A taste of what's coming...

Hello again!  I thought I would post a short video I put together that shows snippets of some projects I've been working on.  There is a lot more footage that I'm planning on working into some instructional videos that I'll post here.  Enjoy!

New Stuff on the Store!

Hey everyone, we have just put some new stuff up on the store.  We are doing custom leather belts now!  I'm excited about this because I know how difficult it can be for someone of my size to find a belt that works for them and won't fall apart in six months.

But you don't have to be a big guy like me to get a belt, you can get any belt you want.  More pictures will be added soon.

I also just took some video of working on a cuff for the store and I will be putting that up soon.  I also plan on doing how to videos for the leather belts as well.  I'm looking forward to posting more soon.  Check back soon and to see what we have in store.  Thanks again!

Take Care!

We are OPEN for Business!

Hello everyone!  I just wanted to let everyone know that the shop is now open for business again.  We currently are offering custom leather cuffs and custom leather wallets.

More items are coming soon but I wanted to try and get us up and running as soon as possible.  So come on over and check us out!

Drop us a line if you have any questions.  Take Care!

I'm Back Baby!

The shop is coming back!  I plan to have my workshop back up and running for the 2016 Christmas Season.  I also plan on posting more here.

In a future post I will detail the long three year journey it has been since I had to step away from leather.  But for right now I wanted everyone to know that we're coming back!  I have a ton of great ideas for merchandise and I plan on detailing a lot of it here.  And I've upgraded...want to see some videos?  So I hope you check back at the end of August to see what's up.

More details to come...

Thanks everyone!

Letting My Nerd Flag Fly

Another quick post today.  I was doing some research on putting together a "gamer" bag and came across the items below.  They are "deck boxes" for collectible card games and I thought they were great.  I will definitely be putting a few of these together myself once I get the shop back up and running.  (Some for sale, and some for myself.  I dabble in playing Magic the Gathering and these would be great for some of my decks.)

http://larpexchange.com/celtic-deck-box.html?gclid=CJ2Bm974q8gCFQuqaQodwygNSQ

https://www.etsy.com/listing/169994597/customized-leather-deck-box-deckbox

As for the "gamer bag" I'm still working on the concept.  It obviously is something that can be used by gamers for gaming stuff, or for regular daily stuff.  I'll keep you posted on that.  (By the way, if you are interested in this, drop me a line.  Let me know what you would like to see in a project like this.  I'd love to hear your ideas!)

Thanks again for dropping by!  Any comments or questions, please send them on over to theslackjaw@gmail.com.

Take Care!

You bet I'm back!

Hello all!

I have missed you!  Really, I have.  I can't believe it's been so long.  BUT, I've been toying with starting up here again.  Admittedly I can't do much in the way of projects right now because my workshop is still a nursery.  (Hopefully a move in a few months will take us to a new home that has more room for a proper workshop!)

That being said, I can still put some useful information and interesting leather related stuff.  The entries will probably be short, definitely a novelty coming from me, but just something to keep some new content on here.

Today I wanted to point everyone into the direction of this guy.  His name is Ian Atkinson and he's across the pond over in the UK and MY GOD is his leather work phenomenal!  I just love watching his videos.  He is one of the best leather workers I've seen.  He's got a store on his site as well as an Etsy store.  Check him out.  (His stuff doesn't come cheap but with the amount of work he puts in I don't blame him.)

http://www.ianatkinson.net/

As always drop me a line at theslackjaw@gmail.com if you have any questions.  It's good to be back!

Take Care!

SHOP NEWS! PLEASE READ!

I have a couple of announcements to make.  I was going to wait until after the holidays but we have reached the final deadline for orders for Christmas so I feel the sooner the better.  First: In about five months I'm going to be a dad.  I'm extremely excited/terrified which I understand to be normal.  My wife is doing well and we can't wait to meet the little one.

Now onto my second announcement that is related and not as joyous.  I am shutting down the store for a little while.  I'm not sure when it's going to be back up again but for right now it can't be helped.  The main reason for this is that my workshop is being turned into a nursery.  We live in a small house with very little space so I'm a little out of options.  I have a couple of ideas but for right now, with the little one on the way, me trying to get my voice acting career off the ground, and the kookiness of life something needs to give.

If you have orders placed I will fulfill those on the normal schedule and nothing will change with that.  I plan on officially shutting down the store on December 24th.  So you have until then to order anything you have been thinking about.  That being said, if you would like to have something made AFTER I shut down the store, message me and we may be able to work something out.

