ClayB

Bobocat, I am really enjoying seeing your work. The detail you get into your carvings is amazing! The way you wrapped the design over onto the back adds something special to the whole project, and even the way you sign your name adds a touch of art to the purse. It's inspiring to me to see work at that level. Thanks so much for sharing your pictures!

Hi Linda, Most of us have probably had a project we put a lot of time into that didn't turn out like we had hoped (at least that's what I tell myself when I do one). It looks like the pieces need to be laced tighter, but if the leather on the front is too thin, as was mentioned, when you pull the back and sides tight, that might make the front curl out. I dont have any suggestions on how to fix it but I hope someone does because the carving looks nice. The bear turned out nice. I am glad that you tried it. You even figured out how to add ears! I like the way you framed your pictures with the leather hanging out of the matt. Neat idea. The roses look great, and like a LOT of work.

Thanks for that update Johanna. I didn't see it when I checked yesterday. There was no way I was going to get anything there by the 26th. The new date gives me some hope of making it

I was asked about the deadline for mailing entries to the show and was pretty surprised at what I found out. According to the website, the deadline for mailed entries is August 26. That's a whole month before the show, and if you need to meet that deadline, you dont have much time left! In the past, mailed entries had to be in about a week before the show and if you were assuming it to be the same (like me) you're gonna miss the deadline.

Hey Freak, Another really great project! The leaves and skulls go great together, who'd a thunk that (well, except for Froggy) The colors you used really tie it all together. Thanks for doing the step by step color demo. I think we need a lot more of those here. Coloring is tough for a lot of us and seeing how you did this should make it a little easier. Can't wait to see what you come up with next!

Thanks you guys for the suggestions. I think we should save Freak's dog for Kathy to teach sometime. I do like the Bert and Ernie suggestion. I might just try that someday just for fun. Freak always has cool ideas, the hands are great and we actually found someone that was going to try and make up a pattern for them with swivel knives. Not sure that is something I'd want to try with an audience my first time. I think I could carve the buffalo in 2 days if there weren't any distractions, but I think distractions were kind of the point to this demo, so I think that's too big a project. It also is pretty much cutting feathers for one whole day and that would get boring for someone watching fairly quickly I think. The bear paw is do-able in a few hours, and so is an elk (like on a flask). So maybe a couple smaller projects that I know I could finish? If anyone has more suggestions, please keep them coming. If they dont work for the demo, they might be ideas for future projects. It would be great to see any of you at Clay's store's anniversary. (sounds like you are gonna have to leave pretty early on Thursday if your gonna make it Jo) Clay

That is so cool Crystal!!! That's what I had hoped for when I brought up the first one of these earlier this year. People being encouraged to try new things and put thier own style into it. You have certainly done that. It seems you dont see a lot of pieces with finger cuts on them, so this has been an interesting topic. I hope more people give this challenge a try. Neat idea Bert.

I agree with everyone else, this really is a nice piece of art. You did a great job on the carving and the coloring. I intend to spend some time studying how you carved the features of the face because it really looks perfect. I also really like the subtle color you used. It brings out all the detail without covering it up. I am glad you are here sharing your work on the forum, and look forward to seeing more of it.

If I had a list of artists whose work I appreciate (and I do) Silva's name would be right near the top of it. I consider her to be one of the very best when it comes to figure carving and coloring. She has gone to great lengths to help me learn and improve my work in the last several years. When I was having a lot of trouble carving a golden retriever dog, she worked up a lesson that is on her site and appeared in the LCSJ. She doesn't seem to be carving all that much anymore and I have heard rumors that she has retired her swivel knife, but I really hope that isn't true. She is one person that I would really like to get to meet and take a class from someday and I bug her to come to ND on a regular basis. So much so that she once called me "a persistant little cuss!". Yeah she has high price tag on her work, but she is "that good" in my opinion. That's why I have a piece of her work hanging on my wall. It's a piece I commisioned her to do and if you go to her website, it's the first picture that comes up. Silva usually donates a piece of her work to the raffle table at the IFOLG show in the fall. If you make it to the show, you might have a chance to see some of her work in person and have a chance to win it.

Hi Roger, Check out Dale's tutorial on the home page here at Leatherworker.net for to see how he carved and haired a mountain lion. Here is the link Dale has a kind of unique style and shared a lot of his tips in that lesson. You'll get a lot of ideas from it. There are a lot of ways to cut in hair and I know we had a discussion on it a while ago. Hair blades, any lined tool, scalpel, multi blade knife, needles, sewing awl, dental picks, or even just the tip of a modeling tool can be used for hair. It mainly depends on how fine or realistic you want the hair to look. If you are going to be doing more things like this, you really owe it to yourself to get Al's books Pictorial Carving Finnesse and Figure Carving Finesse. He go in depth on carving all kinds of animals and all kinds of scenery. You asked not too long ago about sand and water and he covers that in the pictorial book. I intended to recomend the books when you asked that question, but somehow must have gotten distracted and forgot. Sorry about that. For any figure carving, all you really need are a couple figure bevelers, some pear shaders, something to draw on the hair, and a good modeling tool.

