madwilson

Hi there, I am in the process of making a guitar strap using some patterns from Peter Main's book "Australian Leather Carving" and in the section on colouring he refers to Al Stohlmans book "Colouring Leather" and the colour reference chart in there. Has anyone made one of these charts and if so can you let me know what are the main colours used. I am particularly having trouble identifying the first colour which looks like an ochre. I mainly use raven oils as that is what I can get nearby, (Brisbane) I have been doing leatherwork on and off for a number of years but never really been concerned about specific colours before, but I would like to get the carving of the gums reasonably accurate. Cheers Mark

Hi there, I am new to this forum but have been dabbling in leatherwork for many years - mainly self taught. Most of what I have learnt has come from the Al Stohlman books. There don't appear to be many other written resources around although we do have a fellow in Oz who has written a few books. He covers quite a lot about plaiting leather for belts, whips etc. His name is Ron Edwards. I have now been brought to a bit of a stand still as I would like to try doing some colouring using irridescent colours as described in Al Stohlman's Figure Carving Finesse on page 70. He talks about using metallic powders used for ceramics and mixing them with "Tandy Coat" leather finish. I have looked everywhere and nothing seems to come up with that name. Has anyone done some colouring with the metallic powders and if so can they point me in the direction of the medium they use to put them on or else tell me what is the correct name of the product he is refering to. I haven't been able to find anywhere in Australia that seems to sell the Tandy finishes to see if they have the one mentioned in the book. This looks like a great forum and I hope to be able to get some good tips as well as passing on some of mine.