I also will still be running the blog and the Facebook site so you will have a way to talk to me about leather if you are so inclined.  I WILL STILL BE OFFERING LESSONS!  Just so you are aware.

I want to take this opportunity before I close to thank everyone who has visited the blog or the store, like the Facebook page, and any who have bought something from me in the past.  Your support means a lot to me.  I'm not going away, just taking a little break until we can figure out a better set up.  Thank you again and Take Care!

Another Way to Learn Leather Craft! -->

LESSONS!

So over there on the right you may notice a new little section there.  It is where you can order private leather crafting lessons!  I can do these lessons via Skype or Facetime, whatever is easier for you.

You just need to select the length of the lesson, either a half an hour ($25) or an hour ($50).  Then I just need to know what you would prefer, Skype or Facetime.

One quick note, please contact me first before ordering so we can work out a time and what we are going to go over so I can be sure to be ready.

I really hope you like this, and if you are looking for a new way to learn leather, you have come to the right place.  Thanks again for stopping by.  As always, drop me a line.  

Happy Crafting!

Psst...We Are Having a Sale

Hey everyone.  Real quick, I just wanted to drop a line and let you know that we are running a sale for the month of October over on our Etsy Store!  Type in FALLFEST and get 20% off of your order!  On top of that we have a lot of great new stuff on the store.  So come check us out!

Thanks again for stopping by and as always drop me a line!

Happy Crafting!

We Have Entered the Terrible Two's and Shop News

Hello everyone.  I just realized the other day that this blog has been going for just over two years.  I had hoped it would last at least that long but I wasn't sure it would.  I know it sounds cliched but if it wasn't for you guys checking out the site I would have given up awhile ago.  Thank you for that.

In other, less sappy, news we have fired up the store again.  Currently we are doing custom items, specifically the custom cuff, wallet, journal, or bible cover.  I'm going to be getting more stuff up on the store soon.  Along with that I will be getting more stuff up here about actually making leather.  Novel concept don't you think?  Putting stuff about leather up on the leather blog.  It's revolutionary.

I'm working on some new ideas for projects as well speak.  I plan on having my time free up significantly in just about a month from now.  What that means for this blog and my leather, I will have more time to work on it.

Well, that's all for today.  As always, drop me a line if you have any questions or comments.  Thanks again and Happy Crafting!

A Perfect Workspace

Hello.  I received an email this past week asking about work space and basic "getting started" questions.  This led me to start thinking about, if I had unlimited resources and space, how would I set up my space.

First I would separate my space into three different sections.  I would have a "measuring and cutting" area, a "tooling" area, and finally a "finishing and staining" area.  This all seems pretty basic and self explanatory.

My "Staging" area would be where I work on patterns, measure and cut the leather, etc.  Because of this it would have to be a bit larger than the other areas.  This is especially helpful with larger projects and even belts as there is a need to spread out the leather.  This also is the cheapest area to set up as I really only need one of those 6' x 3' craft tables from Wal-Mart.

The "Work Bench" is basically what I have right now.  Which is 4' x 2' table with a peg board where I would do my tooling.  This includes the marble slab to tool on and all the working tools I would need to make a project.

The "Finishing" area is where I would finish off the leather with dyes, stains, and other various chemicals.  This area would ideally be set apart from other spaces to minimize any accidents.  Notably spilling stain on another project or "overshooting" with the airbrush and hitting unrelated projects.  This has happened to me more times than I would like to admit.  I would have the airbrush set up here, blocking pieces to keep the stain contained and some sort of ventilation to keep me alive.  That's important.  This area can vary in size but my gut tells me the bigger the better.

It would also be nice to have various shelving to keep the unused leather and my finished projects organized.  Obviously this would require two shelves, one for each, ideally separated, again to cut down on accidentally messing up the unused leather.

Well that about does it for my "dream workshop."  I would set this up in a heartbeat but unfortunately I don't have the space right now.  One day, when I have a garage I will be good to go.  I have simple dreams.

That's all for today.  Thanks again for stopping by and as always, drop me a line if you have any questions or comments.  I love hearing from you.  And a special thanks to John for giving me the idea for this post.

Happy Crafting!

A message about copyright

Hello all.

This post isn't directly about leathercraft but I do think it is a helpful thing to know about.  Copyright law in the US (and I'll be speaking strictly in terms of the US as that is all I remotely familiar with) can seem a complicated thing.  When you get right down to it, it is rather simple.  If someone else came up with it, don't copy it.  Where it gets complicated is in the details and interpretation.

Two quick notes here at the beginning.

