Projects with my son Jake

One of the projects I'm currently working on is a holster for my son Jake. This is my first holster so it's kind of a learning deal. I've done a few projects for Jake in the last year or so as he always seems to have a thing or two he wants made out of leather. When I work on these, I've been trying to get him to do a lot of the work on them. He has done the cutting, edging, lacing and other things get the projects started and finished. For this holster, he worked up the pattern entirely on his own and so far, it seems to be working just right. We'll have to see what happens after it's all sewn together.

Here's where we are at so far on the holster.

A couple other projects Jake and I have worked on are a set of saddle bags for his saddle, and a matching scabbord. It's kind of fun to see him show a little interest in this type of stuff. So far, he hasn't wanted to get into the carving part, but he has talked about maybe trying to build a saddle one day!

Here it is on a saddle I made a few years ago. The saddle was made through a grant program with the ND Council for the Arts and saddle maker Rex Cook from Dickinson, ND. Jake quickly snatched up the saddle as soon as it was finished.