New / Am I Wierd

[EmmaB]

Yeah, brand new just like a lot of other people. Been offhandedly looking at leatherworking for 6+ months and have been devouring LW.net and any other online information I can get ahold of for the last two. Just dissected The Leatherworking Handbook over the last four days. I think it's safe to say i've already been bitten by the bug. The only thing that is bothering me though is that after going through all of that I can't seem to muster any interest at all in lacing. I finally convinced myself tooling could be cool and with some practice I don't think I'd be terrible at it, but as for buckstitching and such I just don't like the look of it.

Is this terribly odd? I almost feel bad for not liking it at all.

Emilie

[HellfireJack]

I felt that way too at first. After deciding to lace a few projects though you realize it has a place in leatherwork and can look very nice on the right projects.

[EmmaB]

Okay now i'm feeling even more stupid. Despite asking my husband to spell check for me I still managed to spell weird wrong. Sorry

[WinterBear]

I wasn't a huge fan of lacing myself until I laced my first piece with a double-loop edge. It's the tactile features I've learned to appreciate with lacing. When I do it right, it feels nice, and gives a visual "weight" to anything I want to embellish, but where a tooled or stamped border would be worn away or scuffed if the edges were sewn. I sew more than I lace, and I sew where I don't want bulk or want a clean appearance, but I'll lace where I want wear resistance and protection of the tooled portion (like on belt buckles).

[Chief31794]

My favorite saying about lacing is, "It's Part of the Art". Lacing done right can enhance the look, feel, and durability of your projects. I saddle stitch by hand, sew with a Tippman Boss when it's absolutely necessary, and lace with double loop and Mexican Round Braid as the project dictates. Lacing is very simple and provides a very durable means of assembly on many projects. I guess what I'm trying to say is that lacing has its place it is a technique you should learn and employ when the situation dictates. If done haphazardly or sloppily it can also detract from the appearance and durability of the project but so can saddle stitching.

Chief

[DoubleC]

I'm going to be the one going against the grain here. I love lacing although all I know is Mexican Basketweave or usually just called Round Braid. But I don't like doing Sheridan style work at all. I like doing my own designs or what a customer asks for. Now Sheridan is probably the first thing that comes to mind when people think leatherwork. I don't think you're weird at all. If I had a customer that wanted it, I'd have to really think about it because it probably wouldn't be my best work, but I'd try and do my best. I know how to do it, rather clumsily but I could sharpen up those skills if I couldn't steer the customer another way. We all have things in our mind we already like about this craft when we start and I don't see anything weird about it. After you start by doing the things you like you might see the beauty in lacing 6 months from now, just as I see the beauty in Sheridan. You might have a project you're working on that to you just cries out for lacing. Or maybe not. That's not weird. Look at all the different styles of leatherwork people do on here. It's more than just some people doing holsters and other people primarily doing belts; there are as many styles of design, including none other then dyeing the leather and leaving the surface clean of anything else as there are different projects people are drawn too. After 10 months of this being my second home I have seen people can do anything with leather including the design of choice and make it beautiful. Do what you enjoy because otherwise you'll soon end up not wanting to do it. Just an opinion of course, take anything you can use and leave the rest. Cheryl

[cjdevito]

You're not weird. When I started last october I looked at lacing and it left me completely cold, didn't expect I'd ever even consider using it. I still haven't used it, but I've come to appreciate it and I can definitely see it as a good choice for many projects. To be honest I'm kind of looking forward to giving it a try at some point.

[Sylvia]

Way off topic but I thought you should know that Weird isn't necessarily a bad thing. Weird comes from the old English word weyard... which comes from the anglo-saxon Wyrd... which is the name of their Goddess of Fate. So... I would think being "weird" is a good thing... it makes you special.

As for your question. I don't care for lacing either..... to me it makes a piece look cheap. I know the amount of work it takes but most of the laced things I've seen have been laced with awful plastic feeling lace. I'll do it if I have to but If I can I will always go for a cleaner look.

Edited September 29, 2012 by Sylvia

[mlapaglia]

The nice this is you can just saddle stitch an item and burnish the edges and not have to lace something. Its all in how you want to do something.

[St8LineGunsmith]

different strokes for different folks.

I think Chief summed it up pretty good

[TexasJack]

I SO suck at lacing! I guess I don't have the patience or talent or something, but my attempts at lacing look like a 3-year old did it!

If you only do those things that you're good at, life will get real boring real fast. Try new things, keep at them, and keep trying to improve. Each new thing you do will lead you down a new path and you will discover things that you didn't even know you were capable of before.

And have fun!

[TwinOaks]

Ditto the comments on lacing....and I'll add the following:

Being "weird" in the current social sense of the word just means that you don't fit a preconceived idea of "normal". But I have to ask....Just WHO decided what normal is?

I suppose there are a lot of 'weird' people out in the world, and they came up with weird ideas....like having a carriage that doesn't need horses, or wanting to fly, or having little boxes that make lots of calculations for us and allow us to communicate in almost "real time" with other people all over the world. Maybe even deciding that they wanted to cut an image into the surface of a piece of leather instead of just painting it.

So, if you think you might be "weird".....congratulations!!!! There's more than a few of us here that passed "weird" a long time ago......c'mon, catch up!!!