heck, I'm Chris, I had joined this forum late in 2012 just to purchase a bicycle frame/fender set that I couldn't purchase without joining. That frame was going to be my first bike build and the parts gathering started (mostly via ebay). After a few months and a few hard to find parts,,,, I lost interst due to having a hole in my pocket and other hobbies to support.
.............So now what brings me back?
My recent new hobby of leather working that i've been waiting 35 years to start has finally bit me. I was raised by my Grandparents and Grandpa did leather work from the early 1950's-1990's. It seamed he owned just about every tool Tandy Leather Factory produced as his little 6'x10' shop was full an filled with the smell of leather. I was the only one in my family who actually used his leather tools as a kid so who better to leave them to when he passed he once told me.
I was just out of high school and had just started my own family when he passed away. I didn't know what to do with his tools at the time and they ended up getting lost within the family and years. I was too bussy with my new Airbrushing business for a decade or so that I never thought twice about doing leather work. Working with leather was always in the back of my head like a soft wisper when I would run into other leather crafters that would remind me of Grandpas work. Like my Grandfather, I aways knew I would pick up leather working and the bible one day. Well that day finally came and it hit like a flood in my mind. Not the bible. Seams to me now that everything i've been working on, all the many art related finished and unfinished projects had been all for a reason. Like my Grandpa had been puting something in my water all along while I was growing up.
Recently I grabbed his leather tooling set from 1953 and just started carving and tooling leather like i'd been doing it since that tool was made. Can't explain it in words, just need to express it throught my new art form. Which brings me here.
Was gonna clear out some room in the basement for my new leather work area and decided to re-sell the very bicycle frame that brought me here. Read that someone was looking for the same make/model in the wanted section and started the selling process. While taking recent pics of the frame last weekend, that's when the creative juice started flowing . The very metal Zep style frame i'd been searching for had been in my hands the whole entire time. I could have just build one with my hands and now out of leather. Vistit my entry titled, P-40 Warhawk "Tex" Hill in the new build off 8 section. Not only can I make one for that style bicycle frame but any bicycle that you can hang a tank from. I understand that most on this forums members are the DIY kind like myself. Whe am I postings pics of by leather tank build. I've never worried compeating against other artist/craftsmen with my abilities. That's how I learn and get better as i'm self taught.
I'm not trying to place in this bike build off and may or may not finish on time. I just trying to get my name out and give rebirth to a dying leather art form so others can have an interest in building a leather tank for themselves or better yet, order one from me in the very near future. Gotta support local artist or they starve and move on to better things. Hopefully I'll keep a high quality craftsmanship on these leather tanks, seats, guards that it will not be a problem to fill orders. Chris
.............So now what brings me back?
My recent new hobby of leather working that i've been waiting 35 years to start has finally bit me. I was raised by my Grandparents and Grandpa did leather work from the early 1950's-1990's. It seamed he owned just about every tool Tandy Leather Factory produced as his little 6'x10' shop was full an filled with the smell of leather. I was the only one in my family who actually used his leather tools as a kid so who better to leave them to when he passed he once told me.
I was just out of high school and had just started my own family when he passed away. I didn't know what to do with his tools at the time and they ended up getting lost within the family and years. I was too bussy with my new Airbrushing business for a decade or so that I never thought twice about doing leather work. Working with leather was always in the back of my head like a soft wisper when I would run into other leather crafters that would remind me of Grandpas work. Like my Grandfather, I aways knew I would pick up leather working and the bible one day. Well that day finally came and it hit like a flood in my mind. Not the bible. Seams to me now that everything i've been working on, all the many art related finished and unfinished projects had been all for a reason. Like my Grandpa had been puting something in my water all along while I was growing up.
Recently I grabbed his leather tooling set from 1953 and just started carving and tooling leather like i'd been doing it since that tool was made. Can't explain it in words, just need to express it throught my new art form. Which brings me here.
Was gonna clear out some room in the basement for my new leather work area and decided to re-sell the very bicycle frame that brought me here. Read that someone was looking for the same make/model in the wanted section and started the selling process. While taking recent pics of the frame last weekend, that's when the creative juice started flowing . The very metal Zep style frame i'd been searching for had been in my hands the whole entire time. I could have just build one with my hands and now out of leather. Vistit my entry titled, P-40 Warhawk "Tex" Hill in the new build off 8 section. Not only can I make one for that style bicycle frame but any bicycle that you can hang a tank from. I understand that most on this forums members are the DIY kind like myself. Whe am I postings pics of by leather tank build. I've never worried compeating against other artist/craftsmen with my abilities. That's how I learn and get better as i'm self taught.
I'm not trying to place in this bike build off and may or may not finish on time. I just trying to get my name out and give rebirth to a dying leather art form so others can have an interest in building a leather tank for themselves or better yet, order one from me in the very near future. Gotta support local artist or they starve and move on to better things. Hopefully I'll keep a high quality craftsmanship on these leather tanks, seats, guards that it will not be a problem to fill orders. Chris
