My first leather journal

[Schno]

I've had a couple of requests for leather journals, so I thought I might make my maiden voyage with my own. Better to make all the mistakes on mine before putting a pricetag on it.

The journal is intended for meetings at work, where as a telecom project manager, I spend my days herding geeks. I wanted to mix a bit of my love for knotwork with a bit of circuitry and here's the result, front and back.

Let me know whatcha think: good, bad, constructive, destructive, etc!

[yaklady]

I love the oringinality in the design! I could use a Celtic yak. Fabulous job on the tooling and coloring.

[Storm]

Very nice. I second the motion...unique design. Keep em coming.

Storm

[Spider]

I love the design and colors. Great work.

[TomSwede]

Love the design and the colouring, the circuitry/knotwork combo is way

You're gonna get some jealous looks at work and possibly some orders too.

Tom

[Schno]

Thanks guys! The encouragement is appreciated!

I could use a Celtic yak

As I always say, "who couldn't use a Celtic yak?"

You're gonna get some jealous looks at work and possibly some orders too

Quite right, Tom! I've already had three orders in response to this piece. I'm having a rough time determining fair price though. It takes a good bit of leather, plus lining, plus time and effort. But, at the end of the day, it's a book cover. I don't know. Pricing is a tough one for me. Thoughts?

[TomSwede]

Not to low anyways, then you'll get lot's of requests and work to much for too little and get frustrated, too high and you don't get any orders at all, lol, but upping the price is very difficult if you sell "mouth to mouth" reputationwise. Pricing is difficult, I try to propose a fairly high price and try to detect the reactions of the customer. If they are allright with the price I'll let them know that it was a bit on the low side and to spread the actual higher price when passing on info.

[UKRay]

It seems to me, Schno, you will not want to be doing this unless the money makes you happy. You put a lot of effort into the cover for yourself but will you want to make the same effort for someone who is not paying enough? I don't think so!

Think about what you might be prepared to pay someone for the cover and then simply ask a few friends what they think it is worth. Then, if you are brave enough, take it to your local mall and ask a few dozen happy shoppers to estimate the price of the cover (don't tell them you made it and take the comments on the chin). When you have done that you ought to have a better idea what the thing will make in the open market.

Now work out if that much money would make you happy, given the amount of work you would have to do to get it. If the answer is no then find another project and repeat the exercise until the answer comes back YES

Market research is a painful process but "that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger..."

[Corvus]

The cover looks great, I like the way you have combined the knotwork and circuitry. What is on the inside of the cover though? Is it made to take a standard notebook?

[Schno]

Thanks for the input, guys. I ended up doing a bit of both suggestions with pricing my latest journal cover. It's a matter of balancing what I would consider paying if I wasn't aware of the work involved vs knowing how much work is involved. Then I took that figure and tried it out with a customer. He accepted right away... (which tells me that I should actually go a little higher next time!)

Anyway, I'm working on that piece now. It's far more simple than the one here. I'll post pics when I've finished.

The cover looks great, I like the way you have combined the knotwork and circuitry. What is on the inside of the cover though? Is it made to take a standard notebook?

The inside is lined with pigskin suede. Over that, I've used bag stiffener material from Tandy to make flaps that are covered with chrome tanned leather. It's designed to fit a 'Red and Black' journal, which you can pick up from your local office supply store for six bucks.

The one I'm working on now will fit a legal pad.

[Pip]

It seems to me, Schno, you will not want to be doing this unless the money makes you happy. You put a lot of effort into the cover for yourself but will you want to make the same effort for someone who is not paying enough? I don't think so!

Think about what you might be prepared to pay someone for the cover and then simply ask a few friends what they think it is worth. Then, if you are brave enough, take it to your local mall and ask a few dozen happy shoppers to estimate the price of the cover (don't tell them you made it and take the comments on the chin). When you have done that you ought to have a better idea what the thing will make in the open market.

Now work out if that much money would make you happy, given the amount of work you would have to do to get it. If the answer is no then find another project and repeat the exercise until the answer comes back YES

Market research is a painful process but "that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger..."

I use the friends question all the time, I have two friends I ask, one is a cheap pricer (a spendthrift) the other always over prices (a professional artist) I hit the average no one complains. another thing, if you ask for a high price you can always drop it if when your done it doesn't add to that, if your low prices doesn't cover it you got problems. People will argue with you to keep the original price either way one way you winthe other you loose.

Pip