manitoba leather

2010-03-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I've felt like I've had anything to add here. I finally decided to get going and pick up where I left off. We had to close our store in January (a victim of the slow economy) so the major reason I wasn't writing at the end of last year was because there were a lot of issues we had to deal with. But now all is done and we redid our website to focus on selling retail through our new online shop. Check us out at http://www.manitobagifts.com/. We also have had good sales to one of our wholesale accounts, Artful, out in Santa Monica, California. Thanks so much to her! Our Etsy shop continues to be successful and we look forward to keeping it going. We've also started hitting up some consignment shops south and east of us in Lanesboro, Mn., Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, and soon, Norhfield, Mn. It's fun to have our options...I'm actually not making much these days because I don't have to. Sales for me have slowed down and I feel like I'm stocked for potential sales so I'm just going to keep updating on a more regular basis here. What I'm posting here now is a photo we took of a trip in January to the Conservatory at Como Park in St. Paul. The beautiful greens always make me happy.

Special Order Computer Bag

2009-07-08T09:18:00.000-07:00

These photos are of a neat project I worked on last week. A customer wanted one of my tote bags but just a little taller and longer straps so the bag could be worn over the shoulder to carry her lap top and other things. I finished it and sent it to her and just heard back from her. Fortunately, she loved it!! It's nice to be able to do that for someone.

Pouch Bag with Clasp

2009-05-26T11:16:00.000-07:00

i finally designed a style that's been in the back of my mind for a long time. it's a pouch bag with a clasp type of closure. the closure is easy to use and is something i've wanted to do for a long time and i happy i finally made the time to get it done. the closures are from 'ohio traveling bag co.' and i'm really happy with their quality. i'm using them on my small and large style pouch bags. i now feel like i've got a good variety of closure types.

New Beginnings

2009-05-04T09:23:00.000-07:00

last week we published our wholesale site, 'Basswood Fiber and Leather'. to celebrate IT and spring we've been taking off on driving trips whenever we can (mostly on sundays) bird watching and looking at the countryside west, south and southeast of us. yesterday we went down to the 'Big Woods' state park in Nerstrand. man, did time fly. we saw about 10 different types of wildflowers and a Red Headed Woodpecker among lots of other fun birds. Debra took this picture in the late afternoon outside of Welch near the cannon river. talk about beautiful!!

Finally a Sale!

2009-05-04T09:13:00.000-07:00

business started to pick up the last 2 weeks so that's been nice. a lady came in and bought lots of our items including one of Debra's pincushions and my scarlet pouch bag. i was able to cut the shoulder strap to size for her while she waited and i really like being able to provide that kind of customer service. i'm including the bag here.

Slow Times

2009-04-18T09:13:00.001-07:00

man...talk about slow. this is it!! it's amazing how things can change sales wise. this month has been incredibily bad. thank goodness for our internet shops. we've sold a few items through those sites and that has helped keep us focused. the big news is that we were accepted by wholesalecrafts to sell our products wholesale through their site on the internet, so that's good. we are in the process of setting it up and hope to have it running by the end of next week. a new name for that shop, too. basswood fiber and leather. nice...something has got to start working...!!

New Coin Purses

2009-03-23T08:30:00.000-07:00

it's always fun coming up with something new to make. i've been working on coin purses and finally have the size right!! the case will also hold some business cards and/or credit cards as well as folding money and coins. fun to make and i can do all kinds of different colors!!

New Cell Phone Cases

2009-03-10T09:56:00.000-07:00

well...after a better january and february than last year, march looks like it will be a dead month businesswise. we've had some nice internet sales but really slow business at our shop here in wayzata. so we've been working on items that are on the low end of the price scale. i decided to start making cell phone cases with a flap. they are coming out around 2 1/2" x 4" x 1" and i'm going to do a variety of colors. here's a cranberry one.

