Looking to buy Real Leather

I've got most of my costume covered so far but I was thinking of trying to make some of my own bracers and gorget. I also wanted to make some book covers and a belt. I think the gorget will be the most complicated but the others are just cutting it correctly and I found some tutorials online. I can't find any sets of these items to buy that match in color and thickness. Does anyone know of a reliable website to buy hides or thick leather?

Other than that, does anyone know how hard it is to darken or stain leather? Thank you!

Thanks!

Tandy Leather is one of the defaults for leathercraft - beyond that, I'll defer to one of our real-life crafters. (I just play one in a LARP... :) )

Hi Maria,

In most situations, staining leather isn't too hard to do. You can find plenty of tutorials online and most stains will have instructions on how to apply them. The rest is just brush work and attention to details.

Something you might want to keep in mind is the type of leather you want for these projects. I can say from experience that deer skin leather behaves very differently compared to vegetable tanned carving leather (the hard leather that most people make armor out of). Each type of leather has its uses, pros, cons, and different techniques for dealing with it.

If you decide what you are looking for and can give me a heads up before the event, I'll stop by the leather shop I used to apprentice at and see if I can pick you up some material for a reasonable price.

Best,
Elias

I think I may have some scrap leather I've used for projects before lying around. If I find it I'll add it to my shop at market faire.

If you want some small pieces to play with you can also go to most craft stores to get suede leather in small pieces (maybe good for small book covers) and sometimes fabric stores will have garment weight leathers.

Tandy Leather is the standard though.

For more malleable items like book covers, gloves, and the like deer leather works the best. However Tandy is by far the cheapest and fairly reliable from what I've found. I should have a bit extra of both with me this game. So feel free to use it some and play around with it.

BTW, Tandy Leather has a store in Baltimore which I believe is your area.

Wow!

Thanks for all the feedback. I really don't know much about the types of leather other than thickness but I'll be sure to take a look at a few things. I know there are some shops you all have open during the weekend so I'll certainly be visiting the Marketplace on site. There really is a Tandy Leather near me! I'm only 15 minutes away from them. Thanks for the tip, I'll have to stop over there this weekend. I'll probably just make some simple things then come buy stuff from you pros.

Thanks all!