Lets talk about WOW factor in leatherwork.

[bikermutt07]

This has been a really good read. I will chime in later. Great thoughts, everyone.

[immiketoo]

9 hours ago, rodneywt1180b said:

Great topic.

The very definition of the Wow factor means that not everyone can achieve it.  Would I like to reach that point? Yes.  Will I?  Probably not.  The good news is there is plenty of room for makers like me who don't reach that lofty standard.  Good, serviceable work has it's place too.

I'm still a complete novice when it comes to leather.  No "Wow" there and there won't be for quite a while, probably not ever.  If I ever do get a wow on my leather work it'll be along the lines of "Wow. How did you manage to mess that up that badly?"  That doesn't keep me from trying. 

Canes are my main focus.  As far as my cane making goes, well, no "Wow" there either.  I try to get better with every one I make and I can see the improvement.  I'm still a long way away from equaling the work of makers I admire, but then, maybe that's not my biggest reason for making them.

Canes are different than some things.  Canes tend to be more needed than wanted. Nobody wants to have to use a cane.

I see this frequently.  A good cane has a profound effect on the user's self esteem.  They give a a little bit of the person's dignity back to them.  It's something your typical drugstore cane just can't do. That's an important reason why I make them.  My goals are simple.  I want to make nice looking canes that are comfortable and that get used.  In fact I want my canes to be the ones my customers reach for first.  I also want them to be affordable.  If someone wants one of my canes I want them to be able to have it.  I generally make a few lower priced ones too just for that reason.

I would love the ability to make a truly high end cane.  I envy the skill and precision of those makers. On the other hand if that's what I made maybe I wouldn't be able to achieve my other goals as well.

I agree with you about not everyone being able to, because lets face it, some folks just don't see the flaws.  Thats ok.  But, most of us do and we want to improve.  Wow factor can be achieved on simple items with no embellishment as well.  Ive seen basic knife sheaths so clean I've said to myself, "well shit."  Back to the drawing board.  If a person picks one thing to get better at, over time these things all combine to make a fine piece.  

Don't sell yourself short.  You can have a goal of affordable items, but that doesn't mean they have to be poorly made.  Price is up to you, and I admire the fact you want people to have your cane in their hand.  Kudos to you.  Nice looking and simple is a good combo and it applies to leatherwork as well.  

Anyway ,the whole point of this post is specifically that things DON'T have to be perfect to earn a wow.  Thats the beauty of making things with our hands.

[Rockoboy]

Excellent topic, and some very beautiful sentiments from lots of people.

Some of my things I have made, fishing rods, leather goods, wood or metalwork items, acrylic items etc, I am happy to show people. On the flipside, there are some items that I am less than impressed with my own efforts. There are some very talented people on this blog, and whilst I agree with the idea of not ripping-off some other person's design, I have tried some ideas. Some have worked and some have not, but the pleasure is in the making, not the praise and (possibly) fake opinion of people who may not know the worth of that article.

[rodneywt1180b]

On 4/25/2018 at 1:51 AM, immiketoo said:

I agree with you about not everyone being able to, because lets face it, some folks just don't see the flaws.  Thats ok.  But, most of us do and we want to improve.  Wow factor can be achieved on simple items with no embellishment as well.  Ive seen basic knife sheaths so clean I've said to myself, "well shit."  Back to the drawing board.  If a person picks one thing to get better at, over time these things all combine to make a fine piece.  

Don't sell yourself short.  You can have a goal of affordable items, but that doesn't mean they have to be poorly made.  Price is up to you, and I admire the fact you want people to have your cane in their hand.  Kudos to you.  Nice looking and simple is a good combo and it applies to leatherwork as well.  

Anyway ,the whole point of this post is specifically that things DON'T have to be perfect to earn a wow.  Thats the beauty of making things with our hands.

I'm not trying to sell myself short.  Affordable doesn't mean poorly made.  Canes won't allow it.  At the very minimum they need to provide additional support for the people who rely on them.   Keeping things simple and using less expensive woods help keep things affordable.  I gather and harvest most of the woods I use myself.  They're not lesser quality, just less expensive to acquire and I have fun doing it. 

I look at my work from when I started to now and I see the improvement.  But still I look at it and think: "That joint could have been tighter." or "I should have sanded it more." or "That shape could be refined a bit."   They're things that won't detract from the function of the cane and a lot of people probably wouldn't even notice them but to me they're things that I can (and should) work to improve.

I do agree that things don't have to be perfect to earn a wow.  I would even go so far as to say sometimes it's the imperfections that set an item apart.  Poor workmanship isn't one of them though.  A lot of my canes feature the imperfections in the wood.  Things like knots, old wounds and worm holes become features.  I use a lot of spalted wood.  Spalting is basically the early stages of rot but it can create some beautiful patterns in the wood.   I think the leather working equivalent would be using brands, scars and the raw edges of hides as they come from the tannery as features.

