Bob Blea

Hi Colman, Nice work. How did you get the texture on the body of the fish to look like scales? Bob

Hello Jesse, If there is a Tandy store near you they often have classes for beginners. Also, if you can travel a bit there will be a leather craft trade show in Sheridan, WY May 16-21st. They have all sorts of classes from beginner to advanced in all areas of leather craft. Plus, they have deals with neat tools and equipment, and you will see some of the best leather crafters in the world at that event. I've been a couple of years and taken classes that have really helped. If you can make it to the show classes it will really help. If you are interested in the trade show you can find out more at www.leathercraftersjournal.com/Rocky_Mtn_Leather_Trade_Show.html. There are some beginner videos that are available from Hide Crafters, but I haven't looked at many of them but what I have seen looked very good. If you learn better from books, all of the Stohlman books (available from Tandy) are great help with a lot of details that can help you get better. Also, I have found the people here on this site are an excellent help and are very willing to share. There is a lot of great information here. Hope this helps, Bob

Thanks John. What your said makes sense. I thought you must be using a seeder where the legs join. I had never seen one that left that little seed at every junction. The effect is really great, but it must have taken a lot of time. How you described lining them up is basically what I've been doing, but my results don't look nearly as good as yours. Oh well, back to practicing I guess. The whole project looks great and your customer is going to be very proud! Bob

Wow, that looks great. I love the oak leaves. I really like the work with the geometric stamp too. I've tried to use that tool but can't get as good a result as you did. How do you line it up so nicely? Bob

I'm certainly not an expert at making cases, but I can tell you that it would be very hard to add any length to the zipper. You would need to splice in the extra length and you would need to be very careful to get the spacing correct where the two parts meet, otherwise the zipper will bind. I don't see any way to fix it without redoing the zipper, but maybe others here have tackled this problem and come up with a good solution? The zipper only needs to meet up at the bottom when the briefcase is open, would it be possible to 'shift' the zipper so that it meets at the bottom but doesn't zipper the briefcase closed completely? (If that makes any sense.) Bob

Crystal, that piece of scrap turned out to be beautiful. It could win an award. Bob

Hi There, the belt looks really good. I've never tried making a filigree belt but I really like how they look. Your tooling looks really nice. What did you use to get the nice blue background? Bob

Amazing card, thanks for sharing and Merry Christmas to you too! Bob

Thanks JRodz! This is helpful. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too! Bob

This looks nice. I've been thinking of doing the same thing because my glasses case is coming apart too. Thanks, I think you've inspired me to give it a try. I like the border work with the veiner. Bob

Hi Dwight, A couple of things I noticed: 1) Where you have the veiner on the leaves, make sure the point is right up against the stem. It supposed to represent the actual vein in the leaf and that would connect directly to the stem on a real leaf. it looks a little odd when it's separated a bit from the stem. 2) The mule feet should fade out and become less pronounced on the stem. This was a mistake I made until someone pointed out to me what I was doing. Try making the first strike of the mules foot with the tool straight up and down, then tilting the tool a bit for each successive strike and hitting it a little less hard, so it fades and becomes smaller. 3) I noticed the same thing about the pear shader. I try to walk it with a lighter stroke toward the stem, sometimes curving the track a bit to look more like a leaf would. Just some suggestions, but I think you are on the right track. It's a nice design. Bob

Looks good. Just curious - what sort of finish will you put on it? I assume it will need to be pretty water proof? Bob

Thank you, you are very kind. As for the antiquing, I have to credit my wife Crystal for teaching me on that.

Hello all, I've been on the site for a while now and I though I ought to introduce myself and post a few pictures. I've only been a leather crafter for about two years now, and still have a lot to learn. I am very grateful for all the information members have posted on this site. My wife introduced me to leather carving. She had learned from her mom, and I tried it a couple of years ago and found I really enjoyed it. I've made several projects this year, mostly items for friends and family. The item below is a notebook cover designed to slip over a 5x7 spiral notebook. I made it for a charity ebay auction. The leather was probably a little too thin and the cover is more flexible than I would like, but I like the two tone antique effect (which I picked up from a posting here.) Thanks all for sharing your experience and knowledge, Bob

Congratulations, they look great. Bob

Thanks for posting this Bruce! I'm going to try this on some leather tomorrow. Bob

Thanks jeeperaz, I tried it and it worked!

Hello all, I have a question about Leather Balm w/Atom Wax that I'll bet maybe someone on this thread could answer: Anyone know what I could use to thin Leather Balm w/Atom wax? I've got some I wanted to use but it's thickened up from sitting. I was guessing it might be water based just from the smell, but I don't know. Has anyone tried thinning it? Thanks in advance, Bob

Thanks, that's great to know. I think any lady would be happy to own that purse. Bob

Hi Allan, I like the stamped design, it looks really nice! That looks like it was a combination of different stamps to put it together. That can take a lot of work to keep everything lined up and make it look neat. Looks like you did a great job on it. Also, I like the two tone finish. How did you do that? Bob

Looks nice to me. You could add a thin sheet of acrylic plastic to protect the photo but it looks good without it.

I had trouble getting good holes with a four hole punch till a saddle maker I know recommended punching on top of another thick piece of leather. I place a piece of saddle skirting leather (really thick stuff) on a firm surface that won't give and pound away. It works much better than the poundo board I used to use.