Stuff I've done after being here for a year (and a few things from before)

I don't know if anyone looks at the intro posts so I'll just summarize here first. I bought my first side from Tandy last February because I wanted to make fancy candle wraps for concrete vessel candles I was making as thank you gifts to people who had helped me out with stuff for the album I'm working on, which led me to doing random other stuff I found on YouTube and then I decided that I didn't want to have anything to do with western style stuff (don't get me wrong, the people who are great at it are really amazing artists and craftspeople and I couldn't do anything like that in a million years, it's just not what I personally find appealing), and then that led me here and then I went kinda nuts I guess. Sorry that this might be long, there are gonna be a lot of pictures so feel free to just skip it. I haven't posted anything on social media at all because I haven't actually told anyone that I've been doing any of this because I'd rather wait to see if it's something that's just a hobby or something that I want to try to make money off of, and if I'm gonna make money I'm just gonna wait until it looks decent enough that I'd feel comfortable trying to sell any of it and I don't know that I'm there yet. I have pretty high standards for myself with the music that I make and recording other bands so this is no different. That being said, yeah a lot of this stuff has flaws, some pretty major in my opinion but I've also only made most of these things once so it's a lot of first time stuff. Anyway, here's the candle I was talking about. My girlfriend wanted to start a candle business so she made me learn how to make them, I had made my own beard balms and oils before so she figured it was just an extension of that (which basically it's the same thing) and then I kinda just did my own thing so I made the concrete vessel and everything. It smells great! Crackling wooden wick for extra fancy haha. It was the black motorcycle side from Tandy, about 2mm chrome tanned pebble grain. I did some testing trying out different kinds of stitching going back and forth between leather lacing and thread for the back on test scrap pieces but this is the first fully completed thing I ever made with leather.

Then I made a little skull and a small Pac-Man set because I thought my girlfriend would like them, I probably got in way over my head but I get overly ambitious and don't realize what I'm doing until after I've started and then it's too late so I have to keep going and finish. I cut and dyed the red or orange one twice because I messed up the first time, I hadn't ever dyed anything before but I watched loads of videos before I tried, plus these things all had instructional videos on YouTube and then sold the patterns so it was the same as here, just print out and follow along! The skull and ghosts were all natural veg tan bellies, Pac-Man himself was yellow Buttero that I used for something else I'll get to.

Same thing with this stuffed Baphomet, I saw the video and thought man that rules and my girlfriend will love it. I had found an Isaac Mizrahi bag at the thrift store for pretty cheap and luckily it was 1mm black chrome tan so that's what I used. This thing was just so much work I don't see myself ever doing it again, but it was fun to do once!

Then I made this keyfob for my dad for his birthday from Walnut Buttero, I found Hahns Atelier's channel on YouTube

Then I made this stuffed penguin from Buttero as a thank you for my brother and his wife for letting us stay at their house when we went on a trip, that's where the yellow for Pac-Man came from. I think he's like 6-7" tall or so

Coaster set that I did, I ended up making another one for my parents and one more as a thank you along with the penguin for my brother and his wife. The reverse side is black like under the mug. Some kind of veg tan that was on sale at Tandy that I liked the look of but kinda hate working with

So now is when I joined up here and then got serious lol I've been here a year as of tomorrow so that other stuff was in the span of a couple months. Naturally I started out with the Stingray Card Wallet, because why not? Like I said, apparently I love getting in over my head and have big ambitions. I figure it'll either be good or it'll be horrible and there's no better way to learn than by making mistakes so here goes nothing.

