At Cost Leather Collars and Business Questions

We need a leather working thread now.

I'm another Amateur leatherworker, started with braided 'roo show leads and advanced to the bigger stuff (key chains, coasters, ornaments, collars). I've focused more on hand carving and hand painting and use tooling leather as opposed to harness. Your stuff looks great so far!

Oh man we definitely should! I didn't realize we had that many on here! But I guess certain lifestyles lend themselves to leather(like dogs and horses).... So I really shouldn't be too surprised! HaHa!

Yeah, for the amount of stamping I plan to start with the leather I picked is a good balance for my overall needs. When I start offering more substantial carvings, I'll have to change leathers for the carved collars only. I will still offer these as they're more durable. Although, I've seen some heavily tooled pieces on this leather, so I might be able to offer it for a decent amount of work.

I love plain leather collars! I shooting for more of a 'niche' with the carving/painting thing.

I'm working on a configuration for martingales.. While I'm comfortable using heavier weights of tooling leather for 1"-2" collars, I don't want to use tooling leather for the smaller loop portion of the martingale as it isn't the most durable option.

I also want desperately to make a stingray leather inlay collar, but I can't see for beans.

I'd love to see when you do it!

Well if we have the leather thread up by then I'll post some. Maybe Meagan can start it when she finishes the bow strap.

I want to do the tooling more than the concho decorations too. I like to stay drama free and there seems to be a lot of drama over conchos. LOL. But I need to get better at carving. I can do the simple things, but very detailed ones I don't feel confident with yet. For my martingale collars I plan to offer both chain and leather for the martingale part. I'm going to test a few different leathers for strength and I'll likely stick with that leather for the martingale piece. So the colors may vary slightly due to being from different hides, but slight color variation is worth it to me in the long run. I want everything I make to last.

My biggest hurdle with leather working is the price of everything! So many tools and materials needed. /sigh. So my offerings will be limited to start with and then expand over time. But that gives me time to ensure everything I sell is a qualitity piece.

do it!

See = sew. Blasted autocorrect. I can't SEW for beans.

So I was trying to decide what I wanted to do about leather because I can only get certain types of leather as straps and I'm dead set on only using leather from quality tanneries... which means I have to buy sides and they're expensive...

I'll be using Wickett & Craig leather for everything, Herman Oak just has super crazy minimums on leather. I may buy a side of their skirting leather from a reseller to make the stamped collars with though but finding anything other than a tooling type leather is pretty hard and it's all got the reseller's fee stacked on top.

Anyway, I ended up buying latigo leather sides in Black and Brown since I can buy english bridle and harness leather as straps. I also figured to start with I should probably offer some of the more "rugged leathers" and add the prettier ones later if my store does well. And what I mean by rugged is that the latigo is made to really take a beating as far as getting dirty and not being cared for quite so much.

As I said I ordered black and medium brown, but the brown is MUCH darker than the samples they had sent me. I do have some of their nicer English Bridle leather in the medium brown that I can offer on here. I'm thinking it's just much darker because the latigo has a much higher oil content, but I am going to shoot them an email and ask (the leather just showed up today).

I'm also about to head to the bank to send out the money for my hardware order. I decided I'm only going to offer Solid Brass for hardware. I want my collars to be 100% quality, so Solid Brass only. And again, if my store starts doing well than I will start adding options... like nickle or chrome plated solid brass hardware.

Another thing I did forget to add in the calculations was the cost of the conditioner, sealer, and edge dressing I use on the collars. So the cost of a plain 1" collar is going to be more like $20, which I had said $15 for the solid brass.

Lastly, I decided to change my rivets. I have had zero problems with any of the rivets I've set so far... but I have heard stories of the double cap rivets "looking properly set" but coming apart after a bit of force. So to prevent that I'm looking at doing Chicago Screws with the red(super duty) Loctite, I need some more buckles before I can make another collar and make sure I like the Chicago Screws.

Now when it comes to decorations, I am going to place an order of some that I want, but I think I'll post before I place the order so that if someone is looking at buying one of my collars if they want a color or spot that I'm not going to order they have the option of still buying it. To keep this simple, what I'll do is that you would pay for the smallest package size needed for your collar and I'd just keep any extra since these collars are all seriously discounted for what I would sell them for and you're buying a special color/stone/spot.

Ok, so that's my collar update.

