Working On First Belt,,work In Progress.....

[chriscraft]

Making this belt for my partner at work, "guinea pig", this will be my first leather project that isn't on scrap leather. Plan to make myself one once I make a few and work out all the bugs since i'm new to this. The belt will be dyed black since were required as part of our uniform. I'm not working from patterns and will be using my own layout. Gotta stay away from all that copyright stuff since I plan on to sell them once I get the hang of it. I showed off the layout design at work and all the other medics are looking forward to how these will turn out. I think they will look perfect when done. I can already see the end result and i'm not even done. Guess thats just normal for me. Chris

[Cyberthrasher]

Looking good man!! There's a couple spots where it looks like you overshot your knife cut a little (in the scroll work), and the "P" has a wavy line on the left side. But, as always, those are just nitpicks to point out things to watch out for while you're practicing. KEEP IT UP!!

Another thing to think about is a border, even if it's just a simple bead line. Right now things look like they just kind of go off into nowhere and they're un-contained. Now, you can go past that border for parts of it (kind of gives a cool perspective) but having a slight boundary will really increase the aesthetics of the piece as a whole. This also gives you room to make sure you can bevel and burnish your edges without cutting into the design too much. Don't let a raw/unfinished edge sink the quality of your work. It's too good to let that happen

As far as artwork goes, there are a lot of times where I pull images off of shutterstock.com or other stock photo sites and them modify them to mine or the customer's liking. It's a pretty small price to pay that can be incorporated into the final cost of the item. I figure $10 for some artwork that's almost there, vs. $20 an hour to start from scratch - it really helps keep costs down for some people.

[Robgski]

Looks good! Looking forward to seeing the end result!

[immiketoo]

Thats a cool belt. Can't wait to see it done!

[benlilly1]

Great work! It's nice that you're staying away from the norm and going custom. We'll be waiting for the finished product!

[chriscraft]

Well, it was a learning experience to say the least. Need to invest in some equiptment to end up with a better product. Not happy with my sewing thread size and wavey sewing but it will improve. Chris

[Cyberthrasher]

The stitching doesn't look too bad. Need to get you an edge beveler to round the edges and that modeling spoon for the edge of your beveled cuts. See how they rolled up on you a little bit? You can use the modeling spoon to smooth that back down. But, this is your first finished product and you ROCKED IT!! I really love the bird you added in there too.

[chriscraft]

I found an older modeling spoon set of 10 on eBay, should arrive soon. Thanks for letting me know what to improve on. Thats why I'm posting here and trying to upload close up photos of my work so you can see what else I need to get.

[WScott]

It looks great especially for early on. You are way ahead on the learning curve!

The next stuff you do you gotta make those cool details pop...like with a resist or highlight color. Then some contrast stitching.

If you are artistic you can use some acrylic paint. Golden is a great acrylic brand available in art stores and comes in small plastic containers.

It is cheaper than Tandy's Cova colors and waaaay better IMHO

[chriscraft]

The next stuff you do you gotta make those cool details pop...like with a resist or highlight color. Then some contrast stitching.

If you are artistic you can use some acrylic paint. Golden is a great acrylic brand available in art stores and comes in small plastic containers.

It is cheaper than Tandy's Cova colors and waaaay better IMHO

These belts have to be all black for work. Good to know Golden paints work great on leather, I already have some paint and will be trying it soon. Thanks

[SteelcityK9Cop]

Looks great!! If you can turn out custom radio straps and put an add in Firehouse Magazine you get orders up the waz!