dragonspit

I dont know if this is feasible at all for you, but its something I have run across recently. I work away from home and stay with a friend in a condo. I was noting how much noise I was making and do 2 things when I am going to be working any length of time. but in both situations, i have a 12" x 12" granite piece I work on. I imagine a wood slab would help or work as well. 1. is, i lay my granite, on the very edge of my bed. and scootch my chair up close. i dont have a great back, so I limit myself to short bits to do this, if I was younger it wouldnt be so bad. I am fortunate because I am in a corner room I get light from windows in both directions. but the bed, really quieted things down. 2. then, one day last week, whilst drinking my morning coffee, I tend to sit in my chair (it does lean back) with my legs up on a window sill, daydreaming out the window while I wake up. the other day as I was sitting down, I picked up my granite piece, and a couple of tools and when I sat down, I put my my legs up as usual and laid the granite on my lap. although you would think the granite piece to heavy, and it aint lite, it wasnt bad. so now I just lean back put my coffee on the window sill along with my tools and I get great light through the window. its about as relaxing as I get. mind you, you couldnt do a really big piece this way or for hours either. but I worked today for an hour or more on a piece with no problem, and Im 50. so maybe something here can be of use. just throwin some stuff out that I do these days to quiet up the noise. I imagine if I used a leather mallet, it would be even better. I currently use one of the poly types.

what can one say. its simply beautiful work, as always.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. As far as a first project, yeah, I tend to do that to often. mostly I wanted to try a lot of tooling, and the cover has a bunch. I did it in different ways just to see how it went. on the left side I did do a pocket thing, on the right side for the pad holder its not a slot, its a band. But on the left side, I expected to sew the liner to the cover and the pocket, all at the same time. I dont know how I would attach the pocket to the liner, and then sew the liner to the cover when the bottom and left would already be all sewn up. guess I'm just not understanding. what makes suede harder to use than,,,well what maybe should I have used?

Very Very nice work.

so I have only been messing with leather for a couple of months. I made one Tandy wallet, that turned out well enough that folks think I know what I'M doin (gotta get my camera working and share, I know). I have done some scrap tooling and a couple of straps for things, just to think through it. Of all the things I could have done, I decided to do an organizer and challenge myself with a bunch of tooling, which is my main interest. But I like to have finished stuff so I thought this would do. I have seen so many cool journals and book covers here I thought I could get started at least. And its going reasonable but I have hit a stumbling block I dont understand and havent found the answer to yet here (but am sure I will). I have some suede, that I am going to use for the inner liner. the organize is large enough for a normal 8 1/2 x 11 note pad one one side and some pockets on the other. The binder itself is a one-piece of leather simply folded over. so before I sew pockets and stuff on, I need to install or set up the liner. so here is the question. 1. Do you glue or adhere the liner down and stretch it out before sewing all the pieces parts on and sewing the liner to the cover? 2. If you dont have a spine cover, how do you hide or sew some of the smaller pieces parts so they dont come loose? For instance, I was thinking on the side that holds the note pad ( a 3 "tall piece of leather that goes from almost the middle of the binder to the outside edge where the liner would get sewn to the cover),. on the side that is near the fold, would you sew the pad holder only to the inner liner while its loose? it would seem getting that straight and have it line up while loose would be,,,,,difficult. I have noted even as I ask the questions, I have seen that alot of this work, is whatever you make it. thousand ways to do any one thing. but this seems pretty general, but I cant seem to wrap my head around it. I still have to dye and and burnish all edges, but Im about ready to put it together. Im also a little concerned I wont be able to finish the edges of the liner as nicely as I think I would like to. anyway, any notes would be appreciated. Bob

what do I think? inspirational is what I think.

nice carving and a nice project. I dont see the issue with the coloring either. but like has been said, its all subjective to one's point of view. I am doing my first one of these because folks like you make them look so nice. I havent figured out how I want to attach the inner pieces yet. thanks for sharing.

stunning designs. in the instant I saw this, I realized how streamline my thinking is.

interesting conversation. As a newb, I was in the same boat. Just due to the availability and name, I bought a kit from tandy to start. but they had a sale on some heavy stuff. the grain seemed nice (this coming from someone who doesnt know what he's looking at), but it was like 8oz. I would use this heavy stuff to make some small projects and learn. I struggled casing it, but the tooling looked decent, but not quite deep enough. then I put one of the kits together, and it looks really nice, just like it should. so I had more trouble with the heavy stuff than the lighter stuff. Now I realize some of the tools are not as good as I will need. but till I got going and decided on direction and methods, it didnt matter much to me yet. but also being new, its kinda hard to justify buying a side and shipping from something you have never seen, to do some projects that arent anything more than learning experiences. of course, its all learning experiences. so I just bought a small shoulder of 4oz at tandy to do something with, along with I still have the heavy stuff. but it would be interesting to see what the differences is in what ever one calls a better quality leather, vs what Tandy carries. on the positive side, although tandy isnt super close to me. it is on my way into a travel town almost weekly. its nice to be able to touch and feel what your buyin. thanx for all the info here, I just found it an interesting post.

