Leathercraft Tips

Basket Stamp Around an Object or Figure the Easy Way

Posted October 17, 2019 by Don Gonzales

Learning to Basket Stamp leather is relatively straightforward and one of the first decorative skills we learn in leatherwork. This tool and the design that it creates has been around for well over a century and works great to cover a project quickly and easily.

One of the more challenging tasks that come up in some projects is Basket Stamping around a brand, figure or object that is in the middle of a piece. Many times this can lead to a pattern that becomes off course and just doesn’t seem to work. This can lead to a project, or at least a piece of it, having to be remade to correct the mistake in the pattern. Continue reading →

Cobra Sewing Machine Options with Maker’s Leather Supply

Posted October 10, 2019 by Don Gonzales

Selecting a Cobra Sewing Machine or any leather sewing machine can be challenging whether you are a first time buyer or have years of experience. Doing the proper research to insure that you get the best possible machine to do the job you need it to do takes time and patience.

When I was in college doing leather work on the side, I hand stitched everything that I made. Hand stitching is a valuable and necessary skill that all LeatherHeads should take the time to learn and master. But there does come a point for most of us where a leather sewing machine becomes a much needed piece of equipment for our business.

There are so many different brands, sizes and styles of machines out there. Selecting the best machine for your needs can be daunting. The great news? There is tons of information on the internet as well as helpful and knowledgeable people waiting to help with any questions or concerns that you may have when making the upgrade from sore fingers and long hours to powered sewing machines. Continue reading →

How to Make a Round Leather Handbag

Posted September 23, 2019 by Don Gonzales

Developing the Round Leather Handbag

About a month ago or so I was in the shop on a Saturday trying to come up with something new and different to make. My hopes were that I would use this time to be creative and develop a new product that would be like nothing I had ever created. I cut poster board all afternoon working with all kinds of different shapes, proportions, and layouts. I came up with many different ideas, but none of them seemed to be “that one” project.

It wasn’t a total loss though, because I learned some valuable things in that creative session as I usually do.

I went home that afternoon feeling a little like I had wasted the afternoon. I told my wife what I was trying to do that afternoon and that I just didn’t have much luck coming up with a “new” project, much less “that one” project. She casually mentioned doing a Round Purse. At first I wasn’t sure that this was the project since it seemed too simple. After visiting about it more I began to think it might make a neat project. She pulled up tons of photos of Round Purses on her phone and apparently they are really popular right now. The next day I went back into the shop and designed patterns for one of the easiest purses that I have ever made. Is it “that one” project? Probably not, but it is a good project and I had a ton of fun with it. Continue reading →

How to Make a Leather Apple Watch Band

Posted September 13, 2019 by Don Gonzales

In this Project video, I show you how to make a Leather Apple Watch Band. I finally took some time to sit down and design three different styles based audience request. The Apple Watch is extremely popular and having a custom leather watch band made for them is a common request.

Our goal with this video is to show my process for making the three different styles and to hopefully help anyone try their hand at making these. If you are looking for that perfect Christmas item to offer to your customers as gift ideas, then this is a great one.

As with all of our Project Videos, we have created a Companion Pattern Pack. In this pack, you will find all the cut patterns for all three styles as well as 6 different tooling patterns for each style. If you would like to purchase the Companion Pack for this Project Video, then Click Here and grab that. Continue reading →

Dyeing the Background on a Leather Floral Pattern

Posted September 2, 2019 by Don Gonzales

This video shows how to dye the background of a leather floral pattern. We are dyeing the horse head floral piece from our July Tooling series for this tutorial. Yes, I am aware that it is September… I like to think this one is fashionably late.

In this video I am using Black Fiebings Pro Oil Dye and Dark Brown Antique Paste also by Fiebings.

If you would like to tool the pattern from this tooling series, here is a link to a FREE copy of this pattern Click Here.

Just enter your email address and we will shoot that out to you. It is a PDF file that you can download and print on your own printer.

This is video #4 in this series. You can find Video #1 by Clicking Here.

Figure Carving a Horse Head into Leather Video 3

Posted July 18, 2019 by Don Gonzales

Here is a much requested video from your suggestions both here and on our facebook page! For the July Leather Tooling Series we are showing how to figure carve a horse’s head into leather. I am not the greatest figure carver out there and I still have a lot to learn on the subject, but I will attempt to show you what I do know. After that, you can seek out guidance from some of the greats out there… and there are many amazing figure carvers that you can learn from. Jim Linnell and Peter Main would be the two that I would highly recommend checking out if you haven’t already.

Here is a link to Jim Linnell’s website

You can find Peter Main on facebook

If you would like to tool along with us in this tooling series, here is a link to a FREE copy of this pattern Click Here.

Just enter your email address and we will shoot that out to you. It is a PDF file that you can download and print on your own printer.

This is video #3 in this series.

Tools used in this video:

-Modeling tool – Peter Main

-Modeling tools

-Craftool Thumbprint

Here is the photo of the horse in the pattern for you to use as reference.

The model for this project is an unknown Bay Gelding that resided on a place that borders us. I just liked the way the horse looked and took many photos of him for artwork reference. Not sure what happened to him, but we haven’t seen him in a long time… I like to think that he is somewhere on the rodeo trail or maybe just retired and moved to Florida.

Online Leather Classes with DG LeatherCraft Academy

Posted July 13, 2019 by Don Gonzales

The biggest request we get is “Do we offer any Leather Classes?”

I’m going to cut right to the chase… we have a Big Announcement to make this month. After a year or better of researching, planning, cussing, discussing and finally building… we are finally ready to reveal the biggest digital project we have ever created.

Based on the inquiry for leather classes and feedback that we have gotten over the years from amazing fellow LeatherHeads like you, we felt there was a real need in our industry for this type of product. It took us some time to choose the right platform as well as build out all the components that go into creating something like this so that it offers the most value with the least amount of hassle on your end.

We think that we have done just that!

I would like to introduce our newest addition to DG LeatherCraft,

DG LeatherCraft Academy is our new platform where we can create Online Courses that go in depth on different topics and areas of leather craft and design work. Much further than we can on our YouTube channel or on our blog. The Academy will be home to all of our future Premium Courses for those who want complete leather classes on particular topics and certain areas of the craft.

These courses will be completely online so that you can go through any of our leather classes at your pace on any device. No set dates, times or having to travel out of state. Once enrolled in a particular course, you can go through the curriculum all in one sitting in order… or you can do a lecture a day in any order you want. And when you complete the course, you can go back through it again anytime as many times as you want.

Worksheets for these leather classes can be downloaded and printed so that you can work along with us throughout the course. Then after completion you will have these sheets to reference if you need to. Continue reading →

Figure Carving a Horse Head into Leather Video #2

Posted July 9, 2019 by Don Gonzales

One Piece Saddle Swell Cover

Posted July 7, 2019 by Don Gonzales

I have had a ton of requests to do a video on how I put on a one piece saddle swell cover. This video is a quick rundown on how I put mine on. I am working on another video that will show the amount of prep work that goes into getting one of these put on successfully. I wanted to break it into two separate videos and this one is just putting it on and hopefully it will help to show how these are put on.

The swell I am covering in the video is an Olin Young with leg cuts at a 12.5″ width and a 7.25″ gullet height. Sometimes these go on easily and sometimes they don’t… this was a time that it went pretty easy.

For more articles and videos from DG LeatherCraft, be sure to subscribe to this channel as well as dig through the archives of our blog here. Don’t forget to sign up for the LeatherCraft Newsletter. We are also on facebook and instagram.