Lifetime Bag

2009-02-28T08:18:00.000-08:00

this week was fun because i got a special order. the way it worked was this...i sold a 'Java Brown' bag to a women who sent it to her sister for a present. the sister had marked the bag as a 'favorite' on Etsy. it turned out what she really wanted was the Java Brown bag but as a larger size. fortunately she contacted me and we worked out an exchange. she sent the Java Brown bag back to us and i made one according to her specifications. i like doing things like that and was happy with how it turned out...i hope she is as well.

New Tote Bags

2009-02-19T12:11:00.000-08:00

it's been a fun month. with selling all of my tote bags this year i get to make some more. so this is what i've been working on last week and this week. busy, busy, busy...

Buy Handmade

2009-02-11T09:41:00.000-08:00

well...it's amazing how things work out. we had another big weekend sales wise last saturday and for the 2nd time this year beat our best day of 2008. and most of the sales were handmade items. very exciting. i have sold 3 tote bags in the last 2 weeks and a total of 4 in the last month. so i am busy making more! here are a couple of shots of what is no longer in our shop...

Ivory Washi Locket

2009-02-05T07:50:00.000-08:00

this beautiful locket we paired with my emerald green pouch bag with flap as a 'play it forward' promotion at 1000Markets. we thought they looked great together

Big Sales

2009-02-04T09:09:00.000-08:00

running a physical shop as well as selling 'online' is really interesting. last week our physical shop had 6 total customers, but 2 really nice sales so we finished january 2009 over double what we did in january 2008. very cool considering the state of the economy and all. we both feel that our internet sales have really pushed us over the top (so to speak). it's so much fun to have both outlets. we are now running a sale in our shop at least through valentine's day to see if we can generate some foot traffic. yesterday we had as many people in the shop in one day as we had all last week so that was nice. so with that in mind imagine our pleasant surprise this morning when we got to our shop and found that we had sold 1 pillow, 4 pincushions and a set of coasters to 2 different customers!! very exciting and very cool. so we keep plugging along and i have to say every day is different and everyday is definately worth looking forward to. i put up the pillow just because it's so pretty and guess what? it's new home is in Israel. Sweet...

2 Tone Whip Stitch Purse

2009-01-30T11:12:00.000-08:00

i just loved how this bag came out. it started with making my partner's purse for her christmas present. things didn't work out quite right with that bag and i felt she deserved the best so i had to redo part of it. i was left with the flap. it was so pretty that i decided to make it work somehow in a purse. this is the end result. i decided to do a 2 tone bag as an experiment. i definately plan to do some more.

Java Brown Shoulder Bag

2009-01-29T11:25:00.000-08:00

this week started off great when we got an etsy sale for my Java Brown Shoulder Bag. sweet...it was one of the first bags i'd made last summer and i really liked it. the women is giving it to her sister who had 'hearted' it on etsy. very nice and a great way to start the week. in fact, with walk in business so slow, our internet sales and networking activities are helping to keep us going.

Teapot Handle

2009-01-29T11:16:00.000-08:00

part of the fun of doing leather work is getting 'special' requests. last saturday one of our best customers came in with a teapot that had had a wooden handle on it that had broken. she was wondering if i could put a leather handle on it. immediately i figured that the style that i use for my tote bags would work with just a simple modification. i said "sure" and finished it yesterday. it came out exactly like i'd imagined which doesn't always happen. we liked how it looked against the color of the teapot which was earthenware. she also bought one of my tote bags...the dark mahogany one, which was pretty cool.

Russet Whip Stitch Purse

2009-01-24T12:00:00.000-08:00

i finished this bag today and really like how the color came out. let's see if other people like it as well...

