Looking For People Who Started Rough But Found Their Craft Anyway

[lydian8]

Hi,

I really love leatherwork. I love the beauty of it. I love the feel of intricate carvings. I love the sense of connection to humans thousands of years ago using the same material to do similar things.

I am finding it difficult to carve. I am finding it difficult to trace onto the leather. I have found other avenues to work in leather. I make bracelets and basic stamped book covers. I'm proud of my ability to construct clean lines and even make patterns of my own. But I started this because I wanted to carve. I keep telling myself it's a matter of practice, but I'm to the place that I'm intimidated to pick up the tracing tool because I can't seem to make it go where I want it to go, let alone the swivel knife.

I look through the forums and see people say "This is my first project. What do you think?", and it looks like they have been tooling leather for a lifetime. It's beautiful and almost flawless, and I wonder if I'm not wasting my time wishing for a talent I just might not have.

Is there anyone out there that carving did not come easy? If you are out there, can you show me what it looked like before and what it is now, and can you tell me how you pressed on through to get good? I really need to be inspired at this point, or I need to be told the hard truth that maybe some people just can't carve. I hope that's not a truth, because I can draw and I can produce fantasic forms and templates on my PC. But in drawing I can clean up lines and computer based stuff can be made very precise. I can't take back a bad line in leather, and I think it's kind of defeating me.

Any help would be appreciated.

Lenore

Edited October 14, 2014 by lydian8

[Roq]

practice, practice, practice

You may not be able to take back a bad line, but you can modify the design and only you will know.

Post some pictures of your work, the experts here will tell you how to improve it.

[JLSleather]

I can't show you the "early" work. In fact, some of the very early attempts, i disposed of quickly so there would not be witnesses

Those of us who know how to carve leather - the honest ones - will tell you that we destroyed some perfectly good leather before figuring it out!

Try to relax and enjoy it. Leather is more expensive than, say, notebook paper. But it's not gold... $50 will get you a LOT of practice.

[MonicaJacobson]

Those people who post really good first carvings are few and far in between. Some people notice things more, some people just have an eye for making what they want line up with reality. I started carving bone, etc. before I started leatherworking, and I was pretty bad. Then I got a bit better after I started leatherworking because I started to see what would work best. It's not obvious, and tooling takes a lot of decision making. My husband, who is a designer and very good at making great looking drawings, doesn't instinctively know how to tool. In fact, when I asked for advice when I first started, I ended up liking my own decisions better than his advice. I'm still only so-so at tooling, but I think half of getting where you need to be is discovering the style that you're best at. You may not be best at Sheridan. Or maybe you need to try Sheridan. Or you may be trying to tool patterns that are too small. Who knows.

[Treed]

It has been a struggle and continues to be in some areas. The best thing is try to find leather workers in your area that you can work with and get help and advise from. The books an videos do a great job but working with some one is the real key. Practice and more practice, pick an area swivel knife cuts, beveling, etc. and keep practicing and perfect that area before moving on. Try to keep your self in one area and get good at it. I usually start new students on geometric s to learn control over the tools, hammer, layout, casing and other aspects of tooling before going into carving. We in leather work are usually our own worst critics. The key for me was the desire to learn it and still keeps me going today. I can tell you that I had no talent at all for the craft and had to learn every aspect, It has taken me much longer than others that I know started out at the same time but I just refused to give up.

[lydian8]

Thank you all. I need the boost.

When I was young, I had a skill that people marvled at, completely unrelated to leatherwork or any type of artisan work. It came as naturally as breathing, and earned me a lot of respect and accolades. It was all that there was of me. It was needed at the time, because my home life was a nightmare. I could cling to it as showing I had value in the world.

Now I'm old-ish. That skill is fading some with age, but more importantly, it no longer defines me. However, I am wired to create, and I can choose where I want to invest that creativity. I don't know tenacity that well, because I really haven't had to work for a skill this hard before. I want this. I want to carve leather. I just have to be reminded that all the work will pay off at some point. I need to know there are others who got to where they wanted to be even if they started with very little. If you can do it, I can too.

Thank you Roq, JLSleather, and Monica. And Treed, I think you are right. I need a mentor. The people in my area are very giving, and I need to take advantage of that. I put a lot of pressure on myself still, but I'll try to relax.

Lenore

[irishsuperfly]

As a fellow newbie to leather working, all I can really offer is some empathy. I love working with clay. Make a mistake? Just reform it! I am trying hard to stick to a small budget getting into leather and the thought of ruining even a piece of scrap is enough to make me hesitate starting on something. The only advice I could offer is to just throw that caution to the wind and jump in with both feet. I'm trying to accept that I'll waste some leather in the process, but I'll never get better if I don't try!

[billybopp]

Leatherworking is much like any other talent. Some people have such talent that they need little work to achieve greatness. Others achieve greatness, but with much more practice and work. Persistence is key. Most of us fall somewhere in that second group. Keep at it and you'll do well!!

Bill

[Wild Bill46]

I like most all these answers, as each has its own merits, However yes persistence is great, but,

I would think its a matter of individual need, of how to use the talents we each are given !

Art, is or has been a part of my life since I can remember.

I try to theorize, how it would be if, one with no talents would prevail ? or if they even could ? ------------------- Wild Bill46

[Bob Blea]

I certainly didn't start off carving well. I do have a bit of an artistic background (I used to paint in oils) and even did some painting of flower still lifes, so I was drawn to floral carving off the bat. The best advice I was given was to take a small floral craftaid design for a corner and carving it five times in a row, critiquing it each time and working on improving those parts I didn't like. Number each one and then go back and compare number 5 to number 1. You will be amazed how much improvement you will see. Also, make sure your not trying to do too complex of a carving. Start with some of the Tandy craftaids, particularly the older ones that don't have such fine linework and tight scrolls.

For me it really has been just a matter of practice, and occasionally making a duplicate of something because I didn't like how the first item turned out and knew I could do better.