ClayB

If I understand what you are describing, the brown color is "burnish" and that's what is supposed to happen. The heat and friction from rubbing the edges wtih proper moisture smoothes out the "fuzzy" edges and the color is usually the result of doing it right.

Richard, It may have taken a long time, but all your hard work and commitment to this project payed off. It looks really nice and I bet your daughter will treasure it forever. The coloring on the bird is really nice! Clay

This is the forum, where you can post topics, questions, pictures, etc. Live chat takes you into a chat room where you can talk (type) to people that are online in the room with you at the time, a live conversation.

Whenever I apply Neat Lac, I rub it in good with a piece of sheepskin trimmed short. You shouln't have any problem putting it over spirit dye, I am not sure about eco flow, you better try that on scrap first. Someone once said that you shouldn't let neat lac dry in between coats if you want to apply more than one coat or it will crack so I always go over it twice without letting it dry and haven't have any problems with it. Another thing you can do is mix spirit dye into the neatlac for different colors.

Marlon, Peter's Happy Everything picture was a casualty of the big crash I think, so I'll repost it here. Caroline, Marlon is right about Peter's blade. That is the one you should try if you are going to be carving thin leather. You will have to contact him directly to order one. I have his blade in a regular Craftool swivel knife. I have a couple Robert Beard blades in Craftool knives too. They work ok for me. Someday I'll get a Bob Beard swivel knife because they are really nice, but like I said in another topic, I think you can make do with what you have a lot of times.

Robert Beard tools Larry, Whenever this subject comes up, I worry that people will feel like you do. Thing is, most of us started out with Craftools, and most of us probably still use mostly Craftools. I have some tools by Bob Beard, Barry King, and a few others, but the vast majority are Craftool. Just going out and spending a couple thousand dollars on some really high end tools isn't going to make you a great carver. Being a great carver takes practice and learning what you can do with the tools you have. If a tool wont do what you want it to do, sometimes a little work with a file can make a big difference. Some of the best carvers out there use only Craftools, some of them modified to work better. So, I hope that nobody feels like they cant be a good carver without the really expensive tools because that just isnt true. Use what you can afford and practice to do the best work you can with those.

Ron's tools for some nice hand tools.

That really is nice Marlon. You did a great job on the carving. I bet Peter would be proud seeing what you did with his idea. Only one thing missing, that tiny signiture

I got my booklet for the Wickerburg show today and see it is also online, FINALLY! You can see it here

My grandfather did some leather work about the time you say that was made, and I know he used the same stuff to line purses and things like that. There were a few small pieces in some of the stuff of his that I have. I also got a piece of green in a box of stuff from an auction a couple years ago that was probably also that old. It's only about one square foot. I kinda thought like Bruce that it might be embossed pig skin, but it doesn't really feel like pig. Luke is probably right about it being lamb.

Hi Tina, I am glad you finally got the coloring to look the way you wanted it too. It looks great and the zebra stripes are a great added touch. I'm with the rest that cant wait to see what this will look like when it's finished. Clay

Hey Caroline, That looks really nice. That's not your first attempt at carving though, is it? You really got some great depth going on in that. I wonder if you could make a carving like that into a mask? I cant wait to see how you color it. I am sure it will look even cooler when you are finished. Clay

I talked to Dave yesterday and he said the booklets were going in the mail today, so we'll see. You need to call or email them to get on the list. I thought maybe if you were on the list last year, you would get one, but I guess not. You need to get on the list again. Clay

Hey Clay, Your floral carving is awsome, but then that's what we all expect from you Dont be too hard on yourself on the lion either. It's not bad at all. Like I mentioned on Stephanie's lion, those eyes were tricky. What did you use to put the hair on? It looks like a neat texture. I'd like to see it closer up. We would cut you some slack since you just found out about the challenge this morning, are home sick and the kids are sick too, but there's no need to, you did a really nice job!

Stephanie, For your first cat you did a great job! You did a nice job on the ear and the mouth and teeth. The eyes are done nicely too. I think the eyes are tricky to do on this pattern because of the way it is drawn. In Tina's original, there are large wrinkles over the eyes that I think have been hard for people to grasp when carving the pattern. You got all the contours of the neck in the right places, but it looks pretty deep with out hair. I think if you added hair, it would tone down the deep impressions and blend everything together nicely. I am glad you decided to carve this pattern and that you shared the picture. I have been impressed with how all of the cats have been turning out, especially for those of you that are new to figure carving.

It's from Barry King. He has a lot of cool flower centers, I should get a couple more. That one is fairly simple, but I like it.

It wasnt this Clay, so if it was one of us, it must have been Mr. Miller.

Pete, Can you share a simple pattern that you like to carve, that you want to paint or dye? That way maybe a couple of us can try and color it in a way that will be useful to you. There is a lot of difference between paint and dye, but either way, you want to use it pretty diluted and build up to the color you want. Either one can be overdone and ruin the look of your leather carving. I painted a couple bears last weekend with acrylic paint, and was pretty happy with how they turned out. I think you can still tell that it is leather underneath. I think that's important when using acrylic.

Hi Pete, This is something that I think is really hard to teach from a book. At least it was for me. I have all of Al's coloring books, and Peter's too. I just didn't get it until I took a class with Tony Laier a couple years ago. Seeing it done in person, it just all made sense. I tried to take pictures of some leaves I was coloring awhile ago, and it is really difficult. As Tina said, wet leather gets darker. It's really hard to tell what color you have until it dries. In Tony's class (and I think this was pretty close to what Peter teaches in his last book) he used 2 or 3 shades of each color. The first is a very diluted dye, the second diluted about 50/50 and the third full strength. If you are coloring a leaf green, by using 3 shades, you still get shadows and highlights, not just a flat looking green leaf. Tony started by coloring the whole leaf with the lightest shade. Then you go back with the second shade and color about half the leaf, leaving the edges light. Then finally, use the full strength in the very darkest shadow areas. If you want a multi color stem you would go about it the same way. Start out by dying the whole stem diluted yellow. You can go over it as many times as you want to darken the yellow, but you cant make it lighter if you get it too dark. Then add diluted green over the yellow, except towards the tip or edges you want to stay yellow. Again, you can go over this several times if you want darker shades, but work gradually until you know what will happen when the dye dries. Then finally, add full strength green into the shadow areas if you want them darker. I have used the same technique with the eco flow dyes as withspirit dyes and had some really good results. If you are using acrylic paint instead of dyes, then things are different. I like acrylic paint, but again, I like to dilute it down quite a bit and work up your color by adding several layers. I still mess up a lot of leather trying to dye or paint, but it's really fun when it works. I hope this helps a little. Next time I have something to color, I'll try and take pictures again, but I wont promise that it will be useful. Clay

I love the decorative lacing you do on your seats, and the little bit you did on here looks great to me. I like the way you only did it partially around the seat so it didn't cover any of the carving. The carving also looks great. Cant wait to see it all finished. Clay

I finally got around to trying this one too. I changed the pattern too, but I hope I didn't kill it like Freak did the lion :skull3: .

Hi Regis, I am really glad that turned out well for you. So often we hear reports on those things that didn't go well. I hope you get calls from all those people that took your card and you are busy for a long time. You've worked hard at this and it's cool that people like what you are doing. I'm really happy for you. Clay