1. I AM NOT A LAWYER.  So please do not take any of this as direct legal advice.  If you have questions seek professional help. Got it?  Good.  You may continue.

2. I'm speaking mostly in terms of if you are trying to sell your leather goods.  If you are just a hobbyist making stuff for yourself, family, friends, or gifts then by all means go bananas.  When you want to sell something though, then you are entering murky waters.

Sometimes copyright law is easy.  Dave Matthews Band has a design called the "Firedancer" that has been the bands symbol almost since day one.  Don't put that design on anything you make.  Easy enough.  Where it gets tricky is where the design isn't as recognizable or is basically just a doodle that is easy to unknowingly copy.  Or if some came up with a bag design or wallet design then it is hard to know if you are infringing on their rights.  Chances are, in that last example, you are fine as long as the bag is different enough.  There is only so many ways you can stitch together a bag.

But to make it easier on yourself, if you know someone else came up with the design or the template, don't use it.  Period.  Now does that mean if you see a type of bracelet or wallet on Etsy or some other site and you want to make it for yourself that is fine.  And if you make it and it gives you an idea on how to make a bracelet a different way then you have your own, new idea.  (Here is where MY lawyer is requesting I add in again that you should NOT take any of this as legal advice.  When in doubt, seek out a copyright lawyer and ask away.)

Why am I bringing this up?  Well, two reasons.  First I felt it something I should talk about and second it's because I'm a schmuck and didn't know this and almost got myself in deep water.  Here is what happened:

I can't go into too much detail but basically a lot of what I was selling had logos of popular nerd culture icons.  I was under the (FALSE) impression that if it is hand made, then you are not violating copyright law. (VERY FALSE)  So I was knocking these leather goods out and making a (VERY) small amount of money in the process.  Long story short, one of the companies that owned the copyright to one of the designs I was "borrowing" sent a cease and desist.  Once I knew I was in the wrong I immediately halted all sale of copyrighted material and prayed that was the end of it.  Apparently it was, as that was the last I heard of it.  So lesson learned.

Now custom work is another story.  If someone contacts you and wants you to put a design of copyrighted material on their custom item, that is territory I'm not familiar with.  So again, if this happens, seek out a copyright lawyer.  If I find out a definitive answer then I will update this post.

Well I wanted to get something on here since there has been such a long time since I have posted anything.  I hope this was informative and as always, drop me a line.

Happy crafting!  

Time Flies . . .

 . . . while everything else goes crazy.  I'm still here.  I haven't fallen off the Earth.  Not yet anyway.  I just wanted to check in and let you know that I'm working on getting some things in here soon.  How soon, well if you go by my current timeline, sometime around the tricentennial.

Kidding aside, I do have plans, they are coming, and I wanted to let you know what's up.  The long and the short of it, I lost my "day" job.  I was laid off and I had to scramble for another job.  So I did thankfully.  During all of this I also decided to pursue a passion of mine, voice acting.  So all of this has been taking up my time and I haven't had time to break down and work with leather.  But I haven't forgotten about you.  I plan to try and post something once a month.  And for those of you who are a fan of the Etsy shop, we aren't going away.  I plan on putting some stuff up there too.  I will keep everyone posted as things come up.

As always, thank you for sticking with me and drop me a line.  Take Care!

I promise I will get back to projects soon . . .

With everything going on I haven't been working on leather as much as I would like.  But we have put the store back together and we are having a Summer Sale to celebrate!

When you purchase anything from our store in the next two weeks you can type either:

SUMMERFUN to get 25% off your entire order

or

SUMMERSAVINGS to get FREE SHIPPING

You just need to type those in the coupon code field.

Thanks for sticking with me and as always let me know if you have any questions.

Happy Crafting!

New Items on The Store

Just wanted to let you all know that we have put some new stuff on the store. As always, more to come. Thanks for reading!

When will Then be Now . . . .

 . . . .now actually.

The store is open!  Currently there are only a few items on the store but that is going to change in the coming days.  I also am working on a project that will be featured here and . . .elsewhere.  More details to come.  Thanks for sticking with me and I'm really excited about what's to come!

Our Store!

As always, drop me a line if you have any questions.

Happy Crafting!

Coming Soon!

Hello everyone!  We are back from our vacation and settling back into normality.  Well, relative normality, as my wife is still diligently looking for a job.  She has a few nibbles at the line and we are waiting to hear if anything comes of them.  In the mean time I'm working to start back up with this blog and the store.  I'm not ready just yet to open the store back up but I'm working on it.  I'm guessing we will be back open in a few weeks.

