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LilyLionLabyrinth

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About LilyLionLabyrinth

  • Rank
    Member

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    http://www.etsy.com/shop/LilyLionLabyrinth

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Female
  • Location
    Massachusetts
  • Interests
    Leatherwork, Drawing, Mythology

LW Info

  • Leatherwork Specialty
    Molded Leather Masks and Accessories
  • Interested in learning about
    Everything
  • How did you find leatherworker.net?
    Google

Recent Profile Visitors

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  1. That's adorable! I like the tooling, but am especially fond of that asymmetrical flap.
  2. It's not just you! I went to open one of my jars and the safety lock thing was completely busted. My partner and I had to tag team it: she sliced the jar open with an x-acto blade and I caught the dye in a glass spice jar. I like Eco Flo, but all their containers the past few years have made me really hate working with them. I'm thinking about finding an alternative storage solution to decant them into, I just don't know what yet!
  3. Thank you! I did the Autumn one with Eco-Flo dyes instead of acrylics. I've been wanting to toy with that marbling method some more, actually! (Method...really...it's just dye and a grocery bag, lol). I had to look up the lost dutchman matchbox. I will *definitely* consider that one for the future! Thanks again. :D
  4. So, hello again! It's been a long time. I've moved on from mostly making leather masks, to making journals and jewelry. The past two years, I've mostly been focused on creating my own line of painted leather finishes for Traveler's Notebooks. It's taken a good while to get the hang of it. Acrylic on masks was easier, since the masks didn't need to open and close and flex all over the place like my journals. Took me a good year to solve all the cracking issues with the paint, but I think the effects are worth it!
  5. That looks lovely! I love the decorative border. I am another stitch-by-hand-while-watching-TV kind of person. It can suck a lot, but the tedium can also be nice, sometimes.
  6. Those are all beautiful! I especially like the Mandolin bag. It's such a unique design!
  7. Aww, thanks, Charlie! I am in Massachusetts now, yes; I am from Fort Worth (which I mention just as a 'hello!' seeing that's roughly the area you're in!). The college idea is a really good one. My studiomate attends Harvard, and we live a stone's throw from both there and MIT (not to mention the, what, 50 colleges in Boston?). I will have to look into that, so thank you. I am toying with the idea of an airbrush, but I honestly don't know how much use I'd get out of it. I tend to paint intricate things with sharp outlines. It would be nice for sweeps of color, though! When you do get around to trying your hand at masks, you are more than welcome to bend my ear about it! I am still learning the process myself, but can probably answer some questions.
  8. No, I don't currently have an airbrush. I do all of my painting by regular brush, which works nicely for my shading in tight areas...but an airbrush would be awesome for the background colors!
  9. Ken, going to Mardi Gras would be awesome! There aren't a whole lot of places left in the states I really want to see on my bucket list, but that area is one of them. Leatheroo, thank you! I looked at all your past mask threads the other day, and so to get a compliment on coloring from you means a lot! I am working on the next version of the Minotaur mask, and want to continue with the whole Lunar/Starry theme that the original myth follows.
  10. I would like to be added as well, when you get a chance.
  11. Beading like that is insanely labor intensive. Unless you were working with someone with a large budget, it's not usually worth it. The most I ever do at this point is beaded accents. I just sew the beads directly onto thinner leather with good ol' needle and thread, like this: It gives a kind of beaded look, but takes a lot less time. (Even still, that beading on both sides took me at least an hour).
  12. I can't tell you exactly how that artisan set their stones, but I have been practicing with my own method of setting cabochons in leather lately: I haven't done any kind of wet forming in the setting process. I am using softer leathers, rather than tooling leather, so it forms to shapes nicely already. (That necklace is about a 2-3 oz piece). Basically, I take the cabochon I want to set, and make a pattern on paper to the shape I want it, giving a few extra mm than the cab. I make the top piece of leather the same size as the backing. I then cut out a shape in the center of the top piece of leather. I don't usually measure, but you might want to. Using a leather like this, it has some stretch to it, so you have to be sure to make the hole a fair bit smaller than the actual size of the cabochon. I basically use that tension to hold the stone in place. I use a leather cement for the setting, that works on contact. So I coat the backing piece of the leather in it, and glue the cabochon to the leather. I don't think this would work as a long time thing, but I find letting it dry a little there helps keep the cabochon from shrinking while you try to stretch the leather over it. Then I put glue on the edges of the top piece, and stretch it over the cab, and using my fingers and clips to hold the two pieces of leather together. It can be a real challenge! Depending on what your cabochon is made of and your brand of cement, you can clean up excess glue that gets on it while it is still wet, or scrape it gently off once it's dry. It took me some trial and error to get the hang of it! I think if your leather is thicker and you still want to try it via wet molding, you could follow the steps above, stretch the leather over the cab while it's wet, and dry it in that shape before gluing it. But I haven't tried that.
  13. Spinner explained the differences between finishes and sealants wonderfully! I have to use sealants myself in most cases, since my pieces tend to be drawn/painted on very graphically as the main emphasis (like masquerade masks). I wind up not having exposed leather, so it makes more sense for me to do the last coat as an acrylic sealant. Sealant can be used on dyes. But they have a really different feel than using something like a wax, almost plastic-like. For leather projects that you want them to be heavily used and age gracefully in that distressed way, I would think wax would be a better bet as an overall finish. I have, however, done half-and-half: seal off the acrylic with a sealant, and the dyed or raw areas with a finisher.
  14. Thank you guys! Wild Bill, that's how I feel about a lot of the beautiful projects on this forum. I know next to nothing about motorcycles, holsters, sheaths, etc...but I can definitely tell the artistry of them when I see them.
  15. That is absolutely gorgeous! I know pretty much nothing about guitar straps, but that element you have at one end where another strap is woven through a few times? It really helps set off the roses (which are wonderfully done, too!).
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