ClayB

I cant tell if there is hair on the horse or not, but I have found that when you use a hair blade on an animal, then antique really goes on splotchy.Seems like the cuts from the hair blade make antique go in really unevenly. I dont have any answers for how to make it better though.

Here are some close ups of Jim's work. When I blow up my own work on the computer screen, that's when the flaws really show up. These still look awful nice to me. I hope none of you are discouraged by seeing Jim's work. That wasn't his or my intention from posting this. Jim is always trying to introduce new people into leather work, and teaching and encouraging the rest of us. That's what these pictures should do. Show us a couple different ways to carve and get some ideas on how to improve what we do. I have been carving for over 30 years, and I couldn't do what Jim does, but I intend to study these pictures and hopefully improve what I do in at least a couple areas. If anyone wants the full size pictures, PM me with your email address and I'll get them to you.

Ok, I guess I have decided to extend the contest deadline until December 30. That gives everyone 2 more weekends (and one of them is after Christmas) to carve thier oak leaves. Hope that helps. Clay

My wife uses hers a lot and it seems to be well built and sturdy. I dont think that is a problem. I also think it could have a lot of uses. I just wanted you to be aware of some of it's limitations.

The Cuttlebug worked well to put impressions in leather, but didn' t cut it well. We tried some pretty thin leahter, and it left a deep impression when we tried cutting shapes with it, but still had to finish the cut with a knife or scissor. The ohter thing is it will only take a piece about 5 inches wide so you are limited in what you can do with it. It's a neat tool, but you should be aware of it's limitations before you buy one.

I got a package today from Jim Linnell with the prizes for the oak leaf carving contest in it. Along with the prizes he donated, he included a couple samples of oak leaves he carved that he wanted me to share with you all. I doubt the scan of these samples is going to do them justice. The carving is absolutley gorgeous and perfectly done. The more I study them, the more neat little things I see in his work. His pear shading in combination with the pro petal really bring the leaves to life. Note on the smaller sample how he used two different vieners on the leaves. The veiner and cam work on the stems and scrolls give them real shape. And then there are the decorative cuts, pretty impressive knife work! Hope you all enjoy these. A BIG thank you to Jim for helping out with our first contest! Clay

Holly, I think that Dale Grabowski is making and selling wooden frames for brief cases.

I am considering extending the deadline, but haven't made a decision yet. I am not sure I think that would be fair to the people that "made" the time to get thier entries done by the deadline. I know it was bad timing with it being this close to Christmas, but I felt it had been put off long enough. Hopefully the next one will go more smoothly.

If its spirit dye, alcohol based, you are probably stuck with it that way. If its acrylic, there are some things youcan try. Denatured alcohol is supposed to work to take off acrylic, but I think for best results, you should use it right away. Deglazer might work too, if it was acrylic. Deglazer is pretty nasty stuff, but it will take a lot of finishes off leather, but I had no luck with it removing spirit dye.

I like to use Neat Lac, but you have to be careful how you put it on. I use it out of a can and rub it in really well with a piece of sheep wool. I was told once that you are NOT supposed to use multiple coats of it, letting them dry in between. I was told you can do a second (or third) coat but do them before the first coat dries. I think that it needs to soak in and once dry, the following coat doesn't so can crack off. I have never put more on once it was dry and dont have a problem with cracking. Just thought I would throw that out there. I also don't dye black. Hope you figure this out David. It really sucks when coloring goes bad.

When I got a couple edgers from Ron's Tools, they came with a metal rod that I didn't understand. I figured out that the rod fit the groove in the tool. If you put wet/dry sandpaper over the rod, then run the edger over that, it sharpens the tool. It worked really well on all my old Tandy edgers too. I was going to just throw them away, but they work better than ever now. Try and find a piece of wire or something that fits the grove of your edger, cover that with wet/dry paper, and see if that doesn't help.

The bindings were done with another machine called a Bind It All. You can see them here http://www.binditall.com/

Just wanted to remind everyone that is thinking about submitting an oak leaf (or two or three), you only have until the end of the week to get pictures sent in. I am really looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with. I hope we are buried in last minute submissions. Clay

Thanks everyone for the comments. The machine Stacy used to press the leaves into the leather is called a Cuttlebug. You can see it here http://www.provocraft.com/products/index.p...hp?cl=cuttlebug She got it to use for scrapbooking but has been finding uses for it with these leather notebooks. We did one other cover that was too wide for the machine so I set the leather on my marble block, set the branch with dried leaves on top of that, covered it with a piece of plexiglass type plastic, and then pressed the leaves into the leather by rolling a rolling pin over the plexiglass. It worked surprisingly well. I was really surprised how much detail from the leaves transfers into the leather, and was even more surprised how antique brings out the detail. Most of the darker coloring was done with Fiebings dark brown paste antique. On the lighter ones, either light brown or tan antique was used. On some of the really light colored ones, I just oiled them and then finished them with a coat of neat lac. I usually finish over antique with tan coat. After that, Stacy played with several things trying to get different effects. I am not sure what all she did, but I know she used some eco flow dyes on the outer edges of some of them to give them some contrast. I think she tried inks from some of her rubber stamping supplies also. The letters and some of the swirly things are also rubber stamped on. Then the last two notebooks were done differently (the ones without the leaves, seeds, or grass). She ran the leather through the machine with either circles or flowere shapes to get impressions in the leather. On the circles, we then used a background tool to get texture. Then she cut out the leather shapes with some cutting dies for the machine. I dont think it cut all the way through the leather and she had to finish up with a scissor. Then the shapes were attached with brads or rivets. It's kind of fun to see how all her rubber stamping and scrap booking supplies can be used on leather. Hope this answers most of your questions. Clay

Here are a bunch of little notebooks that my wife and I finished up today. She got a bunch of orders for these from people at her work for Christmas presents. The leaves on a bunch of these were pressed in from dried leaves, or even silk flowers. I found out on a different one that didn't fit through her machine that you can press the leaves in the leather with a rolling pin if the leather is cased right.

