This Art Form Is Going Straight To Hell

[Retswerb]

1 hour ago, Spyros said:

I always thought leather working is incredibly cheap!  it still blows my mind that I can make something substantial that people actually desire, using nothing but a desk and a couple of drawers worth of tools

Yeah, it’s all in the comparison I suppose. Next to a shop full of power tools, leather is cheap. Next to a desk full of scrapbooking supplies it can look like quite a financial outlay.

My personal leather working budget is pretty tight, I’ve collected slowly over several years (including asking for some Christmas gifts, etc) and I doubt I have $500 in tools and equipment. There’s plenty more I’d like to have but rarely do I feel that my toolset rather than my skillset is what’s holding me back.

[Spyros]

yeah but with your $500 of equipment you can make 5 wallets and earn all your money back really quickly.  Not sure if you can do that with scrapbooking* but you can't with any other craft I can think of... I guess you could buy a drill, a circular saw and a sander and start building timber decks, that's pretty much all you need.  Plus 10 years experience of course, by which time you would have accumulated $10k worth of tools anyway 

 

*to be honest I'm not sure what scrapbooking is, I googled some images and left me confused LOL 

Kids diaries?

[Alaisiagae]

2 hours ago, Spyros said:

yeah but with your $500 of equipment you can make 5 wallets and earn all your money back really quickly.  Not sure if you can do that with scrapbooking* but you can't with any other craft I can think of... I guess you could buy a drill, a circular saw and a sander and start building timber decks, that's pretty much all you need.  Plus 10 years experience of course, by which time you would have accumulated $10k worth of tools anyway 

 

*to be honest I'm not sure what scrapbooking is, I googled some images and left me confused LOL 

Kids diaries?

Scrapbooking is taking photos and possibly other documents and organizing and presenting them in an artistic/artful manner. A plain photo album just has the pages with the photos in them. Maybe you arrange the photos in the order that you took them or by theme. For scrapbooking, you'd arrange them to tell a story, maybe add some text, such as location or a feeling the photo captures for you, stickers or shapes, etc. My mom made me a scrapbook years ago that contains photos of me, with some nice sticker artwork and words of encouragement. 

There are other hobbies that people do that are not advanced like woodworking and metal working: fiber crafts (knitting, crochet, embroidery, cross-stitch, etc.), baking, sculpture (clay), painting/coloring, sketching, model figures, etc. These are easily accessible and low budget. For me, I like to make end-products for myself or to give as gifts - I'm not interested in starting up a business and selling what I make, so I'm not recouping my costs for the leather supplies. Plus, I feel the learning curve for leather is much longer and steeper than other crafts, so it's easier for people such as myself to get discouraged and frustrated by all the practicing and failed projects. Sometimes I just want to do something for the weekend and have something to show for it before I go back to work the next week. Also, as has been mentioned, not everyone has the space for leather crafting. I use a plastic rolling craft cart to hold my supplies, and a collapsible small work table that's, like, 3'x3'. Wish I had my own crafting space, but that's just not possible. I can't leave stuff out for days and days for big/long projects in a shared living space like that.

Edited November 1, 2020 by Alaisiagae

[Spyros]

44 minutes ago, Alaisiagae said:

Scrapbooking is taking photos and possibly other documents and organizing and presenting them in an artistic/artful manner. A plain photo album just has the pages with the photos in them. Maybe you arrange the photos in the order that you took them or by theme. For scrapbooking, you'd arrange them to tell a story, maybe add some text, such as location or a feeling the photo captures for you, stickers or shapes, etc. My mom made me a scrapbook years ago that contains photos of me, with some nice sticker artwork and words of encouragement. 

There are other hobbies that people do that are not advanced like woodworking and metal working: fiber crafts (knitting, crochet, embroidery, cross-stitch, etc.), baking, sculpture (clay), painting/coloring, sketching, model figures, etc. These are easily accessible and low budget. For me, I like to make end-products for myself or to give as gifts - I'm not interested in starting up a business and selling what I make, so I'm not recouping my costs for the leather supplies. Plus, I feel the learning curve for leather is much longer and steeper than other crafts, so it's easier for people such as myself to get discouraged and frustrated by all the practicing and failed projects. Sometimes I just want to do something for the weekend and have something to show for it before I go back to work the next week. Also, as has been mentioned, not everyone has the space for leather crafting. I use a plastic rolling craft cart to hold my supplies, and a collapsible small work table that's, like, 3'x3'. Wish I had my own crafting space, but that's just not possible. I can't leave stuff out for days and days for big/long projects in a shared living space like that.

