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Bob Blea

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Everything posted by Bob Blea

  1. Bob Blea
    Thank you Jack!
  2. Bob Blea
    Fantastic looking bag! And thank you for the very detailed blog post on this bag. It is extremely informative.
  3. Bob Blea
    Thank you both!
  4. Bob Blea
    Hi YinTx, Thanks for the compliment! The background areas are only antiqued, no dye. It has taken me a while to get the antiquing down to where it is consistent. That is definitely an art unto itself.
  5. Bob Blea
    Thanks for the into, your techniques are clearly working very well for you! Your work is very impressive.
  6. Bob Blea
    Thanks Gary! And yes she was. She loved it.
  7. Bob Blea
    Thanks Rohn! Thank you Sheilajeanne! Not really. The leather is 4-5 oz to start with and once the pigskin liner is glued to it, it makes it firm like a hardback book cover, but still flexible.
  8. Bob Blea
    Here is something that I made for my wife. It's a notebook designed to hold a 5" x 8" refillable notepad. It has a floral carvings in the corners front and back with a hummingbird and my wife's initials on the front and a geometric design on the back. The geometric on the back is probably too busy for the floral carving, as it kind of gets lost in the stamp design. If I did it again I would probably leave the floral off the back and just use the geometric design. I've had quite a few comments and questions on my Instagram account about this stamp, so I'll just say up front that this is a combination of stamps from Barry King. It is his Tri-Hex Hollow stamp and the Seashell Filler. The edges are laced with Tandy Calf lace and the interior is lined with pigskin. The whole piece was antiqued with Eco-Flo Saddle Tan to highlight the carving and stamping.
  9. Bob Blea
    That looks fantastic!
  10. Bob Blea
    That looks really nice! I'm going to have to give this a try.
  11. Bob Blea
    I occasionally have had to do fine detail painting like this with a brush, but I'm intrigued by the idea of the needle bottles. I'm assuming your using acrylics? If so, what kind? Thanks in advance, Bob
  12. Bob Blea
    I've used the shelf liner and drawing liner paper too but I seemed to get more stretching problems with it than I do with the tape, so I've gone back to using the tape. Like @TheCyberwolfesaid, it's pretty cheap!
  13. Bob Blea
    I use tape on the back of the leather when tooling. Wait to apply the tape until the leather has mostly dried to the point you are ready to carve it. At that point the packing tape I use (3M clear packing tape) will stick. Sometimes even with the tape the leather will distort after it has dried. Then I glue the pieces to be sewn together and trim up the edges to get them even and finish them, then I sew them.
  14. Bob Blea
    Nice work! I'll bet your wife loves it.
  15. Bob Blea
    I have the same issue with the Barry King edger, but I'm usually using thin leather and it does an OK job for me and it holds its edge. Never got my Tandy edger to work consistently but I've never tried to sharpen it either.
  16. Bob Blea
    I have Barry King edgers and they work great for me. I have never tried Ron's Tools but everyone says they are the best. One of these days I'm going to need to get my hands on them and give them a try. Jeremiah Watt's Horseshoe Brands also makes edgers that are supposed to be very good.
  17. Bob Blea
    What a great idea! I might have to try making one too. It would be great for any gathering of leather crafters.
  18. Bob Blea
    Nice work!
  19. Bob Blea
    Very neat knot! I really like braiding and I wish I had more time to practice it. Thanks for posting this. Makes me want to try this project.
  20. Bob Blea
    I use Liquitex acrylics and Tandy Eco-Flo antiques. I have on occasion had some of the paint rub off on high points, maybe from my own rubbing action when wiping off the antique. I like to put a layer of a clear acrylic finish over the painting to seal and protect it before antiqing. With a lacquer based resist (like Neat Lac/Clear Lac/Wyosheen) the solvent can easily dissolve the acrylic so I don't recommend using those over acrylic paints.
  21. Bob Blea
    Really nice looking. Love the designs.
  22. Bob Blea
    I bought reading glasses a long time ago to help with threading needles and lining up the awl for hand stitching. Then I discovered how much it helped line up geometrics. It just made everything easier, so now I don't tool without them. Getting to where I need them to read too!
  23. Bob Blea
    That looks great! The embossing works really well on the horses!
  24. Bob Blea
    Very nice!
  25. Bob Blea
    I think you did a good job. Small stuff like that is not easy and takes a good eye. I've done several things like this and the size of your tools, especially the bevellers, is critical. I have a set of Robert Beard figure bevellers that I use for all my Celtic knot work and I frequently need the smallest sizes I have. The face of those bevellers measure about a 1/16" of an inch and one that is a little smaller. They have a steep angle so you can work on the lines of the knot without much impact on the parts right next to them. Barry King also makes extra steep Sheridan bevellers down to that size that would work well too.
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