Tandy Leather Sacramento - 104

I have been wanting to come to Tandy for a couple years now and was excited when I saw they moved a few miles from. I met Ashley my first time there. I love her! Knowledgeable, helpful, fun to talk to! She makes me excited to learn more and get into leather work. I was finally able to attend my first class today, where I met Wesley (volunteer teacher for the class) and London, whom works at Tandy. London is amazing too! I could see myself sitting with Ashley and London for hours. I can tell, they are what makes the store a great place to come to. They get you excited! I must say though, its feel this store is lacking on the classes. One set of tools for 8 people, the volunteer teacher wesley was not able to arrive earlier to get material cut and ready, so our 10:30 class didn't start till 11:45. It made it so a few people had to leave without being able to finish their project and buy things they likely wouldn't have bought (at least not yet) just so they could finish at home. I felt bad for Wesley. This makes me nervous for future classes. I have a class scheduled in a couple weeks and I don't want to show up, wait forever for things to be ready and feel like we don't get the chance to play with our pieces. Tandy needs to write better descriptions of the classes as well. I signed up for a class saying key fob.. I find out its to use temporary tattoos on leather. I'm personally not interested in that. I want to use tools. Knowing that ahead of time would be nice to not soak up space for those that do want to take that class. (The class was making a leather cover for a composition notebook. I am so bummed we didnt get a chance to decorate. Overall, good class. I learned something.)

London and Ash are an absolute delight and they were so helpful. I know nothing about leather working and I felt very welcome right off the bat. Highly recommend!

The "new" store near Sacramento is a fraction the size (and contents) of the older store. The leather I looked at was not good, full of scars and scrapes, discoloration and holes. I overheard a saleswoman tell a customer that prices on everything had just gone up 2% to20%. More money for less product excellence. I walked. That said, the sales people are always helpful and nice, so this in no way reflects on them. But this can't be a good sign for the leather company when it closes a significant store and relocates to a pretty marginal, much smaller location. I'll check online but I wouldn't waste my time to go back into the "new" store.

So that I don't bury the lead, London and Ashley are awesome and incredibly helpful. Definitely make use of their Open Table days (call first before you go, just to make sure that Open Table is available). I had a first-time leather project to complete and I went to Open Table for about two weeks straight and took two different classes (one on stitching and one on dying, staining, and finishing). London and Ashley are great, and I can't express my appreciation enough for their knowledge, experience, and their willingness to guide me. When I first walked in the door, I knew nothing. London explained the difference between chrome tan leather and veg tan. I ended up needing both for my project, and London and Ashley instructed me on the right way to bond the two with leather cement (which is a lot like rubber cement). After I had my pieces together, I took a stitching class, where we also talked about burnishing and edge-painting. (Saddle-stitching is really fun - you get to use two needles. Definitely go for the braided cord. You'll see why when you take one of their stitching classes.) London showed me how to tool leather and Ashley gave me some amazing tips on using a thin film that reduces drag when you're tooling the leather (I was transferring a design to later tool and paint). I ended up buying all of the leather and supplies for my project at this Tandy location, except for two colors of Angelus paint that I had to get at Blick Art Materials. (Ashley gave me a great tip that you can use the Angelus paint and the neutral Edge Flex to make your own edge paint that is color-matched to your leather!) London helped so much by showing me how to apply the antiquing solution to the leather, gave me a tip on using leather washers (which really came in handy!), showed me the right way to punch holes in the leather for saddle stitching, and showed me how to use the riveting tools. I'll include some pictures of the project so you can see how it turned out! I am so appreciative of the time I was given, and for the workspace that was made available. "Leather Together!" is a perfect slogan for my experience at Tandy.

I love this new location, it’s much smaller and extremely well organized. I have had very helpful customer service here with three different employees who guided me to exactly what I was looking for, and advised me on different types of leather, etc. Super excited to start my crafts! Will definitely be coming back as needed.