Abstract

This last year I started working with leather. I started making my own tack for my own horse, and some people started commenting on what I had made. So I slowly started to build other items and started to sell them to people. Last spring when I started my edge project, I decided to turn my little hobby into a side business. My dad helped me come up with the name, Dimond S. Leather. The "S" stands for Stokes. Dimond S. leather provides customized work in leather good. Hand crafted to fit your needs. Focuses on custom saddles, bridles, belts, wallets, etc. Repair work, on splint boots, winter blankets, coats, etc. Carved and crafted by hand from step one.

Goals

I would like this to be a little business I can do for extra money. I would like to create a good name for myself, that sales and builds quality custom work. My goal is to be able to communicate effectively with customers and people. This will give me good communication and business skills that I can use in my daily life and throughout my career. Participating in this business will help me reach deadlines and be responsible. This will also help me with my time management and being able to plan out my days and weeks according to what I have going out that week.

Objectives

This job has helped me a lot with my patience. I have learned a great deal about myself throughout this project. Working with leather is very time consuming. You can't cover up your mistakes, so you measure once and then measure three more times to make sure it is perfect. Some mistakes will ruin your whole project so it is super important to make every mark count. This has also helped me with my communication and confidence with people. I am not afraid to call people up and talk to them about what they want me to make. I am more confident talking to people and asking them questions. This will help me become effective in my future career. I want to be a councilor, so communication and confidence is key. Creating a leather business has taught me a lot of people skills, and also a lot of personal skills. Both have helped me become a more stronger confident person in my daily life and in my future career.

Deliverables

My main speciality will be working cowboy chaps. My goal and deliverable will be to have made and completed two whole pair of cowboy chaps. To show my progress and that I am actually the one doing it, I will be taking pictures of all my steps in making a pair of chaps. I will take pictures of my sketches and notes. This will show my process of how I make them to the end result. I will create a file and upload it in when I am done with a pair. Example: my first step is to measure the pattern onto the leather. I measure and then cut the outlay of chaps out. Next I measure the skirting (Pretty much the belt of the chaps) and glue and cut that. Then I hand stitch the belt on. I will continue my process with the chaps like so.