Hi, I'm new here
Greetings from Dubai.
I'm Stephen, from Dublin, Ireland originally but living away from home for all too long now. I've always been a sucker for beautiful hand crafted leather items, sadly never saw fit to invest. As with another passion of mine, I stumbled upon leathercraft by virtue of a chance encounter. Some things I've made have been well received so I'm now encouraged to develop my learning, technique and understanding and the roads I've taken have lead me here. I won't exaggerate by telling you that I've spent time with leathercraft professionals in all parts of the world. My regular work takes me to all continents. And I've never been as singularly impressed as I am with the knowledge, delivery and attitude of Philip here. And I've seen them in Hong Kong, Osaka, New York and France. And my appreciation to all who have contributed here. I've certainly learned plenty from you guys too. Some of it, unfortunately too late, having invested in certain tools and equipment. None the less, water under the bridge.
I look forward to reading your accounts and learning from your successes and (should I say it?) failures. As with all learning processes, it would be a real shame if something positive weren't taken way from the errors we make - small and not so small.
Thanks for getting this far down. You can move on to the next post.
Regards,
Stephen
Thank you so much, Stephen, for the advice on Dublin leather and the rest. I had stumbled upon Garvan DeBruir on Etsy a few years back. He produces interesting work, and his workshop alone may be worth a trip to Kildare. I'm thinking he designed it, no? I traveled from St. Louis, Missouri, USA, to Galway a million years ago, when I was a boy with never a crack in my heart, to play soccer on a sister-cities trip. We played three games, all hung-over as I recall, and learned to sing, albeit badly, in pubs. It was the early 1980s, and though we were oblivious to things like the hunger strike and incoming arms from Libya, we came to realize there was more to Ireland than castles and Connemara one day when teenagers from the North, black-clad and chain-smoking, filled a section of a local park. They looked like aliens there on the shores of Galway Bay.
Pardon the trip down memory lane!
And thanks again, Stephen.