Leathercraft 101 - Become a self sufficient leather crafter through mastery of the fundamentals!

[MudBugWill]

 

 

Hey Y’all,
I am very excited to introduce my online leathercraft school. It has been quite an undertaking, but I have finally completed my 101 courses. I outline what is covered in the above video, so please check it out if you would like increase your leathercraft skills and flatten out the learning curve. Become a self sufficient leather crafter through mastery of the fundamentals! https://completeleathercraft.thinkific.com/
Most of y’all will probably be thinking who the hell is this guy. I have been full time Leather crafting for quite a while doing private label work and have invested a lot of time and money training in Japan. Here is a little summary of my background: 

 

 

Edited October 12, 2023 by MudBugWill

[Ddat]

I visited your website. The website didn't sell it.

[MudBugWill]

14 hours ago, Ddat said:

I visited your website. The website didn't sell it.

That's fine. I have been getting a lot of good feedback from my current students. Thanks for checking it out.

Edited October 19, 2023 by MudBugWill

[TomE]

Looks like a comprehensive course and teaching is a great way to extend the teacher's skills and understanding of their art.  For folks who don't have experience with the listed techniques/tools it might be helpful to provide a narrative overview of the skill areas covered by the course - construction methods, project design, tool maintenance, finishes, etc - or some learning objectives for each lesson. I taught medical and graduate students for 25 years and was asked late in my career to provide learning objectives for each lecture.  That exercise made me think more critically about how the topics fit together, how to prioritize them, and what the takeaways were for each lecture.  The learning objectives weren't " know this and that" but instead they were "be able to explain this and do that."

Edited October 19, 2023 by TomE

[Tugadude]

Why does it seem that everything needs to be confrontational?  The post by Ddat could/should have been clearer.  I also went to the website, and I assume Ddat meant that there is zero attempt to explain what the website is about, other than the video itself.  Shouldn't there be a paragraph or two explaining who the owner of the site is, and what the objective is?  Sort of like what was done in this thread?  

No need to get defensive.  Maybe Ddat could have been less curt, and explained further what their issue with the website was.  I tend to agree, the website itself doesn't help "sell" the need to proceed.  

So take this as constructive criticism and think about what can be done to make it better.  

And then focus on what you might be doing that is better than, or improves on what others are already doing in this space.  There already exist both paid and free services that purport to teach a 101 leatherworking curriculum.  Nigel Armitage is one I'm very familiar with and his work is excellent.  There are others.

Good luck with your venture.

[SUP]

@MudBugWillit would be a good idea to add a short write-up to give people an idea about the site and make people interested in actually looking at the video. Otherwise, people will be reluctant to just look at a video to learn what a site is all about. Imagine if more sites said the same. How many people will look at such videos without knowing anything about the site? You might miss out on people buying your services because of that. That would be a pity.

Also, don't take offense if people give you constructive criticism. That is a part of what this forum is all about - decent people who guide others on how they can make improvements. Of course, people could flatter  you saying everything is wonderful, but then, you will not know what is missing or could be improved.  

Just my two bits.

Edited October 20, 2023 by SUP

[Heartless]

On 10/19/2023 at 9:23 AM, MudBugWill said:

That's fine. I have been getting a lot of good feedback from my current students. Thanks for checking it out.

getting good feed back from current students is not really the goal here, is it?
the goal is to attract NEW students - and to do that, you need to sell yourself and your courses.
who are you?
What gives you the qualifications to teach?
Give course outlines -
     course one - students will learn ___________________
     course two - students will learn ___________________
and so on.

Just throwing up a website with video courses posted on it is not good enough - You need to give people a DAMNED good reason to want to pay for your courses

I wish you well in your venture, but honestly think you have a lot more work to do to make it viable

[Ddat]

On 10/19/2023 at 11:13 AM, Tugadude said:

Why does it seem that everything needs to be confrontational?  The post by Ddat could/should have been clearer.  I also went to the website, and I assume Ddat meant that there is zero attempt to explain what the website is about, other than the video itself.  Shouldn't there be a paragraph or two explaining who the owner of the site is, and what the objective is?  Sort of like what was done in this thread?  

No need to get defensive.  Maybe Ddat could have been less curt, and explained further what their issue with the website was.  I tend to agree, the website itself doesn't help "sell" the need to proceed.  

So take this as constructive criticism and think about what can be done to make it better.  

And then focus on what you might be doing that is better than, or improves on what others are already doing in this space.  There already exist both paid and free services that purport to teach a 101 leatherworking curriculum.  Nigel Armitage is one I'm very familiar with and his work is excellent.  There are others.

Good luck with your venture.

I didn't mean to be confrontational. In fact, my short, direct response was meant to inform the poster (didn't know if it was a robot or not) that his website was lacking. He didn't seem defensive in his post, either. He didn't ask further questions, and that's fine. If he had asked, I would have said something similar to what @SUP and @Heartless said.

 

you are correct that I could have been more clear, but as evidence by his response, that would have been a waste of my time.

[Bert03241]

I too went to the website when I clicked on All Courses nothing happened

[chuck123wapati]

I'm going to be truthful here don't get upset.

I didn't go to your website you can google leather 101 and get dozens of lessons on making wallets for free. I wish you all the luck in the world but don't plan on this being your day job.

[Bert03241]

[LeatherLegion]

Hi Will, Your leather work looks great. Good feedback from existing students will bring you new students.It looks like you put a lot of time and effort to better your skills/craft . Good luck in your endeavor. I just subscribe to your youtube channel. 

[Candicelittle]

On 10/12/2023 at 7:25 PM, MudBugWill said:

 

 

Hey Y’all,I am very excited to introduce my online leathercraft school. It has been quite an undertaking, but I have finally completed my 101 courses. I outline what is covered in the above video, so please check it out if you would like increase your leathercraft skills and flatten out the learning curve. Become a self sufficient leather crafter through mastery of the fundamentals! 
Most of y’all will probably be thinking who the hell is this guy. I have been full time Leather crafting for quite a while doing private label work and have invested a lot of time and money training in Japan. Here is a little summary of my background: 
Somehow I accidentally came across https://edubirdie.com/examples/gun-control/ and so I read a lot about it. By the way, there are very good stories that you can read. Then I became interested in this topic and thought about making covers for pistols. By the way, there are very good stories that you can read.
 

 

 

This is quite interesting. I wish you the best of luck with your lessons, it's quite convenient in today's world. Thank you!

Edited April 10 by Candicelittle

[NatesLeatherGds]

Good luck. Stay at it. 

Important note though - your domain is a thinkific site - brief look, they do online courses of all types - Do they let you set up your own domain ? Maybe pay them some sort of extra fee to own just what's called the "top level domain" (completeleathercraft)? Otherwise its quite the mouthful ! I would think they let you own both -- so you can take advantage of their own domain name recognition (thinkific). Final little bitty point - make sure they can add a "www" redirect -- right now if someone adds "www" it blackholes. Most people never do that these days and browsers usually force it -- but not always. 

Anyhow - keep going - your leather work is good, and your video production is professional and simple as well (what I saw at least).