Howdy! My painted woodburnings are selling well. Customers have a clear preference for mushrooms as subject matter and I can work with that without feeling too stifled, while still putting out other designs. However, on occasion, I've had customers ask if I sell any wearables, and I've noticed that many other art vendors sell wearable crafts, like tiaras or earrings. That in mind, keeping an eye out, I've noticed I, when shopping at vendor markets, gravitate towards cute little leather wearables.

Leather is an intimidating medium to start because of the price point. Yes, there are cheap starter kits on Amazon and at Michael's but Reddit commenters in the relevant subreddits discourage purchasing those, stating the tools are trash, and quickly break. The starter kits they suggest are over $100, sometimes over $200, and I cannot spend all that at once, especially with Christmas around the corner.

The more budget friendly advice I've seen Reddit commentors give is to buy tools for the desired project and as projects require more tools, purchasing them then. If the tool breaks quickly, it's used a lot and should be replaced by a quality tool. If it takes a while to break, another cheapo will do. While learning, using a wide variety of cheap leather is ideal, in order to get a feel for the varying qualities of the medium. While classes are encouraged, Youtube can suffice. Which is good, because the nearest classes are an hour away from me and fill up fast.

In order of interest and complexity, I wish to make:

• Decorative bookmarks

• Small earrings featuring feathers, leaves, moths, birds, & bats

• Insect, Leaf, Feather, & Flower hair clips and brooches

  • Including Thistle

  • Including Poppies (for Veterans)

• Floral bouquet brooches

• Opossum, mouse, & rat brooches

• Rat King brooch

• Insect/Moth & Pixies in Frames

• Common Heraldic Charges on simple Coat of Arms Backgrounds (with a posted list of the imagery & symbolism) as brooches

• Figurative Charms visually similar to Koroks, Miyazaki's Kodamas, Ukrainian Motankas, Maori Hei-Tikis, etc, as brooches (with a posted sign detailing how colors & imagery indicate area of luck being improved)

• Sets of small wing clips for attaching to shoes

• Book Cover, Playing Card, & Tarot Card Wallets

• A Witch Hat

• Novelty Bag (Nutcracker? Hamsa? Idk.)

For reference, my only real experience with sewing was in Home Ec. That is not a skill I possess. My knots leave much to be desired. This craft requires a great deal more structure than my other works and will be very challenging. Right now, I'm essentially studying up via Youtube and Reddit before I spend the money, which will probably be closer to the ~$50 range, initially.

As for what base tools are most necessary, I'm going by the tips in Corter Leather's How-To Video by The Buckle Guy. He states that the beginning leathercrafter should pick up: scrap leather, a self-healing cutting mat, an appropriate knife (his example being an X-acto with size 2 blades, to cut through thicker pieces), a cork backed ruler (so it doesn't slide on the leather), leather chisels and a heavy leather maul for hole punching in order to sew, an awl for sewing, wax thread, sandpaper for smoothing the edges, canvas or similar for smoothing the edges, a lighter for smoothing the edges, and beeswax for sealing. Of those, I already have the mat, ruler, lighter, and sandpaper. I also have the knife base but require blades.

The Buckle Guy suggests learning to cut straight and round lines first, then learning to punch sew-holes along those edges, before starting any projects. Basically, burn through a bunch of scrap, otherwise barely usable material to build muscle memory, and to get to know the medium. My initial tattoo education was very similar, with me drawing straight lines and tracing circles with a heavy weighted pen, before ever touching a machine.

For my purposes, I plan to watch a handful of Youtube tutorials on the leather dying and painting processes, and well as some on tooling. I also need to watch of sewing, with an emphasis on how they're tying them off. I'm less interested in building big elaborate projects and more interested in making illustrative small ones so learning to seal in color will be crucial. I did speak with a leather worker recently about color and he stated that markers and regular paints work, as long as they're well sealed. Elsewhere, I've read that when using paints not intended for flexible materials (leather, fabric, etc), adding a little fabric medium goes a long way towards keeping the color from cracking. Conveniently, I already ordered that for another project that nolonger requires it, and it'll be arriving soon. I'm not opposed to investing in dyes in the long run but starting out, I want to lean into what I already have.

Short term, while I'm getting to know the medium, I'm not trying to become an expert in the craft. If I really love it, then that can come later and I can look into earning entry into a guild and whatnot. Right now, I just want to make cool stuff, not impress other leathercrafters. Thanks for reading! I drop a new blog post every Monday. Toodles!

Newsletter

Howdy! I've begun my NaNoWriMo novel which will is a YA Dark Fantasy Hansel & Gretal retelling, featuring Baba Yaga. And maybe elements of Snow White. Time Will Tell. I wouldn't say I'm pantsing it. I have a mental outline, but right now, I'm mostly fleshing the outline out, scene by scene, as my first draft. I can already tell I need ideas for the muddle middle so I need to research the lore more, as well as pre-Industrial Eastern Europe, where the story is set.

I am querying Soul Walker, my paranormal women's fiction novel, but not as actively as I should be.

Last week I focused on prepping for, and selling art at, First Friday. Here are the painted woodburning pieces I finished in time for the event.

The reason I've stopped recording timelapses of myself making each piece is because I dog sit on Rover now and I cannot receive notifications while filming, which has caused issues in the past. I am debating buying a digital camera, separate from my smart phone, over the issue.

I plan to woodburn more this week, on top of writing for NaNo, but I'm not sure what of, yet. My reference folder is getting pretty chunky. As detailed above, I'm also watching leathercraft tutorials and reading up on how-to, before I purchase the supplies to get started. I have applied for December's First Friday in downtown Bryan. I'll hear back on my application by Nov 20.

Right now I'm reading The Martian by Andy Weir. It's a page turner, despite being heavy in the math department.

I also early voted so I don't have to worry about those long lines tomorrow. If you haven't yet and can, you should research the options on your ballot and give your educated vote. The Electoral College chooses the President but your say increases the farther down ballot you mark.

Thanks for stopping by! I drop a newsletter every Monday. Toodles!