Keeping Busy During Lockdown

[Handstitched]

I hope all is getting better in your part of the universe.  Here in West  Oz, the amount of  confirmed virus cases  are now in the single digits, we had just one new case recently , after going down to zero a few days ago  , and some restrictions are sort of slowly being lifted , albeit cautiously.  

So far , I've managed to get through quite a few unfinished projects, and when I've finally finished these unfinished  projects, I'll take a pic of them all. 

I've had some business coming through the gate, thanks to a regular customer , God bless  her   She gave us a free  2kg leg of lamb a few weeks back,   I marinated &  BBQ'ed it , sooooo delish!!  I cooked it thats why ,lol,  

Peace

HS

[zuludog]

I saw this comment on another forum -

Next time you go for a job interview you are likely to be asked 'How did you spend your time during the Lockdown?' or 'What new skills did you learn during the Lockdown?'

I don't think that 'rolling my navel fluff into little balls and flicking it into an old coffee cup at the end of the table' would be the sort of answer they would appreciate

[Handstitched]

@zuludog So I guess your new ' skill'  with the fluff would have to be,  ' belly button ping pong'  or ' tummy tennis' , you may have created a 'new' online sensation  , you'll be famous I'm sure    

HS

 

Edited April 21, 2020 by Handstitched

[topazann]

I set out to make a personalized journal for each member of my tabletop roleplaying group. I finished last night and started mailing them out today before our next remote session (my friends don't know yet!)

[Draconias]

Howdy all,

First post, I have been lurking, reading lots of post, watching videos, and coming back up to speed. I did leather work back in high school in the mid to late 70's. Mostly just various kits and belts from Tandy, doing the tooling and then double stitch lacing wallets and purses.  Picked it up again when my oldest was in scouts about 30 years ago. 

I got laid off a month ago, and decided a few weeks ago to pull out my leather tools and get back into leather working. My wife is also excited about doing the leather work.  She ordered a half hide of chrome tanned leather.  I have modified a dental pick into a scratching awl (read about that in one of the post, and it works great).  I have cut out 5 different wallets and purses from pdf files I have found on the interwebs.  That is something new for me, cutting out the projects from a piece of leather.  We also ordered a bunch of stuff from Tandy, replacing the old finishes, and getting sewing supplies, and some other stuff.  Looking forward to punching my own holes and trying the sewing instead of lacing.  It does seem strange to not tool the leather and sew instead of lacing, kind of like cheating and not doing all of the work I remember doing in the past, lol.  I am also working on a couple of modular stitching pony for my wife and me.  I'll post pictures once they are done.

Thanks for listening to me ramble,

Ron

[Handstitched]

In this episode of " Keeping Busy During Lockdown" .....

I've had trouble with mice for years, I've almost caught 100 . I set the traps as usual , as soon as I see  ' calling cards' on my benches. The trap went off last night alright...but... the * expletive*  mouse went walkabout with the trap  still attached to the mouse. Its in my workshop......somewhere. 

So I've just spent the entire day trying to find the mouse with my  %$#*ing   trap.  No luck..yet . I  don't want  to leave a rotting  smelly mouse somewhere in my workshop,  as that could attract ants . 

@Draconias I'm sorry you've lost your job, sadly, its become a common theme these days . But We do our best to look on the bright side .  These challenging times really do concentrate the mind and  we go back to the hobbies & interests that we once enjoyed, but at the same time wonder why we gave it up in the first place?   This thing called ' life' gets in the way I guess.  I used to play with &  restore vintage valve radios in a past hobbyist life. While looking for my troublesome mouse, I did some tidying, re-arranging, and thought I'd get a few old radios out of one of  my other sheds, where they've been in storage for over 20 years . The ones I grabbed worked   So good to play with some old ' technology' that will be working displays . 

I've been trying to ' * shedify ' my workshop for years , looking good so far   ( *a word I made up) It will take the next 5 years or more to finish it. 

 

* Shed-ify:  Noun ;  to ' man cave'  a workshop,  a bar,  a meeting place,   an old garage,  by displaying all sorts of old crap to make it look very ...manly  , blokey . 

HS

 

[Handstitched]

Thank God for the locals. They've kept me in business. 

One needed a zip replaced on a ute cover, with extra gusset,   recently. ( 'pick up'  cover to you guys  ,  ute , pronounced 'yoot' )   Not leather I know,but, a job is a job.  It was  really awkward to sew, but I got it done. 

You can see I keep my machine well oiled...see the splatter?  . 

I continued to ' shed-ify' my shed today. ' displaying all sorts of old crap'  , ha !! 

I keep seeing the reports in the news about the US , I can only hope & pray that things get better. 

Peace

HS

Edited May 1, 2020 by Handstitched

[Handstitched]

My goodness,  how things have changed around the world since I last posted that. 

My workshop is now ' shedified',(  but I'm sure I'll find other stuff to decorate my workshop with.  . Lots of old tack, some good tack ,  still quite usable and sellable  ,  horse shoes, some shearing shed stuff, vintage radios, some old kero lamps, a scythe,   and a 1940's desk fan. 

What has everyone else been doing?   Coming on here really has helped. 

In a sign things are going back to "normal", here in Australia anyway,  ' intrastate' border restrictions came down  (WA) and I was able to go to Perth  and   pick up equine stock. I ordered stock and supplies from Adelaide and QLD,  Adelaide supplies arrived yesterday, in " normal"  12 days, QLD supplies ( heaps of machine threads) arrived today, ' Express Post' , it meant just that, Express Post, ordered Monday ( June 1st) and  and arrived today, Thursday ( June 4th)  . It was like Christmas Day this morning to open a parcel full of lovely threads    Any other time throughout COVID, that would take at least double that time to arrive. 

Once again, Thank God  for the locals that have supported me ....and one in NSW , some leather jobs, but  mostly non- leather, but a job is a job and it pays the bills   

Stay safe peeps  

Peace

HS

PS:  I did get my 100th mouse . Champagne anyone? 

[Handstitched]

Post Lock down.....Australia.

Well, Victoria ( in the east )  has gone into reverse  and gone back into lock down. What a total stuff up  over there , sorry Vicco  !! Western Australia  is doing OK ....so far...'touchwood' . We're doing the complete opposite  and opening up , re-starting all sorts of events, venues etc. 

I had my first market today  since March. I did really well . Lots of local support  and lots of new faces coming to town. My other regular markets are re-commencing in the coming months . 

However, the cost of some leathers from my supplier have gone way up due to an increase in freight from O/S  . I'll have to find an alternative  for some leathers. 

Stay Safe

HS 

[dikman]

Mate, it's safe to say that Victoria is a basket case at the moment! Australia, as a whole, was doing fairly well until these outbreaks in Vic started up. The people running that State should be shot (or exported to China).

Glad to hear that things are picking up for you. Funnily enough, not much changed for me during all of this, the only real impact has been closure of the shooting ranges, but they're now starting to open up a bit. I haven't done any leatherwork (yet, I really should get back into it) but have spent a fair bit of time getting my larger lathe running on a 3-phase/VFD setup and getting it to run accurately (finally!). And built a gas forge. And melted some aluminium to make a bar to align the lathe. In fact, it seems I've been doing everything except leatherwork!

You should post a couple of pics of your market setup, it could be of interest to others?