maddhatter Report post Posted January 13, 2010 hey all i've been pounding my head against a wall on this one, an im sure there is a very easy way to do it so it eludes me (chuckle), but any way heres the deal i have a customer that wants an item done with the night sky in mind, (ok no big deal) i got the color down now heres the kicker how to carve the stars where no two stars are the same and they look like the stars in the sky, big ones small ones and so on. any and all ideas would be of great help, thanks to every one in advance. maddhatter Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JLSleather Report post Posted January 13, 2010 How much detail in the carving? If the stars are "distant", I wouldn't carve them at all ... paint only. Having said that, I wouldn't "paint" the stars at all, but rather paint the everything in the sky EXCEPT the stars. Not sure how you paint, but there are some posts on here where people "resist" areas of the leather... I'll see if I can post a quick example... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
maddhatter Report post Posted January 13, 2010 thanks for the help JLSleather, i didnt think of a resist type style of doing the stars i'll keep that in mind and try it on some scrap to see how it looks maddhatter Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JLSleather Report post Posted January 13, 2010 Can't seem to find that example at the moment, but I did find a standard downloadable photo. You can see that the stars are where the paint AINT... Worth noting, maybe, that there is no black in the sky... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
maddhatter Report post Posted January 13, 2010 thank you very much for searching for the pic JLS this will help out nicely maddhatter Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leatherman1457 Report post Posted January 13, 2010 I would not tool them. i would use an air brush to put them in.on a few of the stars that you want to be stick out I would use the back of a paint brush and dip it in the paint and put on the leather and then airbrush over it. after see thousands of stars in my 8" telescope they do not shine as a point of ligth but as a point of light with a haze around it and sometime because of the dust in the air you will see rays comning off of it. best thing to do it go see some of the hubble space telescope pictures and go from there or go to google earth and see the stars from the google site. might even want to make you put a galaxy in the picture lol Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
maddhatter Report post Posted January 15, 2010 thanks to you both JLS and Leatherman1457 for the great info, im working on some practice scraps and putting your info to good use hopefully i can get it so it looks like the nightsky, heh your right i did try to put in a galaxy (chuckle) thanks much again maddhatter Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JLSleather Report post Posted January 15, 2010 Kaint 'member which one, but in one of Stohlman's books he mentioned using drops of glue for "splash" in the water, or raindrops. Something like that may work here, too. I've never done it, because [almost without exception] my work gets used and I suspect it would get knocked off. Just a thought... I do know, though, that I don't use white. I've done adult eagles (the white "hair" feathers) and buckskin horses (the forehead and main) by making the natural leather appear white with color around that area. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
maddhatter Report post Posted January 17, 2010 good idea, your right about the book he used it on a bottle to show the sweat, forgot all about that an i did want to try that, hmmmmm thanks for the reminder, i'll let ya know how it went (chuckle) thanks again JLS. maddhatter Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JLSleather Report post Posted January 17, 2010 good idea, your right ... thanks again JLS. maddhatter Never too big to accept a compliment, but this one's already out and public, kaint git the credit... that idea was Stohlman's (or someone he knew) But you're welcome anyway, glad I could help. You a MN boy? My buddy up the street is from there, but he's clearly not the brightest star in the [MN] sky ... didn't go NEARLY far enough south ... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
maddhatter Report post Posted January 18, 2010 yep im from mn the land of 10,000 frozen lakes, heh he jumped to a lower state aye (chuckle) i know a few people in iowa german town area some wheres around demoines (how ever ya spell it), oh by the way the glue dots worked well, how ever the customer didnt see it my way (chuckle) so back to the drawing board, some customers have no flair for artistic expansions (chuckle) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JLSleather Report post Posted January 18, 2010 the glue dots worked well, how ever the customer didnt see it my way (chuckle) so back to the drawing board, some customers have no flair for artistic expansions (chuckle) &^$^#%$&%&%$%&$!!! I was looking for the finished goodies How about this.... paint (with a S M A L L brush) your glue on (or whatever you use to mask)...paint the sky (probably wiith a thin wash)... then remove the glue (pointed X-acto works as well as anything). Keeps 'em bright without being "raised" (??). Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
maddhatter Report post Posted January 18, 2010 ok so this is what i came up with customer liked the colors the stars the boarder then said they wanted it in a distress fasion i told her ok i can do that, so i grabbed a wet rag an started to scrub an lighten the colors to give it that oh so worn look (chuckle) then laced it all up an this is what it looks like and this isnt even the final project this is still for aproval to get the job, the final bag will be much much bigger. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JLSleather Report post Posted January 18, 2010 customer liked the colors the stars the boarder then said they wanted it in a distress fasion ...is still for aproval to get the job, the final bag will be much much bigger. I was going to suggest a hint of gold mixed into the white if you're using gold hardware, but if they like the color, there's no arguing with that. The "distressed" is a whole nuther issue. Depending on how large the bag, you might find a hide that has that already in it that you can cut out of? You might paint using a "marbled" effect, but that takes a bit of time and it sounds like you have some good labor in it already ... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
maddhatter Report post Posted January 18, 2010 hmmm marbled effect, sounds intresting i have an idea or two on that one, what would you suggest ? just got scrap time invested so far and always need practice braiding so doing a moc version of the bag is practice and i can always try to sell it for a coin purse (chuckle) if the customer doesnt like it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JLSleather Report post Posted January 18, 2010 (edited) hmmm marbled effect, sounds intresting i have an idea or two on that one, what would you suggest ? That would take forever to explain, but you can see it done if you check youtube and search for "airbrush smoke". Tends to look bigger than it is, just information. Years back, I remodeled this little girl's bedroom. Her and the sister were getting on each other's nerves - or something like that - so she was moving to another "room". It was so small that by the time we gutted and drywalled, I'm thinking even this little one (about 5-6 years) is going to go nuts. Painted the thing to look like the sky ... shades blended blues gradually fading to a white ceiling (no line). STILL the talk around here, little girl is now 14 and "dating" my oldest... SURELY she's gonna want that painted "big girl" style soon ... Edited January 18, 2010 by JLSleather Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
maddhatter Report post Posted January 22, 2010 ok so here is the finished bag for the customer sorry if the pics a bit fuzzy an over sized, the bigger bag is the one that the customer had ordered, distressed, faded, and laced (chuckle), and she didnt want the smaller bag so its up for sale (chuckle). maddhatter. p.s. thanks for the help in figuring out how to do the sky, in the end it took acouple of star stamps a back grounder and acouple colors of dye Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JLSleather Report post Posted January 22, 2010 Pretty tough to see (it's way bigger than my screen), but if the customer liked it yer good Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