Then I moved on to the Card Slot Cardholder, which I did with a Porosus Croc tail and Alran Sully chevre interior and rear

Then the Lined Card Wallet Pattern Project had come out so I did that one

I made another Card Slot Cardholder for my dad for father's day with Buttero

Then I made a Turenne for my mom for her birthday in July, using Premium Dry-Milled Aniline Baby Calfskin for the outside and Premium Suede Velour Nappa Baby Calf from BuyLeatherOnline, along with a matching Card Slot Cardholder

Then I made a passport holder that I saw on the Corter YouTube channel using Pueblo, except I stitched it with clams and traditional saddle stitch and maybe 3mm pricking irons instead of the way that he does it, because like I said in the intro I don't really care for that style so much

Then I randomly made an AirTag holder because I saw some video where someone made it comparing it to the Hermes one and I thought theirs turned out horrible so I wanted to put my money where my mouth was and be objective to see if I could actually make a decent looking one, and I think that I did. It's not super great but still better than the one I saw in the video, I don't know. I asked a few people on their opinions and they agreed, they were also friends whose opinions i trust and have been going back and forth sharing mixes on music we're doing so we're all just honest with each other about what needs to be fixed so they weren't just being "good friends"

Then I made a Twin Peaks themed Turenne, but decided that the red stitching and edge paint was just too over the top and it ended up looking more like a goth girl's bag than what I had intended. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I was a goth kid in high school before I was a metalhead (I play and record mostly death and black metal) and have more than a few friends who would love this bag, it just didn't turn out how I saw it in my head and I plan on redoing it with all black. I used black box leather and then a red suede on the inside. Oh I also got some white double brushed matte satin fabric from the fabric store and screen printed the chevron pattern since I have a little screen printing setup in the basement for a little surprise inside the pocket. None of this means anything if you haven't seen Twin Peaks I guess. The Advanced Hand Stitching course had just come out so I used the two color thread method on the inside pocket for a bit more subtle black and white in addition to the satin inside, which you can see in the third picture.

After that I wanted to make the Mini Doctor's Bag for my brother, since he had recently officially become an actual doctor but I wanted to do a couple practice ones first so his would theoretically be the best, here's one I made for myself. Outside is black Togo, inside is gray chevre

Then I decided that the De Havilland Travel Bag even though I do very little actual travelling, so I used the same black as I did with the candle sleeves since it was the right thickness and I had a whole side. I used blue Buttero for the handles and piping and accent parts, some random gray chrome tan I found on etsy for a good price that was the right thickness, and a really nice blue kidskin suede that I got from Tandy that apparently doesn't exist on their website anymore

Here's a whole family shot, I definitely have a theme going haha

Then I made the second Mini Doctor's Bag for my girlfriend, she picked out the burgundy outside and gold inside which I think looks pretty cool, both chevre

I felt like I was ready to make my brother's bag, so I did. I didn't know what colors to use and it was going to be a surprise so I didn't actually ask anyone but he and his wife went to the University of Miami and their colors are green and orange, and both of them really love to wear school stuff and are big into sports so I did an orange chevre inside with green thread and edge paint and then thought that the gray outside worked the best. I thought that straight green on the outside would be too cheesy, and even just using school colors felt way too cheesy for me because I just don't like that stuff at all (or sports) so that was my compromise, but he loved it! Alran Sully for the inside and then Alran Liege Main from Rocky Mountain Leather Supply for the outer gray because it was aniline dyed instead of pigmented so it had a more natural look which I felt was better suited for a more masculine bag. I did chuckle at basically making my 6'3" brother a purse so I tried to downplay that part of it and didn't install the side strap attachments like I did on the black one I made for myself. I put the MD squared on the clochette because those are his initials and he's also a doctor, so that's been a running inside joke within the family.

Here's a family shot before I gave his to him

Then I bought Al Stohlman's The Art of Making Leather Cases Vol 3 and used the pistol case design to make a microphone case for a mic that I had bought that didn't come with an actual case, so I had just been putting on a shelf. I still need to finish the inside top lid part but I just keep forgetting because I get excited about other projects and keep putting it off. This all came about because I had made a test handle for the doctor's bags and I figured I needed to do something with it, and yeah the case happened. I used 1/4" plywood for the actual case, and the outer leather was a black finished split that I got from Springfield Leather for like 85 cents per square foot that I figured would be good for prototyping, it was only about a mm thick so i glued some other 2mm-ish split leather that I had to get it to the right thickness according to the book, and then used .8mm calfskin that i had dyed a weird blue black thing i tried out to cover the holes in the foam for the microphone and accessories. I had some black lambskin left over from the solid leather box course that I had started but only gotten halfway through and done all of this other stuff before finishing that I used to line the inside with.

