By way of intro, I've been making leather items for about 18 months as a hobby but would like to do more. I live in Wiltshire, England. I am mainly self taught but did attend a week long course with Valerie Michael in January and a weekend introduction course before that with another local maker. Those courses sparked a deeper interest in high end leatherwork using the best materials.
I am hooked on buying tools (most of which I don't seem to use) and really interested to see what everyone else is making. I find it inspiring to see what is possible. Time is short for me with a full time job but I am currently looking forward to starting a new project.
All the best
Malcolm
@Malcolm Gregory Welcome to the forum Malcolm and thank you for the introduction, much appreciated.
If you are a recovering tool addict, this may be the worst place to be! :D
Hope to see some of your work.
Philip
Hello Malcolm. My first thought is to stop buying tools. Buy only the best that you can afford when you need to buy them. Really, the same with hides. All from this from someone who, in my cabinet making work, was guilty of your sin.
I don't take photos of my work (after a lifetime of dealing with customers, I love that I only make for family and friends) but a reasonable guide is to look at leathercraftpatterns.com. I've made a lot of what Daniel shows on his site (using his instructions and mostly, his hardware) and it has resulted in very much the quality that Daniel shows.
It seems to me that a lot of what Philip shows you in his excellent tutorials can be found elsewhere but in less detail and with poorer guidelines; reasonings; quality of shots etc. However, there is a good deal that I could not find elsewhere and it raised the quality of what I make (from leathercraftpatterns for instance) by several notches.
I think its always interesting to me to know what suppliers other people, making high end product, use. I know that Philip does include sources of the products he uses in his video builds, but there are more suppliers out there for alternative items - e.g. locks, zippers etc. if that is of interest to several, perhaps a database would be good?