If You Could Give Just One...

[humperdingle]

...Piece of advice to a newbie to the leatherworking scene...

What would that single snippet of advice be?

[celticpride]

be patient with your self and don't take on more then you think you can do. welcome to the group my dear. Give the american's a few days to find your post and respond to you. this place is one bloody good place to hit for advice and help.

I hope this will help from one Scotsmen to another.

celticpride

[Leela Valley Leather]

scraps are your friends

[Tree Reaper]

Repetition makes you a better leather worker, the next one is always better that the last.

It takes time so take the time to do it right.

[mikesmith648]

Always keep your fingers"behind" the knife............otherwise it truly will be a "bloody mess"

Ask me how I know!!!

[Chief31794]

Don't buy what you don't need, people tend to want to buy lots of tools when they start, buy them as and only if you need them.

Chief

[Cyberthrasher]

Be honest with your work. Stare at it and see what needs to be practiced. If it's not perfect, figure out what went wrong and work on it. I see a lot of the "it's handmade, it should be flawed" out of people, so really watch out for that. We're craftsman who should strive to be the best we can be and handmade or not should have no bearing on that. Basically, good enough is never good enough

[veedub3]

As a newbie myself, I can assure you that all of the posts above is some great advice and I follow them all, but if there is one thing that I have to tell myself over and over is to take my time. (Gotta have patience) I tend to get ahead of myself and find that I skipped a part, and either have to undo what I have just done, (time consuming) or the piece is wasted because I didn't cut it correctly. (Leather is too expensive for that) I was in such a hurry to get going in leather working that my first project was a messenger bag which was waaaay too ambitious for a first project for me. I purchased a side of leather and just started cutting blind without really knowing the process. The parts to that bag is sitting on my desk as a reminder to take my time and map things out carefully. I will finish it one day, but I stepped back and started with smaller projects. From start to finish. I look at the first project I did, (I think it was a Tandy wallet) and the latest project I finished, a dopp kit, and the difference in the two finished projects is like night and day. The dopp kit was sold before I even put the finish on it. So my answer to your question would be to take your time, have patience.

Karina

Edited March 24, 2013 by veedub3

[electrathon]

I am going to have to saw two things. The best way to learn is do your item 4 times. You will improve with each try. You will also see your mistakes and hopefully not do them the next time.

Be honest with your work. Stare at it and see what needs to be practiced. If it's not perfect, figure out what went wrong and work on it. I see a lot of the "it's handmade, it should be flawed" out of people, so really watch out for that. We're craftsman who should strive to be the best we can be and handmade or not should have no bearing on that. Basically, good enough is never good enough

The thing the makes the hairs stand up on my neck is when I hear someone say, "No one will notice but you." This is absolutly incorect. Almost everyone will notice. They will just be too polite to tell you that your work sucks. If yoru work is not better than what you can buy at the store then why would they buy it from you? Hand wour needs to be better than production work or there is no reason to do it.

Aaron

[camano ridge]

Learn to walk before you try to run. Befor you take on a fancy multiple piece project with Sheridan tooling, take on small projects. Learn cutting, dying, stitching or lacing. Then start with basic borders and simple tooling designs. Many new to leather seen something they tought was beautiful or very cool and want to copy it without relizing that what they want to perfectly duplicate was made by someone with years of experience. When they sart the project or try to duplicate the tooling they become easiily overwhaelmed. Build up to your ultimate project don't start with it.