Sounds like you're making great progress! I've looked into getting into a leather working hobby, but I am much too lazy for that, lol

It certainly is a lot of steps! Each collar takes a few days to make just because I have to let things sit over night between each step... And the stamped collars have a lot more steps! HaHa.

My biggest hurdle is the price. Leather working is seriously pricey... To buy quality tools is very expensive and there are a LOT of them!

But I enjoy it. I'm hoping to go to Saddle Making School in ~2 years. I want about a year more to up my skills so I get more out of the school, I have to go when my school isn't in session(so summer) and next summer I have my state licensing exam... So unless they decide to start the saddle program after my test(June) that's out. But seriously.... SADDLE MAKING SCHOOL! How awesome! I'm hoping I can make this hobby have some income so I can really keep it going. I also have a rifle sling I'm working on, but it's for a friend so I told them end of June bc I need to get my collar store up and running first. LOL.

Sneak Peek:

These are the 2 types of leather collars I will be offering at startup. Decorated and hand stamped/painted names.

In terms of my leather, the English Bridle I have from W&C stamps BEAUTIFULLY! I will be buying a side of med brown in bridle and a side of saddle skirting (which has more capabilities for me in terms of dying colors etc). And I have the 2 sides of latigo (black & very dark brown).

And again, as my store progresses I will be adding more leather, hardware, and color options.

Also, I'm really liking the Chicago screws. They're nice and sturdy.

Wow, looking GREAT! I love it.

Thank you.

I'm really excited about this.

Love those conchos! Takes me back to my 4H, horse showing days.

Thank you, I love anything that mixes silver and gold colors. But those conchos were on sale a while back and I was like MUST HAVE!

So I emailed W&C, since the tannery is located in PA and I'm really not happy with the brown(it's super dark like chocolate brown) and I'm ordering two more sides... I asked if I could just drive down and exchange this leather and pick up my new sides all at once. Obviously it's Sunday so no response until tomorrow at least. The other "brown" colors available are chestnut or tan and I'm thinking if I can exchange I'll get chestnut? But IDK, maybe tan would be better?

In anycase, I'm excited to get all my supplies in. I have some ideas floating around in my head I want to try out. Once leather & hardware are fully secured paint and decorations will next. Then I'll do a set number of these trial collars, after ~a month I think I'll open the store on etsy and there will be a Chaz discount for the first few weeks. Plus I've decided to make a FB and I'll be doing a raffle on FB for a free hand stamped collar if you like my page AND share the raffle picture.

I'm excited and scared at the same time. I have a decent amount of money laid out on this project right now... But I really enjoy making the collars... So if it works out I would SO FREAKING HAPPY!

Leashes:


I think I need a middle size. LOL.

I need approximately ten thousand leashes, ma'am.

Hmmmm.... That would be pretty expensive.

So are you free in 2 weeks? Sat May 10? I thought we could walk the dogs and I should have your collar done by then. Bloo/Em will be getting a 1.5 "agitation" collar with a 2nd D... I haven't made on yet so you're the guinea pig. HaHa.

I love the clasp you've chosen for the leashes.

Thank you. I just ordered to in between sizes so all size dogs can be comfortable with my leashes as well.

Today was Christmas at the Leather Shop. HaHa.


So I've thought about how I'm going to do this and here's my plan. There are going to be 5 at cost spots- 2 hand stamped, 2 decorated, 1 leash. When I make the thread you need to post with which spot you want. First people to post get it. These are tester collars, so keep that in mind.

I am then going to offer collars at 30% off for Chaz only out of my etsy store-you tell me what you want and I'll make a special listing for you. These collars come with a satisfaction guarentee and hardware warrenty. If you dislike the collar for design reasons return it within 10 days unworn for a refund(which is going to be less shipping & 10% even name stamped collars). Hardware is 1 year or length the store is open, whichever is longer(basically if I stop the store I don't want people emailing me so that's why 1 year). I will not cover gross neglect or dog chewing and it will be my decision to fix or refund.

I will be posting the thread end of this month/beginning of June. Everything in the picture above is going to be standard(minus the buckles and snaps, I may decide to change them). There will be more color offerings for the faceted acrylic rhinestones as well. But, I will still be placing an order to the paint supply(forgot to order something) and spot supply place when the thread goes up so custom pieces/colors are still a go.