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Bob Blea

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  1. Bob Blea
    Now for something completely different, for me anyway.... I got some crocodile embossed leather remnants and there were some pretty big pieces, so I decided to try making a ladies clutch wallet out of one of them. It turned out better than I thought it would have, so I'm looking to make another. I did post it on my Etsy shop but I think my wife might claim it. The interior is made of a thin chrome tan pull up leather with a pigskin liner. The edge lacing is calf leather lace. The embossed croc is a chrome tan and it was very thin and floppy, so I had to back it with a thin piece of veg tan to give it the stiffness I wanted the outside of the wallet to have. https://www.etsy.com/listing/492253955
  2. Bob Blea
    Really nice looking Chief! I'm working on a similar one except I am using some embossed cowhide scrap that I picked up. Your looks much better.
  3. Bob Blea
    It looks to me that your leather is very wet when you are tooling. In the How Do I Do it section there is a good write up on casing leather. Read through that and let your leather get drier and you will see a big difference in the impressions your stamps make.
  4. Bob Blea
    Hi Zayne, I hadn't played with it for a while but it's still sitting on my desk here. I just rammed the card into each slot a few dozen times again and everything still seems to be holding up well. No sign that the pockets are coming apart. Bob
  5. Bob Blea
    There are some very good points made above and the Stohlman books can be very helpful. I would recommend spending more time practicing with your swivel knife. Your swivel knife cuts are the foundation of any leather carving, and in your case you aren't making smooth flowing cuts. In Mr. Vandyke's example you can see that his knife cuts along the vines are long and flowing with the length of the vines. They gently and gracefully curve around the flowers. Your vines are very short and end very abruptly, which is partially due to the small area you are carving them in. Also, your curving cuts like your flower petals are choppy and not very smooth, which affects your tooling. Much of this is just a matter of practice and getting comfortable cutting smoothly, but it also may be your swivel knife itself. The blade needs to be sharp and well stropped to cut well, so if you have never done this spend some time sharpening and stropping that knife. If you are like most people starting out you have a Tandy knife and it's blade needs work to tune it up as it doesn't come from the store in the shape it needs to be to do good work. Hope this helps! Keep working at it and you're bound to improve. Bob
  6. Bob Blea
    Springfield leather also sells beading supplies.
  7. Bob Blea
    Really nice Chief! Your lacing looks great as always. How do you bond the cloth lining to the leather?
  8. Bob Blea
    That was really helpful. It taught me something about the kinds of leathers I don't normally use. Thanks for posting!
  9. Bob Blea
    I wish there was a book out there that showed all the different styles and talked about the different elements of each. I've never found one nor have I found much written about what defines a particular style. I've tried to collect bits and pieces about what defines the various styles but much beyond Sheridan and Northwest, I can't tell you much. Most of what I know seems pretty subjective, and there really doesn't seem to be hard and fast rules. As others have said, within each style there were individual traits of the person carving, so it comes down to how much of you goes into your carving style.
  10. Bob Blea
    You're right, there isn't a whole lot out there that I know of that just talks about how they draw the flowers or leaves. I picked up a lot of it just by studying the work of other artists and trying to draw flowers they use. There is one book out there that does cover some basics on drawing flowers, and I learned a lot from it. Leather Wranglers (yes, the swivel knife company) sells it. Part of the book covers a floral design class that the author, Billy Wootres gave when he was alive. the link is below. http://www.shop.leatherwranglers.com/product.sc?productId=24&categoryId=13 Also, I highly recommend the Sheridan Style carving book. That is one of my favorites for learning floral carving. Bob
  11. Bob Blea
    My first thought when I saw the stamp in your post was the movie Frozen. It looked like a snowflake to me at first. I'm guessing there isn't a market out there for Frozen themed holsters...
  12. Bob Blea

    Filagree

    Bob Blea replied to ITCL's topic in How Do I Do That?

    Another possibility is a filigree blade for your swivel knife. I have a narrow blade for my Leatherwrangler's swivel knife that they make. It gives me very good control of the blade and I feel a lot more comfortable using this than a scalpel or Xacto knife.
  13. Bob Blea
    Thank you for posting these!
  14. Bob Blea
    I would recommend contacting the people at Bee Natural Leather products. I know they have several different leather cleaners and conditioners depending on the type of leather you have. My guess is that is probably a chrome tan leather but they would be able to look at your pictures and make a recommendation. Their products are very good but I doubt they will be able to remove that stain. But, you never know till you try.
  15. Bob Blea
    Really nice Chief! It looks great!
  16. Bob Blea
    I like it, especially the edges. The stitching looks nice too.
  17. Bob Blea
    Acrylic paint certainly could work for this since it's for the wedding and it only needs to look perfect the first time. I've had really good luck using acrylics on veg tan leather and having them hold up well. I've even had a small wallet with a acrylic butterfly painted on it survive going through the washer not once but twice! For a dog collar where there will be moisture and wear, I would think the paint would work off eventually but it will still look fine for next weekend. Just make sure your leather is well cleaned before applying the paint. If you oil your collars make sure the oil has plenty of time to soak in (at least 24 hours) before trying to paint. NOTE: If you normally use Latigo or some other type of leather that comes with lots of oil or fats already in it, I don't know how well the paint will bond to it. I just don't have any experience with those. Hope this helps, Bob
  18. Bob Blea
    Magnificent!
  19. Bob Blea
    Looks very nice inside and out. You've got that basket stamp running perfectly straight! Bob
  20. Bob Blea
    Hello Tommo, I oiled the leather using Neatsfoot oil (and yes Kelperts, it did get a really nice color from it) and then I applied Wyosheen (formerly from Sheridan Leather Outfitters but now distributed by Barry King) as a resist. I then antiqued it with Tandy Eco-Flo Tan. thanks, Bob
  21. Bob Blea
    I think it turned out really nice. I like the final color of the bag. Nice job on the stitching too.
  22. Bob Blea
    Thanks all!
  23. Bob Blea
    Absolutely Colt, its been my lining of choice pretty much since I started making these.
  24. Bob Blea
    Tom, I've been impressed with these sorts of journals too and thought about making them. For the middle one I've assumed there are veg tan leather plugs under the brows, cheekbones, nose and lips giving them structure and then the thinner leather skin is glued to it. The others with the finer wrinkles are probably formed similarly. At least that's how I planned on going about making one someday. Haven't tried it yet to see how well my theory works out. Bob
  25. Bob Blea
    Yes Sir, it's a thin pigskin from Tandy. The outside is a side I picked up from American Leather Direct, and I was pleasantly surprised by it. It tooled very well. I'll probably be purchasing more leather from them in the future. Bob
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