Then I did the Wrapped Box, black chevre outside with the same kidskin from the De Haviiland bag for the inside top and bottom since I luckily had enough left over

Then I continued with the box theme and finished up the top of the solid leather box, and made it to dimensions that it would fit the concrete candles if I ever decided to go that route.

Then I got on a candle kick and used the same process from the leather wrapped box to make a sleeve for some glass vessels that we were using for candles that didn't have completely straight sides so a straight rectangle wouldn't fit right. I also tried a butt stitch and as you can see it didn't go too well the first time haha at least now I know for next time!

Then I decided to make another holder but used the idea from the Box Stitched Watch Case course, it came out alright but I should have skived and overlapped the join in the back because the stitch doesn't look great on the other side and I've since seen videos from the Lebegi channel that someone else posted about in here awhile ago that showed how to make that happen better, so if I ever make another one it'll be done right.

Then I saw a video on the Hahns Atelier channel where he made a valet tray, so I made one for my dad for christmas and then made a black and red one for a friend and had the idea to get a threaded rod to use the spikes I had leftover from the first candle so attach the corners together, then I made another one for myself, and realized I had a large enough leftover piece of the leather I used for my girlfriend's doctor's bag to make one for her as well so those all happened. Plus I tried out the quilting technique from the solid leather box on the inside of my girlfriend's tray and she liked it

Then my brother and his wife had twins, so I made them a pair of tiny penguins that I had printed out the pattern at 50% size from the large one I had given them, and they ended up using them for some of their baby pictures! It was very cute! As you can see in the picture they're only just over 3" tall and then under one of the wings on each one I wrote in their birthdate and initials

At this point the Lizzie Crossbody Bag course videos had all come out and I still had a large enough piece of the Porosus tail from the Card Slot Cardholder to make the handle and front accent and everything so I did that. I actually made two outer bodies but I dug in too hard with the french edger trying to thin down the middle sections so there were obvious lines visible from the outside so I had to make another one, and then I also had to make a second handle because the first time it ended up not quite being wide enough for some reason even though i measured with a test piece and the stitching looked bad so I luckily had enough of a piece leftover to make another one. The stitching was better but still not great, but I also didn't take a picture so yeah no one will ever know

I also made the Impossible Card Slip after getting bored and not having any projects lined up, I realized that I already had enough leather in the right thicknesses to make it so I dyed some of the .8mm calfskin that I had used on the microphone case for the blue outside and then used black chevre for the inside

Then I made the Bloomsbury Attache Case and turned it into what may or may not be the fanciest microphone case in the world lol black Buttero for the outside, I got some black alligator flank pieces that ended up being the exact right size to make the handle which was the wrapped one from the English Briefcase course that's currently in progress, and blue calfskin suede for the interior. I changed the dimensions to fit the microphones, which had originally come in separate small wooden boxes and the shockmounts had their own small carboard boxes so I figured this would keep everything in place while being complete overkill for a pair of mics that cost less than half of what I would sell this case for if I were to make it for someone, but I have no use for an attache case so now it can serve a purpose other than being a fun project to build! I used the foam inserts that came with the mics in the wooden case, they were just stuck in with double sided tape and then I measured and made a pattern for the cutouts, and had to get some extra foam to raise them up to the height of the shockmounts so I wouldn't have to do anything weird on the inside of the lid other than the quilting which I had to inset a bit so it didn't hinder the lid closing by hitting the sides of the bottom part. Lots of measuring and changing things last minute and having to wait for stuff to be done before I could do other stuff and doing a lot of it in a different order than the videos. the dividers in between shockmounts are just pieces of veg tan splits that I glued together and everything on the inside is just press-fitted in in case I ever sell the mics so i can return them to their original wooden boxes and then have a normal attache case.

I'm really sorry this was so long, I've been meaning to make this post for a long time and then I kept making more things and forgetting, sorry!