Eyeglass Case

2009-01-23T08:26:00.000-08:00

last saturday our little shop had our best business day in over a year. (better than any day in 2008 if you can believe it...it's true). what was great on saturday was that we didn't have a ton of people, but the weather warmed up after our cold snap and, as one customer said, "i just felt like shopping." and, again, our handmade items continue to be a hit. i sold my cranberry tote bag and Debra sold more of her washcloths. it was fun all around. on monday of this week we had another etsy order...this time for an eyeglass case which i had to make to get the color she wanted. the color - burgundy- was actually one i had made up, so it was interesting trying to duplicate it, which i think i did successfully. it is a base of range tan with cranberry added over it. i'm including my old photo here just for fun. i liked the color so much that i'm working on a new purse with the design i used for Debra's christmas gift. so far so good as far as the color goes. it's just a riot working with all the colors available now!!

2009-01-15T10:55:00.000-08:00

man, has this ever been a busy time for us. we got our shop's inventory done and that felt great. we've been spending a lot of time recently openning new internet shops which has been fun. as a consequence i haven't had anytime to do any leather work. but i was looking at some of my items today and took a picture of a basket of small and medium cell phone cases. there's even a couple of eye glass cases there too. i thought it looked kind of pretty. by the way, the temperature has stayed below 0 degrees for the 3rd straight day in a row. it hasn't been this cold this long since 1996. we are nice and warm in our shop though.

First Sale of the New Year

2009-01-05T12:42:00.000-08:00

it's always exciting when we sell something on line...especially in these tough economic times. so it was fun today get a sale from our Etsy site. the sale was one of my favorite bags-a dark purple pouch bag with a braided shoulder strap. (Braiding takes a while, but always gives a bag a nice look, i think). so, hopefully, this is the start of a good year for us!!

Christmas Purse

2008-12-27T08:12:00.000-08:00

for our little shop, the christmas season was slow. the weekend before christmas we had a snow storm and it really put a dent in the traffic flow. one person the entire weekend. but tuesday and wednesday were pretty good so that was nice. even some new customers which is always cool. but business is half of what it was last year so we are doing all we can to get our name and products out - primarily on the internet. we love doing what we are doing and hope to be able to 'hang in there' until the economy turns around. it's been very encouraging to know that people still like to buy handmade and if it's local, that's even better. i gave my partner a purse that i made for her for christmas. i loved how it came out and she really appreciated it.

Another Christmas Belt

2008-12-22T10:39:00.001-08:00

so i liked the way the other 2 belts came out so much that i made one for my other son. he lives in montana and the color is canyon tan. i thought the name was appropriate. businesswise, we had a cold, snowy weekend. windchills of -35 and miserable weather (although very pretty in one sense). we had 1 customer total on saturday and sunday. not the christmas rush we'd hoped for. but that's the way it goes. we still love what we are doing and wouldn't have it any other way.

Christmas Belts

2008-12-19T11:05:00.000-08:00

unfortunately business is still slow. on the bright side, however, there is time to work on projects without a lot of interruptions. i just finished 2 belts for Christmas presents - one for my partner's son and one for my son. i thought they looked pretty nice.

Snowy December

2008-12-17T12:05:00.000-08:00

man, does time ever fly. after Thanksgiving we were busy at our wayzata shop getting things made in anticipation for a busy rush of shopping up until Christmas. it was interesting and fun to have sales on our Etsy site. we stayed very busy replacing product that was sold. lots of fun!! for me, the cell phone cases seemed to be a hit. my biggest sale was of a cranberry flap pouch bag. very pretty if i do say so myself and one of my favorites. with the economy the way it is in the USA it was fun to sell things to england, brazil, canada and even lithuania. but, sad to say, the Christmas season has been very disappointing. very little traffic and lots less in the sales department compared to last year. we are keeping our fingers crossed for a late surge, but...the thing we are most excited about is our internet sales through Etsy. i'm updating our website so that next year we will be able to sell our handmade items through it as well as Etsy and Lollishops. here's a big 'Thank You' to everyone who has purchased from us. Every sale via the internet is fun and certainly makes our day!!
The temperature here was -16 f yesterday morning. really cold, but we stay busy working on our projects. today i tooled and dyed 2 belts for presents for luke and yuri. fun!!

