2.7

Hello, it is me again. It has been another successful week. I have come to the harsh realization that this project that is suppose to be simple project, but it appears that this will be the only project I get done this session. I have started to connect the two pieces. I had to soak the joints to soften them and then hang them from a nail to stretch them. I did this so i could make more room in the ring and fit a piece through. I plan on finishing these by next week and will try to do some tooling before my ted talk.

2.6

Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to announce that I did in fact accomplish more than last week. But this week has not all been a cake walk. Yes, kind of embarrassing, but I have spent the majority of an hour trying to upload a picture of my progress. Blogger admin, if you are reading this, please make the picture upload process easier. I was trying to upload a picture of the rings I have sewn into the end of my hobbles. The sewing was a very painstaking process with each stitch taking about 45 seconds. I started out by drawing a line where I wanted the stitch to be. I then poked holes where I wanted each stitch to be and threaded a wax coated string through. I then used a jerk needle to pull the other side through and tie the stitch. I will try and find a way to upload the picture so you can see the piece itself because I bet my describing is the is not up to par. I hope everyone else is doing well on their GH.

leather 2.5

Alright folks, I am back with my leather work from over the long weekend. Many of you would expect me to be miles ahead of where i was from the last blog. Unfortunately, I am disappointed to announce that I am at a standstill on the actual progress of the hobbles. The reason for this lack of progress is I am in need of some different tools and guidance in order to sew in some nylon on the joints. I plan to go down to the shop on main street and seek guidance from the guy that runs the shop. I have been thinking about some future projects and the idea of some spur straps is in the lead for the next. I should probably focus on getting the hobbles done though.

Leather 2.4

Welcome back friends and followers. Thank you for checking back on the wild adventures of my leather work. I am disappointed to announce that I have not been as productive compared to the past weeks. I have been in an osha class for majority of this week so work has been at a standstill. I did work and condition my leather at the beginning of this week. I did this so the leather would be soft and malleable for when I started the stitching the  process. I hope that next week will be better.

leather 2.3

Welcome back fellow bloggers. This past week may seem like there has been nothing happening but in fact there has been a lot of preparation for the upcoming project. I gathered supplies. There was in fact much more to a pair of hobbles than I thought. I bought a pair of 2 inch rings and a buckle that will fit my strap of leather. I bought these pieces from the leather shop in the old Riggs building. When I purchased these pieces the man was very helpful and showed me how he goes about making his hobbles. He told that me that he sews nylon on the leather that wraps around the ring to ad some strength. I would recommend this guy if you have any leather questions or need anything built. I think that I have all of my parts and pieces and i can begin building next week.

Leather blog 2.2

Good afternoon and welcome to another blog. This week in the adventures of Garrett's leather-work I will be going over some pretty basic stuff I have been learning and some of the tools I have started to work with. Since my last blog I have started on a set of hobbles. for those of you unfamiliar with that, a set of hobbles is a strap of leather that is wrapped around the legs of a horse so you can turn them loose and they will not travel to far. I have spent most of this week cutting the leather and preparing the the leather to be put together. I am using some very high quality leather that is thick and tough. This makes it tough and time consuming to cut. I am using a special tool called a round knife to do this that is more effective than a regular knife but takes more sharpening.. I have all the pieces cut and have started  scathing the ends so they can be folded over and stitched around a ring. I am happy with my progress and am excited to continue my projects.

blog 2.1

The beginning of my leather adventure has actually gone fairly well actually, compared to the beginning of my guitar catastrophe. I have been using some tools and supplies from the Ag shop with help and guidance from Mr.Rehbein. I started out with just a scrap piece of  leather to get my wits about me with the tools and hammer and such. I then moved on an began to work on my drink coaster. This is very simple and is basically just more tooling practice but more pressure to not mess up. One thing about leather work is you get one shot at making a good stamp. There is no leather eraser. The stamp you make is the stamp you get. I finished the coaster which was very simple. I did I pattern called a basket pattern. This is very common on saddles and thing that are large and need covered. This pattern can cover large amounts of surface. I am now starting on a pair of hobbles

Blog 2.0

Hello fellow bloggers. Sorry to keep you all waiting on knowing what I am doing. I know you all have been DYING to know what I have chosen for my genius hour project. Well.. Drum roll please..... I have chosen to do leather-work. Yes I know, not terribly exciting to the average bear but I'm sure that all of you have seen some fairly cool pieces of leather and if you have spent much time around tack and other leather tools you will find out that their is some cool and useful things made out of leather. I chose this because I am not the most artistically talented person out there and leather definitely is an art form, but it is an art form that you can get better at with practice. I plan on making a few smaller projects while getting better at tooling and designs. I plan on making a coaster and a pair of hobbles to start out.