If you put the whole thing out in the sun, wouldn't the parts that are already dark get darker?

Thanks Don, That's was my first thought but I don't know alot about calvary stuff and military history. The area where we are working has a lot of history to it. It is on the trail that Custer used on his way to the Little Bighorn battle. It is also the trail used by messengers carrying mail from Fort Lincoln (near present day Mandan, ND) to fort Keogh (near present day Miles City, MT). It is also near one of the ranches that Theodore Roosevelt had here in ND before he went back east and got into politics. The guy we are working for said back when he was a kid, someone found a jeweled handle off a Spanish sword and a metal breast plate in that area. When we finish up the building, he is going to use it to store his collection of over 100 old saddles, 70 pairs of chaps (20 of them are woolies) and pickup loads of bits and spurs, hitched horsehair bridles etc. I cant wait to see the whole collection. So far we have only seen bits and pieces of it that he shows us when we go in for lunch.

At work we are putting up a building for a guy that collects old saddles and tack, chaps, spurs etc. Someone called him and wanted him to look at a bridle they had. He hasn't seen it yet, but they said the cheek pieces on the bridle have brass plates on them with the saying E Plurbus Unim (sp) on them. The guy was wondering if anyone knew anything about a bridle like that. I figured I'd ask here. I'd appreciate any info anyone might have.

Hi Freak, I really like WIP pictures. I like what you have done with this notebook. Your "just initials" looks really nice and make for a classy back. The deer looks good too. I'm starting to realize I must have been a really slow learner cuz you (and quite a few of the rest of the people on here) are getting really good, really fast. Thanks for showing the pictures. Cant wait to see how you finish this one. Clay

This page that Verlane did was sent directly to me in response to a pattern I had posted to the IILG. She told me it was my decision if I wanted to share it with anyone. There is no copyright on the copy I have. I have several other pages that she did for her classes in Spokane that do have copyrights on them and I wouldn't feel right about posting them. She had told me that she was hoping to write at least one book on pattern drawing as she felt it hadn't been covered very well. For the past several years she was trying to get a lot of information into digital form on her computer. She said she could only get a few pages done a day. I hope that her family (or whoever is in charge of her estate) realizes that the data stored on her old Mac is priceless to the leatherworking community. I hope that someday it is made available in some form as I know she wouldn't want her knowledge lost.

Here are some pictures of Deb's work using the printer type for lettering.

I have been thinking a lot about Verlane this past week. I was really shocked and saddened to hear of her death. Verlane seemed to know everything there was to know about anything to do with leather. She also freely shared everything she knew with anyone that asked. I feel really fortunate for all the conversations we had, whether they were in a parking lot in Sheridan or by email. Drawing patterns has always been difficult for me but every once in awhile I give it a try. Whenever I would share one of them with Verlane, she usually sent me several pages of instructions on how to improve them. I thought I would share this one with you all. I was trying to come up with a pattern for a scent article for dog competition and drew up a floral pattern that I thought was pretty good. Verlane re-drew it and explained pattern flow in a way that I could really understand. I still don't draw patterns very often, or very well, but at least I have a pretty good idea of how it's supposed to look. Here is how I drew the original pattern. And here is how it should have been done. I'm gonna miss you Verlane!

Thank you all for the comments on the belt. I guess I shouldn't have worried about it for the last 5 months. Regis, according to the labels on the patterns, you got the fish right. We don't have fish like that anywhere near here so I had to hope "Uncle Al" knew what he was doing. I'd kind of like to paint the floral part of the belt shades of brown with acrylics like Bob does it, since it was his pattern, but I really don't know yet. I think it would also look nice just oiled and finished with neat lac. I'll let you all know what I did when it's finished, unless of course I really mess it up.

Freak, For just starting to figure carve, you chose a really difficult subject. Not the deer, but the deer facing you straight on. I think that's about the hardest thing to carve. Your deer might look slightly pissed, but you can definately tell it's a deer. That's better than a lot I have seen. I agree with Mike, it could be your pattern. The first straight on carving I tried to do was a golden retriever dog's face. I have several scraps of it where it looks like Stephen King's Cujo when the rabies were really kicking in. Finally I posted all my sad attempts to a Yahoo group that existed a few years ago and Peter Main took pity on me and redrew the pattern. With the pattern correct, carving it was a whole lot easier. As for how you carved yours, I also agree that you need to tone down the beveling. A lot of the details in the face should be cut really light, or not at all. Then work them in with a modeling tool. Another thing I started using a lot is pear shaders instead of bevelers to keep from getting sharp lines. I hope you will post pictures of the next one you carve.

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