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Posted

Couple more and now he wants bat wings.

OrlandWings0012_zps00154fb1.jpg

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Posted

Yes, Hawk wings. This guy got me on a roll, living in Vegas got me thinking to do some cards hands fanned out or a pair of dice in place of the wings. A friend of mine across town wanted me to come up with some civilian ideas as opposed to my usual military insignia. He's already got the website set up. Also wanted to come up with a guy type bag, something Indiana Jones would carry. Very inspired by your outstanding work, I took a look and love that large satchel. How would you recommend I start a project like that? Never done a bag or anything like it.

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Posted

Love your detailed work! Would enjoy seeing more of your pics.

Hobbihorse

Nursing: Caring for Body * Mind * Spirit

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Posted

Thanks, A2 - I think you'd have no trouble making bags. All that tiny work and attention to details that you normally do, you'd find bag making a breeze. I guess the kind of bag you'd make would depend on if you hand sew or machine sew, but the hardest part for me was making the monetary commitment to buy the leather needed for a large bag. Basically, if you buy decent leather and stay generic with your shape, you'll make two or three times what you spend on the leather. At base price. It'd be cool to offer a range of patches to go with it. Your Indiana Jones idea sounds like it would be awesome, people love rustic.

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Posted

I sell and trade my patches to a few top jacket makers. These guys are making exact reproductions of the A-2 Flight Jacket of WW2 among others and they are in the1000- 1600- price range. They have gone so far as to buy up all old stock of zippers, hardware, etc. from the 1940's and there's even reproductions made of that stuff. They've had the finest of leather specially tanned for these jackets as well and send me an endless supply of their leftovers. 3-4oz Horse Hide in russet and seal brown is what I usually get in trade for patches or something along with some very nice heavy goat skins. There's usually a full hide or two in the pile with large matching scraps for each that would certainly cover a bag once in a while. My idea was to add features to a bag that resemble the jackets.

No hand stitching for me, I use modified old Singers, the older black heavy steel ones. I tear them down to the basic machine use a heavy duty needle and a pile of old embroidery thread from the 40's that I bought at an estate sale about ten years ago. Nice, still very strong, countless colors, for ten bucks. Ten years later looking at it tells me I've got another twenty years worth. I do buy new leather and supplies but always looking to re-source just about anything I can.

Here's one of the jacket makers located in the UK that I've been providing the patches for about three years, if you click on the jacket close-ups will pop up.

http://www.eastmanleather.com/product_info.php?products_id=233

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Posted

Man, those are sweet. I wish I could afford to get one for my husband. It seems like you have a market ready and waiting for you. You know those guys, they know how good your work is, if you could use the leather they trade you to make some bags that actually look like old military gear with patches to go with the jackets, you've got it made. Hey, if you're going to spend 1600 on a jacket, you might just want a matching bag to go with it.

  • 6 months later...
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Posted

Nice looking patches, you do a great job.

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