Feedback

It is nice to get feedback on your work. This job was a replacement strap for a field lens case.

Jules from Birmingham emailed "I thought I'd let you know the strap you made for me arrived safely and fits
perfectly.

The Midlands Game Fair

   The weekend of the Midland Game Fair was a long, long weekend. It took a lot of preparation. The Midland Game Fair is treated as one of the last major game event of calendar. The Great Wall Motor World Series Clay Shooting Final and the Great Wall Motor World Series Gundog Championship Final with Chudleys, the European Field Target Championship and the Countryman’s Weekly Champion of Champions in the Terrier and Lurcher events were all held despite the weather on Sunday. As usual is missed the Falconery, working dogs and the heavy horse. I spent all my time in the Knife tent.

   I got to the show ground at Weston Park at 7am on Saturday and managed to park right outside the tent that was to be my home for the next 48 hours without any drama. I was at the event supporting Jackie and Sarah from The Identity Store [click HERE for their website]. Sarah set up their stall along one wall of the tent. I had a table at the end of the run of stall. We had arranged that I would do a series of demonstrations and from that we would sell kits to make the things I had demonstrated. As soon as you do anything on a stall you get an audience. We hoped to gain from that draw. One kit was for a leather tooling set and the other was for a sheath for a knife.


  I started off by do a "Blue Peter" and making parts of the sheath kit to show the various steps. The kits contain a generous piece of leather, a pair of needles, thread, an awl, a pattern and instructions all for £15. The kits are available from the Identity Store. As Saturday progressed I had worked through the Blue Peter parts and was starting to end up a series of sheaths. Part of the demonstration was saddle stitch. However once I started a saddle stitch I had to complete the piece even if it was after the folks had dispersed. By Sunday I was finding different ways to finish the sheaths.

   The tooling kits were a bit different. For a start they are fairly expensive at nearly £50 and that is without any leather to tool. I really only had five to ten minutes to show the skills before folks wandered off. I set upon a tactic. If some poor beggar that would be standing near the bench, when the allotted time came round, I would have a chat with them then ask them their name and set about tooling a piece of leather with their initial letter. That would keep a couple of people at the bench. I would manage to demonstrate the techniques and as I said before as soon as you started doing something a crowd would appear. We also had some people that bought the kits because they had come that purpose in mind then I would show them a few basic techniques. It seemed to work well. I was encouraged when folks asked when the next demo would be and actually turned up at the agreed time.  

    We sold quite a few sheath kits and several tooling kits. I was able to press Diamond Awl. I did a few on the spot jobs, a hole in a belt and stitch or two in gun case. The jobs covered my lunch. I picked up a small bespoke job along the way. I was surprised how many of my business cards disappeared from my bench. I hope those folks are reading this post and drop me a line with a job.

   The time passed quite quickly. As I mentioned we were in the Knife tent. There were six stall holders selling knives of one sort or another. They covered the breath of the market. A couple of chaps from London were selling Indian made Damascus steel blade in a bowie or Indian style. Another chaps sold skinning knives. Another sold all kinds of blades from lock knives to collector bowie knives and a chap from Preston was selling fixed blade knives he had made. They were beautiful. He started with a steel bar, cut it to shape, ground it, polished it and made a handle. If I have more than £140 spare I am having one. The only trouble with him was that he makes his own sheaths for relaxation. He make really nice sheaths.....bugger.

   The weather on Sunday was a bit iffy. I had a lie in but was at the event by 7.15am. The gates for exhibitors closed at 7.30 as the event opened at 8am. 8am came and a flush of people came through. The early bird and all that. I had a nice chat with a young farmer and his girl. 8am really was a lie-in for him. I did not get his name but I wish him well. It was steady all day but quieter than Saturday. Rain was forecast and at 4pm will got a hours worth of downpour. The game was declared and will all started to pack up.

   I managed to do some market researc on my tack. In essence folks really liked it and most of them understood the cost but the reality was that the stuff from the Middle and Far East made in webbing was easy to look after, just chuck it inthe washer, and was cheap. The same old story really. My only let down was not getting to the chap that was selling Pith helmets in time. He was rained off early....doh!  
 
        

Events for September

  It has been a couple of very busy weeks. My holiday did not really materialise as I had to intervene to make sure a certain job got finished and delivered. I suppose that is the leather workers lot. I have had interesting conversation with several people about collaborations. I cannot say anything about them in case I jinx it.

   I went to vintage fair on the 26th. I met a very interesting fellow and picked up a few of lovely objects to embellish one of my current work in progress. I should have that piece completed this week along with the two repair jobs sitting on my work bench.

   I am just in the process of arranging a joint outing with a leather supplier to the Midland Game Fair which is to be held Weston Park on the weekend of the 14/15th September. Click HERE for the event website. I will be doing demonstrations of leather carving and stitching in conjunction with The Identity Store. Click HERE for their website.