Yeah I get it, there are other crafts that are cheap but these are more hobbies than anything else.  Leatherworking gives people the ability to make legit sellable products and even a small business for themselves for a very small investment.  And I only mention the word "sellable" not because this is the end all - be all target for all crafts, not at all, but just to highlight the quality and significance of the end result.  

In leatherworking the ratio of the value of the outcome versus the financial outlay is very high.

Edited November 1, 2020 by Spyros

[fredk]

5 hours ago, Alaisiagae said:

Scrapbooking is taking photos and possibly other documents and organizing and presenting them in an artistic/artful manner. A plain photo album just has the pages with the photos in them. Maybe you arrange the photos in the order that you took them or by theme. For scrapbooking, you'd arrange them to tell a story, maybe add some text, such as location or a feeling the photo captures for you, stickers or shapes, etc. My mom made me a scrapbook years ago that contains photos of me, with some nice sticker artwork and words of encouragement. 

 

5 hours ago, Spyros said:

Yeah I get it, there are other crafts that are cheap but these are more hobbies than anything else. 

In my area some women have turned 'scrapbooking'  into a paying hobby. Folk bring them their cuttings, old cards, old letters etc and they put it all together into what we used to call in child fostering a 'memories book'

[CraigL]

Yes, seems there’s little interest in leather “craft”, part of which is the archaic look of the kits I’ve seen available, and few that address personal articles that people under 35yo carry every day. Some extravagant bags that are machine-sewn or single-thread sewn are marketed as “hand-sewn”, “double-needle, coach stitched” to the uninformed buyer. [AS IF the info weren’t available online.]
Finding quality hardware is becoming difficult!

[Tugadude]

On October 30, 2020 at 1:55 PM, Samalan said:

Finally talked my wife into going to Tandy, we signed up for a leather carving class, on the way home Tandy called asked if we were husband and wife when I said yes he said I'm sorry we don't allow that. wow hell of a business model !

What possible explanation was given?

[Tugadude]

If the original post in this thread was a rant about Tandy Leather and a perceived lack of leadership, I think it is only fair to judge them by their current efforts.  Since that post was written Tandy Leather has overhauled their website, their entire pricing structure and introduced a number of new products.  Just recently they unveiled a new heat embosser, for example.  And they sell Barry King tools via their website.  I've written previously that they added the Ritza 25 Tiger Thread and that was a response to requests from the leather community.

They have made many positive strides in recent months.  I don't think there is any question about that.

 

Here's their Facebook page in case you want to check it out.

https://www.facebook.com/tandyleather/

Edited November 2, 2020 by Tugadude

[Sheilajeanne]

Agree with Tugadude! They are also selling Angelus paints, and have greatly increased the range of colours you can get for Fiebing's dyes.

A year or so ago, I'd have to go to Michael's to buy Angelus.

[Reegesc]

3 hours ago, Tugadude said:

If the original post in this thread was a rant about Tandy Leather and a perceived lack of leadership, I think it is only fair to judge them by their current efforts.  Since that post was written Tandy Leather has overhauled their website, their entire pricing structure and introduced a number of new products.  Just recently they unveiled a new heat embosser, for example.  And they sell Barry King tools via their website.  I've written previously that they added the Ritza 25 Tiger Thread and that was a response to requests from the leather community.

They have made many positive strides in recent months.  I don't think there is any question about that.

 

Here's their Facebook page in case you want to check it out.

https://www.facebook.com/tandyleather/

Well, it's a start...but they have a long way to go.  The key thing is to energize new blood.   The  ONLY business I see doing that is Tony See's Etsy platform.  That guy is knocking out of the park.  Please go go check out his Facebook group.   All young people making great stuff and having a blast.   Selling Ritza thread and Angelus is not  going to do it.   There needs to be fundamental change to the approach with this art form if it is going to survive.