strudell Report post Posted April 11, 2013 Hi all, I am considering making the jump to professional leatherwork after a year of amateur/hobby work. I really enjoy this work and in seeking to take my craft to the next level I have been considering leatherworking school. In particular, I am interested in casemaking. I am curious if anyone has any experience learning from a school? Can you point me towards any schools, in Canada, US, or UK? What do you think of price tags that seem to hover around $2000/week? Any information on leatherworking schools would be much appreciated. Cheers! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hidepounder Report post Posted April 11, 2013 I'm not aware of any schools which teach casework. I think most makers probably learned their trade through a saddlemakers and opted to do casework iLO od saddles. It's a hard way to make a living, that's for sure.!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cyberthrasher Report post Posted April 11, 2013 I haven't heard about any of the schools. But, I've decided to just start joining EVERY group I can find to soak up all the resources I can, for that same reason. I'd start with the IILG and any local guilds you may have. From there you'll be able to get more localized information on any classes being taught that you may not here about otherwise. Also, there are some bigger events/leather shows scattered throughout the country over the year. See if you can make it to one of those and take some of the classes offered. Right now I'm trying to convince myself to spend the money on attending the Pendleton show in Oregon this year. And, since joining IILG, I found out that there will be some classes taught by a few of the people I look up to fairly close to me. Just some examples of the kind of resources out there. If you can't find any groups, figure out what the next step is in your work and PRACTICE until you have it right. Really there's nothing you can learn in a class that can't be found here for free. The only difference is that you would have someone right there pointing out how to improve and showing you the way it should be done. I find that you can get the same results if you just stop and stare at your work to figure out how to accomplish the next step. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrew Chee Report post Posted April 12, 2013 I know of a lady in San Francisco that teaches high end hand crafting of leather (think Hermes). I haven't taken lessons from her but hear good things. She has a full nine month course of instruction that costs $10k. She also has smaller classes. Is that what you're looking for? Andrew Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
