Great Leather Blog

Carmine just sent us a hello from Trinidad -  and this cool photo of himself with his Great Leather Drumstick Bag!  
Thanks CA, wish we were there. Bet the guys and girls down there are really having a good time at your clinic!

JOHNNY RABB (a highly esteemed Great Leather Drumstick Bag™ user) will be teaching a Master Class on Saturday. Then be sure to enjoy a night out  in Chicago with Johnny and Clay Parnell.  Together they make Biodiesel and will be playing at Chicago's Tonic Room. Don't miss this opportunity for a clinic and a show!

       

Great Leather (GL) and Leather CARE Specialists (LCS) website now has new navigation!  We are hoping this simplifies your browsing experience. Having both our product line and service business on one site offers huge time savings for our customers. Presenting it this way however, took a little thinking to eliminate confustion. We hope this helps!

Also, we have added an Ask Dena feature where you can ask your leather questions and have them answered quickly and specifically to your interest. A blog post will then be created so that you can see your answer, and the answers to questions that other customers have asked as well. We hope you enjoy this new feature!

Comments/Enquiries
I need help with three items: A Coach bag with a stain (not to mention someone accidentally spray-tanned it - although that's mostly off), a black leather jacket with a big mark from a name tag sticker, and a brown coat that's out of style (big shoulder pads). the latter is very slouchy - lots of room to take the pads out and adjust the shoulder leaving sleeves that are long enough. Can you help?

Reply/Information
 The coach bag sounds if-y. I would be happy to take a look at it. Many times when something has been done to an item that really changes it, going back is almost impossible. There's always a good chance we can do something else though that while it won't look like your original purchase, would still be attractive.

The sticker pulling the top layer of leather off and leaving a stick residue is something we've taken care of before.  It does require redying the whole jacket, not just the affected area, as it will require a blending after the area is cleaned and dyed. The cost would be a little more than a redye cost. (See restore page behind the Services navigation tab on my website. I don't know what type of coat you have.)

The alteration I understand to be: removing shoulder pads and then taking the shoulder seam in to pull the sleeve length up. If this is correct, I can tell you that can be done, but to give you an estimate I would need a digital photograph, or to see the item. A flat felled seam is much more time consuming than an open one and we would be taking up the lining as well. Many times the lining is constructed differently than the garment pattern. Etc.

I hope this helps you feel confident with sending us your items!  See our Shipping Garments tab on the website, for what to do next.

Great Leather has added two new products this month!  The Mirella Handbag and the GL Artist Pouch.

The Mirella is a purse we designed after talking to lots of women!   The Mirella has the look-  a beautiful, remark-able style,  that doesn’t go out of style. It has the character- a pleasure to touch, to carry, and speaks casual and dressy. And of course, it serves the purpose- with functional features and durability. We will be putting new do-it-justice pictures in the product page soon, we just didn’t want to wait!

Our new GL Artist Pouch is a long overdue product the artists are going to love! We couldn’t find anything even close to this new offering. It is the only item for carrying pencils designed to keep the pencil tips from getting broken in transport. The GL Artist Pouch also has a place for business cards, erasers, etc. and folds up into a soft leather pouch. We think an artist will appreciate an item made by an artist, for an artist, in this alternative to a hard plastic box!

I talked to Carmine this morning and this was his report - " ...one of the best stick bags I ever had. I love the way it clings to the floor tom, and the workmanship is really wonderful. Everybody that sees it raves about it."  
 
If you missed a chance to see Carmine Appice on the throne with Vanilla Fudge (yes! they are back!) on the first leg of their tour, you can see their performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on the movie page of the Carmine Appice Website.

Leather CARE Specialists™ - We fix it for you!

When I search the web, typing in “leather repair” or almost anything I can think of in which we at Leather CARE Specialists™ are experts, what I find is a long list of links that are either for leather repair kits or other instructions on how to do leather repairs - yourself!

Now some people are good at reading manuals and may even have had more luck than not with cars, electronics, etc. But leather comes from animals and no two are alike. Cow, lamb, goat all have unique properties. Every panel in a jacket is most likely cut from a different hide and probably a different section. Skins are tanned, dyed, and finished differently.

Years of experience and the right tools and products are crucial to a good leather repair and restoration. So, if your leather item is an investment that you want to protect - let an expert do it!

I hope that one day soon when you type “leather repair” into your browser, Leather CARE Specialists™ will come up at the top of the page.   An expert to do your leather repairs should be one of the first links offered to you.  And Leather CARE Specialists™ are experts in leather repair!

Today I was pulling up a schedule to see where my friend Sergio Ponti was, if there was any event I could post for him, and I found something very interesting.  

First let me tell you that Sergio ( Ian Anderson, plus many other drumming credits, and an absolutely great guy ) has been a wonderful spokesperson for Great Leather!   As a result of Sergio loving and promoting his Great Leather Drumstick Bag™, now Marco Minnemann and Johnny Rabb are also among our claims to famous users!

So, I was always hearing about these world renown drum clinics, and I found this link and photo of both Marco and Johnny. I found it very fun to see where they do these clinics and I thought it might be interesting for drummers to see. Marco and Johnny at the GM International Drum Academy

We are thrilled to announce that our new secure site is up and interactive.  We will continue to update, add products, and give you more info and news. This is just the beginning!