Grey Drakkon

I LOVE the dragon/skull wallet! That's the kind of thing that would have me taking it out and just staring at it.

Just finished this bracelet. Soft vegetable tanned leather base dyed purple with a turquoise pig suede layer on top of it. The suede was glued around the edges and each strand was folded in half, then mystery braided with the purple layer. Now I'm wishing I got bought more of that suede when it was on sale!

I've found that to be absolutely true, because you REMEMBER when you screwed up something like that. Beautiful work!

Nice job tooling. Looks like your knife slipped a few times while cutting the edges though, or the leather had imperfections there. Next time you might want to try wet forming the lid a little bit more so it doesn't bulge out as much. A good first shot at it.

Gorgeous work, especially giving the leopard depth.

Awesome! I really like the first one's fangly face. Did you ever hear about the Unfortunate Animal of the month? The woman who made them no longer is doing the UAotM, but she's still doing creepy art which is good. http://billroundy.com/unfortunate.html

These are each 1/4" wide, mostly because I have a piece of 3/4" wide brass that I've been using as a template and that way it divides evenly into three strands.

I see what you did there.

You had to show me that video, didn't you? Good thing I left my leather at home! ;D Any tips on cutting the straps? I've been using tape on the back of my leather to keep it from wiggling around as much and basically focusing my chi to cut that leather like it owes me money (which it does, come to think of it) but with five strands I worry about the leather flexing around too much.

Thanks to Nstarleather, I got my hands one some luscious Horween leather. Because I'm a newbie, I'm petrified of screwing up the nice big slabs I have and figured I'd start with something nice and small that would trim up the edges which would be waste material anyway. My guy has been making noise about a bracelet he can wear to work and I had been looking at mystery braids, so off I went. I think I'm on my fifth bracelet now, I might have a problem. First pic is of the latest one I made, nicely snug without cutting off circulation. I decided to play with punches a bit, I think I need to sharpen them because the edges are a bit fuzzy. This wasn't an ideal scrap so it looks a bit rough, but I like the idea of a pattern like that. I was on such a roll with mystery braiding that I decided to use up a scrap of thin veg tanned leather I had laying around and then spray it with two new colors of eco flow dye I had recently gotten. My guy is now clamoring for me to make a version of this for him. -_- I call it the joker bracelet for the colors used. My biggest annoyance is the snaps, I have some line 24 snaps in different colors but the shafts on them are so long that I had to take a jewelry saw to them to shorten them up and it still ended up deforming the cap a bit (just enough so I noticed). The other snaps I'm using are from Joann fabrics and while they're just the right length, the hardware that is used for the top/bottom bits come in this weird plastic clamshell thing that you hit with a mallet, and of course being plastic it snapped at the hinge so now I have to wince while having my fingers way too close to the mallet to hold everything together.

Just don't use unnecessary apostrophes in your title. :/

Very nice, and glad you introduced yourself! I'm on Deviant Art as well.

White dye exists, but it's toxic so I wouldn't use it for something to be worn on the skin. Acrylic paint is pretty flexible, especially if you thin it a bit and layer it on. Just remember if you decide to use a sealer on it, don't use one that's for oil based stains/dyes, it will react badly with the acrylic.

Pip Harding rolls off the tongue, and can be shortened to PH leather which definitely appeals as a kind of chemistry pun, which is also a part of nature (everything is acid, alkaline, or neutral).

Those antelope looking things you saw were likely pronghorns http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronghorn Too bad about all the troubles plaguing you, although I'd add even if you don't have a handicap of some sort it's very helpful to have someone with you on your first time in a strange place (as long as they're a calming influence anyway).

Freaky stuff, great job!

Kaerkes, that's very smart of you to team up like that. The reason I brought up thieves in the first place is that I knew one, and nobody would have known it to look at him. He was a kindly grandpa, but he had sticky fingers! So nobody would give him a second look and he got away with stealing something pretty much every time he was let out of the house.

Marble/granite slab on a SOLID surface. If you have it on a desk then you get an amplified BANG each time you hit (plus it makes your slab bounce a bit). Try putting it in different spots and listen while giving a few whacks.

Sorry to hear that, hope you can make it back on here some day.

I was going to say, I like how it displays the artwork, but that's a thief's dream. Tons of tiny items close to the edge of the table, and all of those items are hidden behind solid wood? Score! The levels wouldn't be so bad if they were clear, or just the sides and top with no vision-blocking front. If you're stuck with it though, some small details would make it look a lot more tidy, like that piece of paper is kind of flopped in the middle there. It would look nicer if it was the same height as the shelf and would take up less space that way. Or, print it so you would fold it in half and the top half rests on the upper shelf and the bottom half dangles down. Most of your pieces are a nice shade of dark brown, which unfortunately doesn't make them stand out against the wood. Draping a piece of lighter colored fabric would make those browns pop out. If an entire sheet is too much for you, then runners would work great.

Excellent! Take pics of the new setup if you could. I have horsey friends who would love to see it!

Looking again at the pic, looks like you have a hackamore on, there could be some interference with the action of the nose band depending on how tight you make the attachment, but it should work if it's loose enough. Maybe a dedicated strap going under the jaw would be better in this case, but the string looks like a decided last moment add-on rather than a part of the barding.

Thor, that is some fantastic tooling there! I can see what you're saying about the eye though, and I think part of the problem is that it should be in some pretty deep shadow from the brim of her hat, but it's lit up as if highlighted. Before messing with it any more, I'd take a look at lots of profile pictures of women, paying attention to the area of the eye and cheek. If worse comes to worse, cover that side of her eye with a strand of hair. You wouldn't be the first to pull that move.

Masks are a good way to practice your leatherworking and still end up with something that looks neat.

Excellent work! That stitching really stand out!