Medium Cell Phone Case

2008-11-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

we've been doing a little selling through our Etsy shop which has been fun. it got me going on making a medium sized cell phone case so i did!! it will easily hold a cell phone that is 2" x 4" x 1/2" and is like some of the other sized ones i've been selling on Etsy. i put one of them here just for fun.

New Special Order

2008-11-17T11:29:00.000-08:00

i can't believe a whole week has gone by since i've written anything. but the week got tied up with me spending a lot of time working on our website. then, on saturday, both my partner and i had sales on etsy. she sold a hand crocheted potholer and i sold a small leather cell phone case which i had to make since it had been sold out of our wayzata shop. i just shipped it off to new york, city earlier today and am posting a photo of it. it's 2" x 1" x 4 1/2" and i thought it was kind of pretty.

Excitement!!

2008-11-10T14:12:00.000-08:00

yesterday, on sunday, my partner and i drove down to northfield, minnesota to a shop call SWAG. my partner showed the owners a selection of her handmade pincushions and handmade 'pincushion christmas ornaments'. they loved them and bought a dozen of each. it was very exciting for us to expand our business 'out' like that. i've put a couple of photos of her work here.

Special Order

2008-11-10T13:59:00.000-08:00

i mentioned previously that i had received a special order and my first attempt came out too small. back to the drawing board and i finally got the inside measurements correct. to get the inside 3" x 1" x 7 1/4" i had to make the outside demension 5" wide!! who would have thought? anyway, i'm posting both of the colors that the customer requested just because i thought they were really pretty. also, like i said, working with leather is always fun and always a new experience.

All Purpose Leather Pouch

2008-11-08T11:25:00.000-08:00

a little while ago i made up some small cell phone holders and posted them on our Etsy site. a week ago i had a 'convo' with a person who was interested in a larger cell phone holder so i made up some like the one in the pictures-back and front (2" x 1" x 7"). unfortunately it came out too small for her specifications so right now i am making a couple of larger ones. it just goes to show that working with leather is always a learning experience.

Tote Bag

2008-11-06T14:09:00.000-08:00

the size of the tote bag i make is 16" x 12" x 6". i also reinforce the handles. it is truly made to last a lifetime. in fact, a tote bag i made in 1974 is being used today by my partner. pretty cool...

Tan Pouch Bag with Flap

2008-11-06T08:40:00.000-08:00

i started making my 'pouch bags with a flap' a couple of months ago. i really like developing different styles of bags. these come in the same sizes as the original 'pouch bag'. this one is dyed 'range tan' and reminds me of the colors i used to use back in the early 70's.

Small Pouch Bags

2008-11-06T08:33:00.000-08:00

this time around the first purses i started making were what i called 'pouch bags'. i make them in two sizes, 6" x 8" x 1 1/2" and 7" x 8" x 1 1/2". they have a simple pull through closure and the strap is anywhere from 42" to 50" long. what's been fun is to work with the variety of colors for dye that are available now that weren't available in the early 70's when i had my little shop/business. to the left is a small 'grape' pouch bag.

What it's all about...

2008-11-06T08:23:00.000-08:00

i have started this blog to share my leather work. My partner and i own a small gift shop in wayzata, minnesota. we carry lots of local and regional artisan created work as well as items we both make. (visit http://www.manitobastitches.blogspot.com/ to see my partner's work.) it's funny but i started doing leather work when i was forced to take a 'shop' class in 7th grade many, many years ago. i loved it! my parents gave me a tandy's leather making set for christmas that year and i fell in love with the idea of making leather items by hand. some years later i even had a small leather shop/business in northern minnesota where i made and sold leather purses, tote bags, belts and just about anything else i could think of. it was a riot and i thought i'd be doing it for the rest of my life. but...things change and life move me in a different direction. now, however, it feels wonderful to be back doing something i loved doing so many years ago. i hope you enjoy looking at my work.