(NOTE:  If there is a development in regards to a potential move or what have you this obviously will change the timeline.  In any case I will make sure to keep everyone posted as to what is happening.)

One more thing before I let you go.  I have something in the works that I'm really excited about.  I still have to work out some kinks in the formula but if it works I think you all will really like it.  Basically I came up with an idea that I really think could work.  I may even get a "Kickstarter" going to help build some capital.

As always, let me know if you have any questions or comments.  Thanks again for sticking with me.  You guys are awesome!

Some Rambling . . .

Hello again.  I figured since I have posted on our Etsy Site, Facebook Page, Twitter, and Google+ page I should probably fill you guys in as well. . . .

Here is the deal.  We put our site "On Vacation."  It's a cute way of saying "Temporarily Closed."  We are coming back though.  Emphasis on temporary.  In fact we are not really gone.  I'm still here.  I plan on being here for awhile.   (You might not know it from my lack of activity on this blog but I am here.  More on that later.)  So if you have questions, thoughts, ideas, gripes, or whatever send them on to me and I will be happy to respond.  For those of you wondering here is what is going on:

Life.

As I've said elsewhere this isn't a bad thing.  On the contrary good things are happening.  Basically my wife just finished grad school yesterday.  We are all very excited for her but it made for a bit of a stressful go for a couple of months.  Her constantly studying and me picking up slack (which I happily did) to make sure she could continue to study until her professors told her to stop.  (Which considering she finished yesterday should be sometime in August.)

So her graduation ceremony is in two weeks.  Family is coming into town and staying with us (so my leather shop will be someone's dresser for a week) and we have a lot planned for that.  Not to mention a close friend of ours is also finishing Nursing School and is becoming and RN so there is a lot celebrating and alcohol consumption in our future.  (For those that dislike alcohol I'll pretend it's root beer.)

That is the fun side of things but there is also a practical consumer of our time.  Now my wife is in a search of a job.  She is applying all over the United States.  From what her "career counselors" in her grad program tell us, the busy interview time is also in the next three weeks.  And considering she has applied to many positions already we are expecting (hoping) she starts to get calls for interviews.  I'm sure you are asking what that has to do with my leather work.  Putting aside all the family events in the near future (in addition to a real vacation that we are going on the first week of June) my wife is a big part of the store.  Not only does she make stuff for the shop but she also handles a lot of the business side of things.  While I'm OK at that part and can hold my own, it wouldn't be a good idea with all this stuff going on.  I would not be able to give my customers the attention they deserve.  I don't want to risk upsetting a customer just because I wanted to keep the shop open all year around.

Now if she gets a job near our home then I will be able to open the shop right after we get back from our real vacation and everything will be great.  But if she gets a job that requires us to relocate then that will entail a whole new set of challenges.  I didn't want to have 9 unfulfilled orders in the balance while we figure out how to move to Alaska or wherever.  Why am I explaining myself?  Because I feel you should know why I would do something like this.  I want you to know that I had a good reason to put my shop on hold.

I also wanted to inform you of this because I thought I would pass along a little bit of my philosophy and the way I do things.  In my "real" life I work for a great company.  A phenomenal company really.  A couple of years back they sent me on a seminar called "95 Share."  I could write up five to ten blog posts about this seminar but it was unlike any business seminar I have ever attended.  I recommend it.  To make a long story short the whole point of the seminar is to treat your customers, your coworkers, your employees, everyone you come into contact with right.  Treat them right.  Do right by them and they will do right by you.  Don't tell them how great you are, show them.  Simple concept.  It works.  When I started my shop I used this philosophy and it has worked.  It generates more business but that is just a side benefit.  (The guy that runs the seminar would argue with me on whether it is a side benefit thing or the whole point but stick with me.)  It just makes you feel good.  Even if the customer is driving you crazy with off the wall questions and requests when all is said and done, if you treated that customer right, then you feel good.  So do they.  It just works.

Shifting gears one last time I want to apologize for the lack of activity on the site here.  About a month ago I received some bad news that disheartened me for a little bit.  Nothing Earth shattering or anything.  But it was bad news that directly related to my leather work.  I can't get into details but ultimately it made me want to take a break from leather.  I still filled orders and went through the motions but I had lost the desire to lock myself in my workshop and work on new ideas.  This also aided in my interest in this blog.  I do want to point out this has nothing to do with the current shop situation.  The last few weeks I have wanted to get back into the workshop but I just haven't had the time.  Every day the urge grows.  So look out for more stuff.

Well I have rambled on long enough.  Thanks for stopping by.  As always, send me any questions you have and Happy Crafting!

