Beggining Leathercrft

[celticleather]

Hi DaCoda

Welcome to the Forum!

There's about a fortnight's reading to be found at http://www.kingsmerecrafts.com/. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click on the 'Contents' link. There are several glossaries here, of leather types, tools, methods, etc, but you'll need some patience to read it all!

There are also some useful tutorials at http://www.bowstock..../tutorials.html, which are quite useful for folk who are starting out in leathercraft.

Happy reading!

Terry

[DaCodaBuchan]

Thanks everyone for your help. My new stamp and book have shipped. I have finished several of the beginning projects and am beginning to understand how this stuff works. I will start reading this stuff tonight.

[jbird]

also keep your eyes glued to this site LOL

Josh

[DaCodaBuchan]

I'm stamping and adding studs to some blank bracelets tonight. I know I keep saying photos are coming, but I have to restitch something that broke, and I'd like to finish these. Busy tonight. Photos tomorrow morning.

[DaCodaBuchan]

So, studs are not fun. I need more tools before they will work right. I'm still having stamping trouble. Ghost marks from my stamp bouncing. Weak impressions from my main stamp. Difficulty lining and centering things/ Just beginner's mistakes. My main complaint is that the star stamp that comes with the Ez kit is not leaving a good impression. I think it may be a problem with how I case the leather. I dunk the entire piece in a saucepan of cold water. I wait for bubbles but pull it out before the bubbles stop. Then I wait for it to be about half ready to stamp and I dunk it again. This time the bubbles are immediate which tells me to start working. I then wait several moments and begin stamping on a flat piece of wood. Am I doing something wrong?

[Hilly]

So, studs are not fun. I need more tools before they will work right. I'm still having stamping trouble. Ghost marks from my stamp bouncing. Weak impressions from my main stamp. Difficulty lining and centering things/ Just beginner's mistakes. My main complaint is that the star stamp that comes with the Ez kit is not leaving a good impression. I think it may be a problem with how I case the leather. I dunk the entire piece in a saucepan of cold water. I wait for bubbles but pull it out before the bubbles stop. Then I wait for it to be about half ready to stamp and I dunk it again. This time the bubbles are immediate which tells me to start working. I then wait several moments and begin stamping on a flat piece of wood. Am I doing something wrong?

Sounds as if you are not "casing" your leather properly, and trying to work it waaay to wet. Try letting the leather return to a mostly dry color, then just when it reaches that color, put it inside a plastic bag for several hours, so the moisture can even out all through the leather. Try your stamps again, and see if you have better impressions. It might also help you if you do a search on "casing", and see what others do. If you ask 10 different people their method, you might get 10 different answers. The old timers will almost always tell you to case as I have described. Eventually you will find what works best for you.

What kind of surface are you stamping on? It works best if you can stamp on a piece of marble or a stone surface. Wood does not work as well. If your surface (or table) are bouncing, you might get bounce as you've described. Get one of those marble slabs that Tandy sells, or find a place that makes headstones, and ask if they have a scrap of stone you could have. You can also sometimes get sink cutouts from places that make stone counter tops.

The studs and measuring part is something you will just have to slow down and work with. One thing about leatherwork is that if you get in a hurry to do something, it's real easy to wreck a good piece of leather. Take your time and think things through before you do them. Enjoy the learning experience, and learn from your mistakes.

[DaCodaBuchan]

I'd love a nice slab, but don't have one yet. I move into a larger more craft friendly building soon and I will purchase one then.

Too wet? I will let it dry more. The best results I've had were on a piece I didn't have time to do and thus stored in a bag overnight. I guess I stumbled upon the right answer and didn't know it.

I don't susspect I'll do much more work untill my stuff gets in from Tandy. Then I'll have remnants to play with. Both Leather and Suede. I'm looking for the supplies to hand stitch, and a good set of sheers.

Then I will work on basic Fobs and whatnot until I get everything right. I'll purchse some tooling leather off of eBay in a few weeks. Probably not the best, but cheap enough that I can not feel bad when I mess it up. At this point I am just working on patterns for small things. Different shaped fobs, I'm almost done with my first wallet pattern. I cut them from those thin cheap cutting boards that are like a piece of paper thick. Then I store them in labeled envelopes. I think the design will be as important as the crafting. Being both the designer and the craftsman I'm trying to do what I can while my stuff is en route.

Thanks for all of your help and support everyone. You make developing a new skill fun.

[C E W]

I've found a leather glossary for you. If you haven't found one already

http://www.natanning.com/natcorpleather_glossary.htm

[sansun77]

I have not purchased a tooling stone yet. I am using a retaining wall top stone from Menards. I mixed up some 2 part epoxy and coated the top to level and seal the surface. Has worked fine so far. It wad $4.79 for the stone and $1.99 for the 2 part epoxy. I got the block with both sides angled and about 4 inches thick (9 inch at the back and about 16 inches at the front). They have them in the garden center.

[terrahyd]

GOOD FOR YOU MAN!!!!!FOR THE FIRST FEW YEARS I USED A STONE (LAZY SUE SON ???) SET IN MY LAP AND DID MY BEST...STILL HAVE IT.. NOW IT HAS A COASTER AND THE MAIN VESSEL (COFFEE CUP)ON IT....GOOD LUCK ....Doc....