what resource was the most help to you when you were new at this?

[Johanna]

I'm just curious what resource was the most help to an aspiring leatherworker through the years. Everybody think back. What one resource gave you the most assistance when you were first starting out, and which one would you rather have had? Which one taught you the most? What did you like about learning leather the way you did? What would have been better? Please tell us what kind of leather education you would suggest to a newbie.

Thanks, everybody!

Johanna

[freak]

Well being a newbie that has just takin off the trainingwheels , i still fall down alot. I saw a few ( very limited) how too on tooling leather online. I still have SOOOO much to learn and try. But i can tell you this my friend. When i first found this place i read for hours just the first nite and it was not as big then as it is now. As soon as i got home the next nite i did it again. I read for about a week before i even posted. There where many threads i bet i read 10 times over. This place was God sent for me.

I searched the internet for months before i found this place. What i was able to find was very little help. If i remember right , someplace wanted me to buy a membership to view the site and their how too-s . Well not knowing anything and not knowing what there was to learn or even if i'll like it or be able to do it. I saw no way in #$%&& i'll join there. So needless to say my first projects i feel i was lucky that they even came out. Oh i almost forgot. I would browse diff motorcycle forums and check out the guys that where doing leather work and ask them questions . Beezachoppa was one of the first guys to give me info over at the crossroads. Thanks Beeza !!

I've learned TONS of stuff here, tons i tell you. I feel if i have any question no matter how small or of what area of leather work it maybe. I will get a answer here and tips without feeling like a newbie.

SO all in all i guest my answer where i first started would have to be "surfing the web"

I LOVE THIS PLACE....Drinks for all my friends.

[Beaverslayer]

Well, in a past life that I've left behind me, I was a resident of the Canadian Penal System. Club Fed we call it. They had a very well equiped hobby shop that I hung out in doing woodwork, making jewelry boxes and such for the guards. The fellow inmate that was in charge of the hobby shop tools was a leathercrafter, and on days when I did't feel like getting all dusty I would sit and watch him tool leather or lace things together.

One day the hobby shop manager had gotten an order of leather in from Tandy that had a full hide of garment leather. He called Tandy and asked why they had shipped it to the Institution, and they said it was a mistake and just to keep it they would not charge him for it. I asked him how much he wanted for it, and he said "Ah give me $20 for it.

Well now I have a piece of leather about 50 sq. ft. and no idea of what to do with it. So I took the hat I wore and cut it all apart to get the shape of each piece and made a pattern out of it. Then over the next month or so, I kept asking the hobby shop tool guy if he would teach me how to lace. This took a lot of doing as "Inside" every one is afraid that if they teach you something, you will end up "Cutting thier grass" and start selling stuff that they would have been able to sell. Very competitive place.

Anyways, after expressing myself that I would not be cutting his grass, that I would only make hats for myself and not others, he taught me how.

Once his sentence was over, I took over the job as "Hobby Shop" worker, and was able to make and sell the hats to whomever I wanted without repercussions. As it was against the rules to sell to another inmate, I would have them purchase a garment hide from the hobby shop manager in which I would make them a hat, and keep the rest of the leather for myself...Rule Bending...This way I increased my inventory of leather for my own projects without cost.

One day I took a shirt apart and made a pattern for a vest. This took a bit of doing to re-design a shirt to look like a vest, but after a bit of work..well you've all seen my vests. I finished my first one, and it all started from there. I would have inmates asking all the time to make a vest for them. Again some rule bending, and there was within a year quite a few people wearing my vests inside. I even made and sold them to the guards.

There was a "Lifer" that was transfered into our instittuion one day that when he finally got all his hobby stuff sent in and inventoried (you can only have things that are allowed and registered on your "Property Card") I was amazed at all the tools he had...19 BIG boxes. He owned EVERY tool that you see in the Tandy cataloque.

I instantly became friends with him. He, at that time had been in for 29 years, and took up tooling and carving when he first came in. I asked, and he wholy agreed to teach me how to tool and carve. We would spend hours in the hobby shop, and either of our cells till all hours of the morning teaching me. (In Club Fed) we were allowed to do what we wanted at night on our own units, we even had keys to our own cell doors, YES our own cell door keys.