Quick Note About Our Etsy Site

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are restructuring how we post items on Etsy.  It's a bit of a process as I am branching out into other types of projects other than my basic fare.  This means that some items that you may have seen before are no longer on the site.  I still will do custom items and I have a "Custom" listing for each type of item I sell.

I do have more projects coming and I just have to finish working out the kinks.  (I plan to put up some posts in regards to these new items.)  More to come soon.

As always, drop me a line if you have any questions.  Have a great day!

Happy Crafting!

Airbrush

I have stumbled across a wonderful thing.  I was perusing Leatherworker.net looking for ideas on how to treat leather (more on that later) and discovered a process that I have since tried and it works beautifully.

Airbrushing your dyes and finishes.  Yes, it works.  

I'm sure there are leather veterans who read this and scoff because they have been doing it for years.  But for me it was a new idea and a very attractive one for a couple of reasons.  

- 1st: I'm an all around artist who has been interested in getting an airbrush for painting on canvas, models, etc.  Up till now I never had the justification to purchase the equipment.  (I had a hard enough time convincing the missus that I needed all these new leather supplies and this was after our Etsy store was making us money.  I couldn't really justify dropping 200-300 bones on airbrush supplies for my personal enjoyment.  Remember: I didn't know airbrushing stains onto leather was a thing until four days ago.)     

- 2nd: I was having issues with the way I was putting stain on and was looking for a solution.  At first I was using old t-shirts.  (Not the worst idea in the world, but you end up wasting a lot of stain as the shirts suck up the excess.  I was going through almost 4 ounces of stain a week and only fifteen cuffs to show for it.)  After talking to the folks at my local Tandy store I started to use plain old paper towels.  This solved the waste problem as cheap paper towels only suck up a small fraction.  I still wasn't completely satisfied.  (I would still stand by paper towels though if you aren't interested in airbrushing or spending the money to get one.)  

- 3rd: Time.  It was taking me more time than I would like staining these pieces.  Since most of what I sell is sold using the same stain I was looking for a way to cut down the time.  

Airbrushing looked like it would solve all of that.  I did some research and found that it isn't that difficult and if you are smart about it, it can be a great way to go.  So the other day I purchased an airbrush and a compressor.  After some testing with water to get used to the gun I tried staining some scrap pieces black.  It works wonderfully.  Since then I have stained a few cuffs and a belt.  I can't say enough on how happy I am.

There are few things you need to be aware of before you dive into this:

- It isn't cheap.  You can't get a good set up for less than $150 and that is if you know where to look and you have a coupon when you get there.
                          - I recommend that you get a "starter" airbrush kit that will give you what you need.  (This will NOT include an air compressor)  It will include almost everything else you need.  If you are pinching pennies you could get one for less than $50 dollars, but you will get what you pay for.  You may also need to pick up an adapter so you can hook it up to a compressor.  You can probably avoid this if you get a nicer Paasch or Badger airbrush.  If you have enough you can get an Iwata but that may be overkill.  We got a Paasch airbrush kit that had everything we needed.  That put us back a little over $100 dollars.  It is a "double action" trigger with allows you to control the spray using the trigger.  This isn't a necessity if you are just doing leather.
                           - You also need a compressor.  Sears or Home Depot has them and you can pick up one for less than $100 but you probably will need to get adapters to fit the air brush and it will probably be noisy.  If you plan to use your brush constantly you may want to look into larger models.  There are plenty of airbrush sites that can guide you in that regard.  I got a portable compressor just for airbrushing.  It goes up to 50 PSI and works great so far.  It put me back $190 and it was one of the cheaper ones specifically for airbrushing.  You also can get a CO2 tank that will last you a good while but they are about $100 or so a piece and you would need to replace it when it depleted.  Not the cheapest option in the long haul.  Not to mention this really is only an option if you are working out of your garage or basement.

- Get a mask or respirator and make sure you have good ventilation in the area you are working.  You are aerating chemicals and you don't want to be breathing that crap in.  I've noticed that some sites don't seem to stress this very much.  They mention it, but almost as an afterthought.  Unless you have a hood over your work space I would recommend this.  Just saying.

- ALWAYS, always, ALWAYS clean your airbrush out before you walk away.  It takes only a minute or two and it will save you a lot of money.  Just pull the jar out, rinse it off, fill halfway with water, spray that out until it sprays clear, then call it a day.

So that is my run down on airbrushes.  I highly recommend them and I'm really happy with how much stuff is turning out.  Let me know what you think about them or how you have yours set up.  Until next time, Happy Crafting!