Somawas

Soon, like T.S. Eliot, you'll label your posts: By Karen Barton: Il Miglior Fabbro.

Carving is beautiful. I wish I could get your depth.

At last night's Guild meeting a guy brought an assortment of tools in a bag that is basically an oversize cigarette case thonged together with latigo lace. I admired it. He said it was an old Tandy pattern. I'd like to make one. Anyone have this old pattern?

I absoluttely despise cell phones, but I guess we've all made cell phone cases. I've made 3 for myself and half a dozen as gifts.

I'm self-employed and pay most of my bills by check. A check that I print on a laser printer.

Gret reason. i LIVE IN DEBIT CARD/ONLINE HEAVEN.

making checkbook covers and "organizers"? Who uses them anymore?

Some pretty, impressive things.

There's a pattern in Vol 1. of Stohlamn's Mking Leather Cases.

Cheap on Ebay. http://cgi.ebay.com/Olfa-CMP-1-Adjustable-Circle-Cutting-Cutter-CMP1-New-/300544944026?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item45f9dfe79a#ht_3266wt_1396

Get a little Fiebing deglazer or lexol and clean the leather with it before you dye. Multiple thinned coats will give you a darker color that penetrates more.

I've bought a bunch of lovely belt buckles recently on EBAY.

I used some Feibing's light blue spirit dye with another strand. It, too, dyed well. Color was more intense than I wanted, even after diluting per Laier's recommendation.

I found I needed some royal blue, 1/8" lace. Decided to try dying the Tandy/Tejas natural.lace. Pulled out the Laier/Stohlman books on working with color to see what dilute ranges I needed to try, Pulled off 24' of natural lace and put it in a glass. Added 10 parts water and 1 part Eco-Flo Marine Blue. Covered the lace in the glass. In about two days, the lace absorbed all the dilute dye. I did it again 10:1 water to dye. Color got more uniform, but not more intense. After two days, the lace was dry and stiff in the glass. Dropped the lace into a glass jar. Went to my Tandy store. My manager and i discussed whether I should have used some deglazer on the lace to get rid of the finish on the grain side. It appeared to be gone after the four day soak. Picked up a bottle of neatsfoot compound and poured it over the lace in the jar. Let the lace soak in the neatsfoot compund. It came out supple and ready to use. This experiment worked well. Exceeded my expectations.