Anyways thats how I started leatherworking. I spent 3 years as the hobby shop guy, and over those 3 years learned everything that I know today. When I was released, I had saved enough money from sales that I made to the guards, and I also had "Sent Out" a lot of stuff that the guy that taught me how to lace, would sell for me in a store in a small city in northern Alberta. I also had an "Outside Job" as a drywall taper for my last 2 months of incarceration that payed me very well for being out on "Work Release".

With this money that I had saved up, I started Beaverslayer Custom Leather upon my release. I aproached all the Harley shops here in Calgary, and also the Custom Bike builders. Through these contacts I have been able to not only keep busy, but also make enough to survive and away from the "Past Life".

Well that's my story. Other than, like alot of people here on Leatherworkers, I spent countless hours on the net, trying to find out more about leatherworking, and after almost a year of looking I found this place. My MANY hats are off to not only Johanna, but everyone that participates. The comraderie I have found here is second to none, and I appreciate all the people more than you could ever imagine for helping each other out the way you do. No one here is afraid of having thier "Grass Cut" so to speak, and is more than willing to help out thier fellow leatherworker.

Ken

[Studio-N]

Not done learning, but have learned by DOING.

I had a background in other crafts, and much of that knowledge tranfered over. After that, it's just a matter of thinking through problem.

Measure twice, cut once. No wait, that's woodworking. Oh well, same thing. peace.

[Mike Craw]

Since we could only choose one, I chose "Books" but I think fair credit would require that I say Al Stohlman...

[Dragons Pearl]

I voted the hard way as I still have my training wheels on and didn't have a teacher lol. I took an art class in high school, but that was years ago. I just picked up a starter kit last year and did a couple things then stopped. I recently had a couple people ask me for rosary cases (the oval coin purses I posted in Show Off) and it started me wanting to create again. I have a couple books, just the ones from tandy by A. S., but nothing other than that and the internet for teaching. Nobody I know of does leather here other than one person who sells stuff out of his house. I think he may ask for payment for teaching and I am sorta broke lol. So I will just keep learning how I have been and using this site as a sounding board and information database.

[Guest]

I tried to add a reply but everything blew up and got deleted when I ran the spell check.... and I still can't get it to run.

Dave

[$$hobby]

i was lucky to have a leathershop class in Jr. HS. but i learned most by books and trial and error.

its one of the reasons why i buy all the books i can on leatherwork. sometimes you will get a different slant from different authors.

[yaklady]

Al Stohlman was my inspiration. I have always been interested in figure and pictorial carving, and have studied those two books from cover to cover. It was many years before I finally found out how much more I can learn from real people.

I started a saddle making class at Tandy's, and half-way through the class, the instructor was transferred to another store, far away. I finished the saddle by reading Al's saddle encyclopedias. My little tiny chicken brain had no problem following his instructions. That's how I learned for the first 25 years of leather craft, reading Al's books.

How about you, Johanna????

Kathy

[abn]

I think probably the best way to learn is through a mentor, who can give you inspiration, show you techniques and answer questions. But they're so hard to find, and most are too busy to be of much assistance.

In the absence of a good mentor, I haven't found anything that's more informative than a good online community like Leatherworker.net. I've always gotten good answers to my questions -- and have even been able to offer some advice of my own on occasion! It's interesting to read topics on so many different subjects, and I find myself learning something new almost every day.

The other options listed (books, videos, magazines, etc.) are all fine ways to learn, too, but there's no interaction. For example, if you have a follow-up question to the material presented, tough luck. Also, you're only getting the author's opinion... Here on Leatherworker.net, you post a question and you may get all kinds of different opinions -- all equally valid -- on the best way to do something.

Best of all, this site is a free resource! (However, contributions are appreciated to keep the server running, and consequently, the doughnuts that sit on top of it warm.)

I've enjoyed getting to know everyone here and thank the Leatherworker.net team for setting this site up.

Regards, -Alex