[Gatesedge] Leather thoughts

[Catie Clark]

>   The Tandy Leather Factory is offering a free, two morning course in beginning leather crafting.  <<snippage here>>>
>   They will teach you to stamp, carve, and dye along with finish your leather project.  The first course will teach you to use the basket weave tool to make a basket weave coaster, proper use of tracing film, make a transfer from film to leather, proper use of the 7 basic tools and the swivel knife, and begin floral carving.  The second Saturday morning will cover over the basket weave from week 1, finish the 1st floral carving, and start on the 2nd floral carving.  <<more snippage>>
>   Saw a set of several nifty cell phone cases, which might pass as interesting leather pouches suitable for Medieval period.
>   

Okay, I admit it - my bad!  I should have posted when I saw the
first post about leather show up.

You probably don't know me, I'm guessing, though I've been meaning
to swing by at some point.  I recently moved to the barony next door
(to the north) and am working in The Woodlands.

Tandy does nice stuff and it's a good way to get into leather.
But it's modern leather - never make any mistake about that.
And you don't need all the tools they want to sell you (though
the basic leather kit is a nice way to get the essentials, like the
skiving knife and the scissors).  Mastering the swivel knife is
a good skill to have but you really don't need one, despite what
most modern leatherworkers think.  It does make certain kinds
of tooling go faster.  Good drafting vellum from the art store
is cheaper then the film that Tandy sells and is reusable.  You
can do medieval patterns of texturing and tooling with a knife,
a spoon and a fork - I kid you not!  When I teach my 15th C.
Cuir Cisele leathertooling class, I do a demo of just that: doing
something that could be right out of Waterer or Gall with a
knife, a spoon and a fork.

Look, Tandy will teach you good stuff - I have no reason to
dump on them.  I buy stuff at Tandy too.  The knowledge on the
structure of leather and the variety of tannage is way useful all
by itself!  And stamping is very very period!  But most of Tandy's
stamps aren't at all period - that's why I got into making my own.
So, by all means, take their free classes and get the nice intro
leather tool set they sell (I remember buying one myself many many
many years ago, at a Tandy in Hartford, Connecticut...)  But please,
let me offer to teach you folks in Gatesedge something about
leather in period.  Leather is what I got my laurel for (everyone
always seems to think I'm a scribal or a medieval raw materials
laurel - but that's just not the case...).  I'm available.  I'm cheap.
I'm easy (don't tell my hubby - I got him fooled...).  I'm "next door."
If I can drive to Stargate for scribal nights, I can certainly swing
by Gatesedge and teach a class or two...

I know what period pouches looked like in period.  I certainly
have made enough.  They're easy too and the documentation is
literally under your nose, though you might not realise that. So don't
buy a Tandy pattern - I can show you how to make your own.

I do a two hour medieval tooling class too (6 warm bodies or less
at a time and I need a week or two ahead of time to make the tool
I'll hand out - I do ask for the buck or two to defray the cost of the
metal and whatever it costs to get some tooling leather to practice
on since my scrap bin of leather is still up in Idaho)

Frankly, if someone has sufficient interest to listen to me go on and
on, I'll teach anyone who stands still long enough everything I know

So, there you have it.  (Me and my big mouth...)

ttfn
Therasia
aka Baronin Therasia von Tux, OP OL
Ravensfort