and With Kindest Regards Billy P

[abn]

I only get about 3-5 hours/week, almost always in the evenings, or on weekend. As a hobby (without time pressure of orders, etc) I enjoy thinking through and planning every detail (mentally or on paper). . . this "thinking" part of the process is relaxing and therapeutic for me in a somewhat stressful administrative job. So I enjoy the preparation for a project as well as the actually sewing or making of the project. To preserve this as a healthy hobby, I've personally decided I won't sell anything, but I do often make things for friends as gifts. . . If I'm doing this as a hobby to relieve stress as one goal, the last thing I want is a customer complaining about an insignificant detail that doesn't please him/her. I love this so much, I'm afraid if it became a "job", my appreciation for it could change.

TZ, it's nice to hear that someone else feels the same way I do. I meet my daily stress quota at the day job and don't need any additional aggravation in my "off time." Against my better judgment, I've accepted a few custom orders, but found I didn't enjoy leatherwork much when deadlines and customer specs loomed over my head.

Nowadays, I take "limited production" to the extreme. I make probably 15 or 20 small items a year, on my own schedule and according to my own designs. I enjoy taking my time and being creative. It's also fun to be able to give friends and family gifts that are unique and handmade.

-Alex

[Cecil]

I am 62 and retired on disability. I have seizures in my left arm and leather work is good therapy for fine motor control. It also helps with my concentration. Depending on our schedule I work anywhere from 15 to 35 hours a week on my leather carving. I find it very rewarding.

[The Major]

Well, before I got married I was working for 6 hours each night and all day saturday and sunday. Now is a totally different story. I now work 2 hours a night and one day a weekend. SO before marriage - 60+ hours After 30.

I just need to get her to pound on some hides and we will be back to normal.

[pepin1948]

For me the reduction in leatherworking time came not from marriage but from having a child. I was under the naive impression that I'd do alot while he napped! HA HA HA! Yeah, what I did while he napped was NAP

It's gotten better time wise as far as time I COULD do leatherwork, but I find myself often procrastinating. That's unfortunate to me, because I find when I AM do leatherwork, particularly the carving/tooling phase, I feel really good and relaxed, working with my hands to create something from plain veggie tan. It's a solitary time, yet leads to the fun of craft fairs and being with others.

When I have an order, like the Bible cover I recently finished, I'll generally work on it at least 1-2 hrs/day. Otherwise I get probably less than 5 hrs/week in my shop.

Holly

[tlowry]

I work 7 days on and 7 days off. I live at the dock for the 7 on. While at home the 7 days are mine to do what I want. I usually work 3 or 4 hrs per day while at home. I carry lacing and hand sewing projects to work with me on the weeks I have nights ( every other hitch) me and the other site mgr rotate. If it is slow at night I lace the project then. I wouldn't trade 7 and 7 for anything. Both my boys are grown, just me and my wife. tlowry