JDTagish Report post Posted February 13, 2014 Hi there all! My name is Deni, and I'm new to the forum. I've been dabbling in leatherowrk for about a year or so. I've always loved leather products, especially those that were well made. There is nothing like walking into a leathergoods store and just inhaling that amazing smell of leather! I wanted to start leatherworking because my desire for leather products and my wallet to buy them weren't matching up, and it was my hope to be able to make personal items for myself that I could do and save on the cost of purchasing high quality leather items. All you experienced people are sure to be laughing about now, because of course, that was a fantasy at best! Between not having a clue how to do leatherworking, the cost of the tools and the leather itself has been significantly more than if I had just broken down and bought a few of the high ticket items from Saddleback and others that I had drooled over. But, even with the drooling, I wouldn't pull the trigger not only because of price, but also because I always would want to change something. I have a million bags, some even nice quality leather ones, but there's always a hunt for another one. The "ultimate" goal for me would be to create for myself a modular bag system, that would allow me to add larger sections / bags together as needed. Sometimes I want to carry a leptop with me, sometimes not. Sometimes I need a crapload of electronics accessories with me, sometimes not. And so I'd like to have a series of bags that would work together and be able to use the sections that I need, as well as the ability to design additional ones as my electronics gear changes. I'm sure that's totally weird, but that's what got me into the whole thing. In the meantime, I've been able to lay hands on some inexpensive but decent quality upholstery leather that is now letting me experiment a lot more than the 2 sides of veg tan I bought when I started. I know the qualities of the different leathers significantly alters how you do things, but the more time I can actually spend constructing things, the more I learn from trial and error, with way more emphasis on the error! But, I've made some things that I've been happy with, and bought more and varied kinds of leathers to use. Having more of a supply on hand makes me more willing to be able to try to design some things. I've done the "usual" for newbies, like wallets & notebook holders. I made my wife a purse for Christmas that she likes a lot. I'm not sure if I love it, but it really matters more that she likes it. I'm just starting to get into tooling a bit (obviously with the veg tan) and found that hot stamping can sometimes get used on some of the upholstery leathers as well, but the results vary widely. I've never been a fan of western or flowery tooling, and I've had a harder time trying to learn on my own, and have spent hours watching YouTube videos and attempting to apply them to some things that I do like, primarily Fleur de Lis and paisley's. I love learning new things, and have lurked here for about 8 months. I made what I think is an awesome find at an antique store recently, and that got me to actually sign up, so that I could post some of the photos of the items I found, hoping to identify them. (That thread is posted in the Leather History section, please check that out if you're familiar with vintage tools) I'm happy to hear suggestions from anyone and everyone about their experiences and areas of expertise, and am looking forward to getting to know you! Deni Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
King's X Report post Posted February 13, 2014 Welcome to the forum! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wishful Report post Posted February 13, 2014 Hello from the IE! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
robertmeco Report post Posted February 13, 2014 Welcome to the forum Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chief31794 Report post Posted February 13, 2014 Welcome aboard. Great hobby Chief Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Murray Report post Posted February 13, 2014 Howdy from a former Cali kid. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
papaw Report post Posted February 13, 2014 Welcome enjoy the fourm lots of info and help here. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BDAZ Report post Posted February 14, 2014 Welcome Deni. I am also a newbiw but have made great progress, with much help from this website. I travel extensively (50,000-100,000 annually) and while I didn't use leather, I came up with a system of using brightly colored nylon pouches to store my various items. I am a musician and I always carry noise cancelling headphones, additional audio gear for my laptop and tablet, a 4 track recorder, all kinds of computer accessories, personal items, a Garmin handheld GPS, and other accessories to make life at 40K feet more productive. Green is personal, Day glo is "Do not leave in the lounge" and is for power supplies, tablet, yellow is audio, purple is computer and red is misc. When I use an item in flight, I keep the pouch visible in the seat pocket so If there's an empty pouch, I look for the contents when I pack up. I used to lose cameras, GPSs, earphones, you name it. Since I started the system I haven't lost a single item. In addition, I remove the Master pouches when going through security and I never have my bags searched. My bag is a Maxpedition tactical bag which will fit under the seat of every plane, including commuters. I usually carry one or two instruments so a small compact bag is essential.You could make a version in leather. You could possibly use colored leather instead of nylon. I hope this gives you some ideas? Cya! Bob Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JDTagish Report post Posted February 14, 2014 HI Bob, thanks for all the great ideas! One of my big issues when I actual do travel is that I rarely take 1 of anything...LOL. I take 2 chargers for everything, and sometimes more. Trust me, I'm the one you want to be sitting next to if you run out of juice, because I'll have at least 3 ways for you to charge anything you brought with you. It's a little OCD, a little force of habit, and a lot of having had people rely on me to be able to fix their problems from wherever I happen to be. My issue really isn't that I can't organize myself, I'm actually pretty good at it. I think my hope was that if I could build myself 1 ideal bag or system, then I could stop being on the hunt looking for a new "just right" bag. I think it's a form of sickness really...my wife rolls her eyes whenever I stop to look at a bag, or worse, buy one. There are no fewer than 10 decent quality bags and backpacks sitting in my closet right now, some of which have not seen daylight in years, but that I can't bring myself to actually get rid of, yet I keep adding more to them. I sort of convinced myself that I could make the one that would end all that, and now I'm knee deep in a new hobby, LOL! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JDTagish Report post Posted February 14, 2014 Thanks to you all for the welcome! There are some places were new folks are sort of ignored, so it's very nice to be welcomed! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BDAZ Report post Posted February 14, 2014 Well, standard road warrior behavior. I have bins full of almost perfect bags. The Maxpedition is the best to date. I always plan to be stuck somewhere for a few days in a place that I can't speak the language. I carry 5TBs of media. Have fun! Bob Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bev478 Report post Posted February 15, 2014 Welcome to the forum Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wild Bill46 Report post Posted February 19, 2014 I guess, Im a bit late ?? . Still, A big welcome from another Calif transplant. Im in thhe N.W.Ga. mountains now ! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