I was wondering how folks got those made, its not all that expensive if you can do your own artwork, and I can. maybe if I get good enough at makin stuff, I will have one made. awesome.

punchin a hole and hangin sounds like a good plan. Maybe you coud do that, get yourself a long board, like some of that wide baseboard material thin and light, but long. you could secure that the whole length of any wall, put any type of hangin hooks along the whole thing and hang your stuff in an organized manner. youd be able to see most things right off. you could even put a piece of tape of what is what next to it, so if it changes, just rip the tape off and put up a new piece. in my last house, I had a great office (before I just took up this leather fun). do a lot of art, drawing graphics. and what we did was, took one whole wall. bought peg board, like you use in a garage, and painted it match the wall. the used the peg board to hang all my stuff, it was one handy wall and it didnt look ugly either. that could be another solution. maybe combine the two. with the peg board, you could even modify a holder to hold your tools as well at arms reach but off your surface. with your back that bad, all of these may take some time to get done, but one thing at a time should be doable. Bob

beautiful piece of work.

thanks for sharing that. as a noob, and have owned bikes for ever (except right now), I thought this is one area I will venture into as I learn. Post like this are just outstanding. thanks for taking the time. the bag, looks awesome. dont know Id be buying a machine anytime soon Im kinda wondering how hard that would be to hand sew. trying to hold the side panels bent to attach to the front and rear. It is a great website.

the carving is awesome. as a total noob, I have a question, it looks like you did all our trimming outlined of the whole piece after you were done with tooling. how in the world did you get your lines so clean. it looks so clean like it was almost stamped out as one big piece but I can see in the previous pics that aint so. I have only tried a few methods so far, (box cutter, round knife) but your lines even before you finished them are just amazing to me. How did you do that?

I am also a huge Frezzatta fan and this is really nice. I think you captured the spirit of the painting which is not an ez thing to do. After reading his books, not sure how much he would approve, he was a stickler for copyrights things. of course he got ripped a lot over his carreer so I imagine that has something to do with it. I dont know if ya'll know, he passed a couple of month ago after losing his wife Ellie the summer before. non replaceable.

everything about this screams craftsmanship. very very nice. I had been wondering how folks cover a d ring like you did. its all those little touches that make the whole just so much nicer. well, u better get busy, Christmas is just around the corner.

Im sure she is happy with it. its a beautiful piece of work.

Thanks all, Soon as I actually doooo something I will get a picture up. so far, just playin on cheezy scraps. I did stop by and get some pieces parts and some decend leather to work a couple of little projects. but still will prolly practied with some of the cut offs of the good leather to see the difference. anyway, hope so see more of ya'll

really nice work. those little purse items are crafted so nicely.

thank you sir, I did miss it. now to find all those discussions I was in lol.

all very nice designs and work. funny how you mention your daughter. mine has done really well in her design and art classes. crud, they keep almost everything she does for the hall until end of year. she has been watching me with interest as I do these. i wonder if she will be like yours and find a niche. those are great straps.

HI all, I have been perusing and even commenting a little here and there on the forums. I had been wanting to try some leatherwork for a long long time. Ran into a friend at work that has been at it for a while and kinda pushed me along. so I bought a small kit and playing with cutting, stamping, and just the basics. these forums are simply filled with awesome help and unbelievable qualities of work on could only aspire to. I work a second shift, and a couple hours from home and travel there on weekends most times, so my time is pretty limited. but, the tools dont fade and its always something you can do parts of here and there so thats not really a problem. I see all the hellos from Oregon. we just moved from there to SC last year, its a pretty place. lived there 20ish years. but needed to get back to family and some warm water lol. I dont have specifics as far as direction. I love the way the tooling looks. I probably will move towards, motorcycle gear and wall art carvings. but first I have a few little sheaths and things to make, just gotta get some decent leather and snaps and .....stuff, I can see you always need more stuff. I think lacing and stitching will be the hard thing for me. I do have a forum question. I have been part of a handful of art forums, and usually there is a "subscribe" button, so you can view topics you have either been watching or commented on. I cant seem to find that short of having an email sent everytime someone comments, which I would rather not do. I guess I could peruse the forums and just see which button show I have visited that topic. but I am betting I just missed the button that lets me find the posts, I have responded on. any idea? Let me just thanks all you for your help already. