Any leatherworkers?

[Sarevan]

In my spare time ( ) I have made leather sleeves lined with felted wool or pendleton blanket scraps. Ipod, earphone, cellphone holders these are made from my more pliable leathers like deer, elk, or fur hides.

I'm trying to make a pattern for bracers for my Nephew. He works in a lumber mill, adjusting the knives for the planer, and other sharp equipment. The leather I am planning on using for this is called veg tan leather, very thick. It could make a shield, or shoe soles it is so thick. After I get the right arc and sized so he can wear over his work clothing I will carve in wolves and his initials, no reason they can't be pretty too.

Other project pattern I am trying to create is a very wide belt or waist cincher for my Great Niece. Will also be made from a thick leather but not like the bracers. I'm trying to figure out how to make it so I can have polished gemstones imbedded/secured in the leather. Guess I could cut a hole just a bit smaller then secure it in place with a lining leather. Still playing with ideas. Will have carved vines, flowers maybe highlight painted or just antique stained. Want to make it adjustable enough so she has a few inches to play with, so not stuck having a useless item if loses or gains weight.

Other items I've made, bracelets, necklaces, patches over elbows, knees on work clothing. Straps for guitars, cameras. Purses, bags, backpack, leashes, collars. Repairs to tack.

Bad thing is I don't have pictures of my projects, have given them all away as presents or even sold a few. I do have the leather sides standing in my bathroom, 1/2 a cow sized that mocks me to get busy and make things. The black, red, and natural tan soft leathers in bags also telling me to get busy. I may have to take over a part of the house to get things started. The cats will love it, they are my crew when I want a piece "distressed".

Would like to hear of others projects, leather sculpting, carving, burning, woven, braided. I enjoy working with leather as the items you create can last for a VERY long time when taken care of correctly. And it always seems to be "in style, fashion".

 

[Gryphon]

I make leather masks, and in fact made a tutorial on how to make your own: http://ranasp.deviantart.com/art/Leather-Mask-Making-Tutorial-41572623 It's made of the same stuff you use, vegetable tanned leather, but at a MUCH lighter weight. A tip for the bracers you're making, if you want them to hold that curved shape then you might want to try soaking it and forming it around your arms, then hit them with a hair dryer like I do with the masks. (of course you might already be planning on doing that.) Here's a few of my pieces:

(The purple is sprayed on leather dye, the gold is lumiere acrylic paint which is fairly flexible stuff, and the sparklies are just plastic pretty things)

(Rabbit fur on the edges, and the "whiskers" are tines from a swan feather)

(Sprayed on white dye and painted red lumier acrylic, it's a lynx in a Japanese style)

 

[wyoDreamer]

Those masks are pretty cool. nice work!

I have done a couple of tooled kits, a CD case, a coin purse, a wallet and a belt. All of hose when I was just a kid. Nothing recent. I picked up a couple of kits a year ago, dug out the tools and bought a couple new stamps. But never made time to do the projects. too many hobbies for the amount of free time I have right now.

Bracers - what are those? are they leather cuffs?

 

[Sarevan]

Nice masks! I want to try again molding leather like that sometime too. Yes plan on molding to my arms to get the arc, even though his forarms are larger than mine. Soaking the lighter weight leathers and molding them is fun, amazing the textures you can get scrunching it up and drying. I'll have to try this summer when the heat will help with the dryout process.


wyoDreamer- Bracers are leather cuffs. Nephew works with some very sharp equipment at the lumber mill. Would rather he cut up bracers then himself. I had some kits too to get back into the hang of tooling, carving again. The big sides of leather has been mocking me for awhile now. The kits are in my large storage box, ones I haven't finished yet. The pattern making has had me busy nearly all winter, haven't been happy with them yet to cut the leather.