[immiketoo]

@bikermutt07, still waiting to hear from you!

[bikermutt07]

5 hours ago, immiketoo said:

@bikermutt07, still waiting to hear from you!

It's a little rambly, but here goes....

 

Well, I had to reread the whole thing to gain some perspective. It seems once we can make our edges smooth and straight with decent color and stitching, we have reached the "wow" factor for the blind eyes.

  "Blind eye" is a term I use in my craft, carpentry. I always felt that if I did something that I would feel proud of in my house, the blind eyes would love it. And that has always seemed to work for me. I have had very few complaints in 25 years with my work. 

But, leather is my hobby. And I have seen some things on this site that I will probably never strive to achieve.

   When I first started coming here in late '14, some one posted a messenger bag that had dragons clawing their way out of the flap. It had a huge fantasy castle behind them and I thought "WOW"!!! 

  I knew then I was way outta my league. I don't know who did it, but it was awesome (if anyone knows let me know).

And like @YinTx said, there are just so many genres, styles, and categories. Even playing around the last 4 years, I'm discouraged by how much I haven't tried. I know tooling won't be in my skill set. It's too painful on my banged up hands. But, I'm looking forward to shoes, and more totes or a brief case. Heck, I still haven't made a decent holster for my revolver yet. 

But, I keep playing, or dreaming about it, and when I am doing it I'm having fun. I doubt I will reach anything near a master level in any aspect of leather.

So, for now, I will continue to wow folks with decent construction and maybe a cool feature or two. 

There are some members here who are held very highly in my book that I may never "wow". And that's ok by me. 

I'm here to have fun and make stuff that will out last me. And that's enough.

[YinTx]

1 hour ago, bikermutt07 said:

I don't know who did it, but it was awesome (if anyone knows let me know).

I believe it was Samar.  He has a facebook page, amazing work.  Definitely has the wow factor.  That bag is ingrained in my memory as well.  Not sure where it is on this site, I think he had a different user name at the time.  Will look around a bit.

YinTx

[YinTx]

I think this was the thread.  Very sadly, the photos are not there.

YinTx

[bikermutt07]

@YinTx, I'm pretty sure that was it. Just another reason people should post their pictures here.

Thanks.

[Retswerb]

On 5/2/2018 at 8:33 PM, YinTx said:

 

I think this was the thread.  Very sadly, the photos are not there.

 

Now that’s just cruel - two dozen replies of people gushing over his work and no pics to look at!  

[immiketoo]

4 hours ago, Retswerb said:

Now that’s just cruel - two dozen replies of people gushing over his work and no pics to look at!  

I was disappointed too, although I am pretty sure I remember it.  Oh well.  Not the last awesome piece to grace these pages.

[Rockoboy]

On ‎3‎/‎05‎/‎2018 at 9:18 AM, bikermutt07 said:

There are some members here who are held very highly in my book that I may never "wow". And that's ok by me. 

I'm here to have fun and make stuff that will out last me. And that's enough.

I totally agree with @bikermutt07.

I do what I do for my own appreciation and sense of pride in achieving something for myself.

I will never achieve the carving, stamping, stitching, cutting, design or whatever of many people on this site, but I will definitely enjoy myself with what I do manage to make.

[KingsCountyLeather]

Totally agree with @bikermutt07 and @Rockoboy

I have this knife for ages and thought it would be good for leatherwork but it never felt comfortable in my hand. I tried this stitching for the first time the other night and now it’s soo comfortable now i think I will be using it a lot more. I know it’s not the best stitching but I am really happy with it.

 

[Rockoboy]

9 minutes ago, KingsCountyLeather said:

I tried this stitching for the first time the other night

Looks like a fair effort at a baseball stitch to me. I found with my baseball stitching, I can sometimes get the thread to lay better if I 'tweak it' with a stylus.

IMHO, if all the thread on each side are laying parallel to each other, it improves the entire job.

I have a scalpel handle the same as this one, so I might try this out for myself.

[KingsCountyLeather]

I honestly didn’t try too hard with this project and because I really do like it I think I will re-do it again and be even happier with it. It was very easy to do too, I wrapped masking tape a few times around the handle and cut the seam on the knife, then I peeled the tape off and used it for my template.

[rodneywt1180b]

It's a good clean looking seam and stitching to me.  I would be pleased with it.

 

[kiwican]

I've been working on my baseball stich...and I'm thinking I'll keep on practicing! 

[immiketoo]

Cool scalpel!  Peter Main modifies scalpels for much the same reasons.  You're in good company.