First Post To Say Hello.

[huttgl]

Hello folks.

I've been getting into leatherwork this last year and have found lots of fantastic info on here, so many thanks to all of you for sharing your wealth of experience and talent.

I'm English but living in the French Pyrenees and interested in all sorts of stuff from canoeing to green woodwork. Slowly building my leather working tools collection and trying out various projects , some more successfully than others - but these are very much learning exercises.

So far I've made some belts, a knife sheath, machete sheath, moulded 'possibles' pouch, passport wallet and a Kindle cover. I've also gone through many square feet of leather, been in trouble for 'borrowing' some of my wife's upholstery tools, dyed my left hand a startling burnt-orange colour (reminiscent of a 70's bathroom suite) and neglected all of my regular chores.

Currently working on a backpack for my daughter and a saddle bag style hand bag thing (because I fancied making one).

I've attached some photos of the Kindle cover I made. I have the photos because I bought my wife the kindle and made this to go with it - she took the photos - I generally intend to but don't get around to it. This was the second design I came up with. The retainer on the first one was too flexible so I made this one with a mold and wet-formed it (water and gelatine). Quite pleased with how the retainer came out but my stitching needs some work. In particular I find it difficult to keep the stitching exit holes aligned when going through multiple or thick layers, so you can see how they stagger around a bit in places. More practice required I think.

[King's X]

Hello Huttgl and welcome to the forum. Very nice work and your daughter will be proud that you are making the backpack.

[huttgl]

Hi Kings X,

Thanks. My stitching is improving so I'll hopefully keep them straighter on the next piece.

My daughter may like the backpack, it introduces me to a number of new techniques, so it depends how well I get on with them.

[King's X]

Always stretch yourself and learn new things, but what you learned before will also help you move forward.

[WyomingSlick]

Really nice looking work ! When can we expect to see a green wood/leather compilation?

[gmace99]

Welcome to the forums. Nice work

[huttgl]

Wyoming Slick - I do intend to make a chair with a leather seat and back - playing with some ideas around this at the moment but probably won't get anything done properly until winter when I cut more wood. Most of the greenwood stuff I have done so far lives outside which isn't really suitable for leather, so the new chair design needs to be refined enough so that my wife allows it in the house. I will post when I have something to show.

[capsterdog]

Very nice. You did a superb job on the molding around the kindle. Like the the little heart design on the back of the closure strap. Nice touch. You are on your way to some very successful projects. Enjoy!!

[huttgl]

Capster - thank you for your compliments. Actually the molding itself was quite straightforward as the Kindle is only about 9mm thick itself and I made a press out of exterior ply. In theory I can now replicate it fairly easily. The tricky bit was cutting the window for the screen so that it lined up properly - that took a bit of fiddling and I was quite surprised how well it turned out. Sheer luck ! The other problem was that the leather that had been molded took the dye slightly differently to the rest, but I just let it be as I don't think it looks too odd.