Hi Wayne, We'll forgive you for not posting here all that often as long as you post stuff like that when you do. That is some really nice knife work.

Not sure if I have ever posted in the Show Off section before, but I have to post this here. When I got home from a really fun weekend in Jamestown, I had a package waiting for me from Shirley Z. In it was a picture she had carved specially for me. I have been a big fan of Shirley's work for a few years now and having this done just for me is SOOOOOO cool. Thanks Shirley.

I think that turned out great. I'd love to see it in person, I bet it looks even better that way.

Thanks for the peek at how you do that Azmal. Your work is always amazing and it's neat to see part of how you do it.

Thanks for finding and posting this site again. I was going to start searching for it but now I dont have too. I am a little surprised how much interest there has been in these leaves. I have been getting emails and phone calls asking about how to do them. Hopefully we will get to see what some other people come up with using this idea.

I just posted a class that Jim Linnell will be teaching in Ft. Worth, Texas on August 8-10 to the calendar. Seems Jim has been so busy running Tandy Leather Factory and teaching classes all over the world that he hasn't had time to keep me posted on where he is going to be next! Hope some of you down there in Texas have already heard about this class and can attend. And for even shorter notice, I will be demonstrating leather carving at the Jamestown Cultural Festival in Jamestown, ND on Saturday August 2nd all day. For more info on this event go here And finally, it sounds like I might be doing some demonstrating at the Tandy Store in Rapid City in a few weeks. If that happens, I'll try and get the info out a little sooner (or hopefully Bert will)

Hi Shirley, Maybe a simple design, but it looks great. I like the way you incorporated the ribbon in there too. I have been a big fan of your work for a long time, but the more of these you do for special causes, the bigger fan of the person I am becoming.

Shelly, I have been having the same problem you describe now for about a year. I have never worn glasses in my life and the eye doctor says most people would be thrilled to have my distance vision. But close up work is getting tougher all the time. Last year I got prescription reading glasses that I wear when I am carving and they help a lot. They are a real pain when I get up and move around though. I think now that I should have gotten bifocals, but he thought those would be tough for me to get used to at work walking through matts of rebar when we pour concrete or are hanging rafters on building. The other thing is that my eyes seem to be getting worse all the time. I can tell that the prescription isn't working all that great anymore (less than a year old). Now when I carve I am wearing a headband magnifier over the glasses and it makes a big difference. Here is one I have been using. It's a pretty cheap one and the light broke off after the second or third time I tried to adjust it, but I have used the magnifier quite a bit. I also have a swing arm light with a magnifier on it kind of like the light tube magnifier you mentioned. It's tough to use that when tooling, getting the right distance to see and not bang the magnifier with your maul. I've seen a few people use the magnifier and light in classes that Bruce gave the link to and they really liked it. They did suggest the plug in version so you weren't constantly changing batteries on the light. There is a chart on the website that shows working distance with different magnification levels, and the higher mag, the closer you have to be to your work. Four inches doesn't seem very practical. The cheap ones I use have four different magnifications and I use the weakest one. Just checked and it is 1.2X. With that, I can see pretty good at normal working distance. I tried the next one 1.8 and I had to lean a little closer to my work to see clearly. With the 3X one, I had to get right up to the 4 inches they say. It really brings the work up to you, but there is no way I could tool like that. It also lets you see things WAY too good anyway. Not sure if any of that helps you out, but at least you know you aren't alone.

Yes, in the original photos, the leaves are actually raised above the leather. There was a website for the guy that made these, but I cant find it. In his brochure he said that he made "stamps" of some sort in the shape of the different leaves and I think he said he had thousands of them. They would have to be pretty big "stamps". What we did wasn't the same, but we were happy with it.

Happy Birthday Regis! Hope you have a really great day

Hi Roger, When you said you were leaving your pebblers in the rack for this one, I was a little dissappointed. I really like what you do with them. But, this turned out really nice! You got a really clean look with the inverted carving and it left a place for those cool cuts around the bottom. I agree with everyone else, the dye job looks great. Someday I have to figure out how to do that fade too. It really is a great finishing touch.

Thank you Alex, and EVERYONE else that has supported this forum. It couldn't have grown into what it has become without all the help of so many wonderful, sharing people. I'm sorry about the doughnuts. I've tried to keep the dog out of them, but well.... he really likes 'em!

Unless you can find someone that wants to sell a used one, I think you are going to have some trouble with that. I dont think Bob is making those anymore. I think he was having trouble finding the black stuff he made them out of.