I enjoy using, repairing and making things out of leather. I don’t do carving/tooling. I’m either not patient enough nor artistic enough. As I think about it, it’s probably both.
Braiding is perhaps what I do the best, mostly with leather, but with many other materials too. Hat bands and belts are always fun to braid whether totally made of leather or braiding onto other materials. My hands are getting a little arthritic and I haven’t been doing much of it lately. When I have a project, I am usually unable to start and finish in one session.
I am becoming more interested in repairing leather products, or using old leather from saddles or harness to make something else.
Every guitar, to my way of thinking, should have its own guitar strap and it should be made of leather. My Ibanez has a strap that was originally a commercially made cloth strap. My brother in law covered a 10 inch by 1 1/2 inch section with my name centered lengthwise in the Indian style design with 1500 individually set seed beads. He added a soft leather lining to the back. When the original strap got very worn, I cut the beaded section out and attached it to a new latigo. I added a length of sheep skin that softens it on my shoulder.
Catherine had a very nice tooled leather strap made, with my first name on it, for my Gibson guitar. Someone stole it. If I ever see a guitar player with the same first name as me, I’m going to check his strap. So far, no luck. I used a cinch that had never been on a saddle as a guitar strap for a period of time. It was comfortable, but it seemed like the cinch rings banged on the guitar every time I picked it up. I was afraid they might chip or crack the guitar even though I covered both rings with leather braid. Catherine asked her sister to make a guitar strap for it and a matching belt. I think she got tired of hearing me curse whenever I heard a cinch ring hit the guitar.
I got a new guitar a couple of weeks ago. It will probably become my “go to” guitar. It is lighter and thinner in the body. Much more comfortable to play and my beat up shoulders don’t complain as much as with the thicker heavier guitars. I used one or the other of my two guitar straps when playing it.
I was visiting with a fellow I met at a jam session. He works on and collects antique cars. As we were looking at the cars he showed me an old black leather breast collar with brass and German silver spots. I admired it. He gave it to me after saying he thought about making a guitar strap from it, but didn’t have time. I used half of it to make a very nice guitar strap. I’ll use the other half to make a strap for him.
The Link LonkMarch 20, 2021 at 10:48PM
https://www.eptrail.com/2021/03/20/ride-easy-leather/
Ride Easy: Leather - Estes Park Trail-Gazette
https://news.google.com/search?q=easy&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
No comments:
Post a Comment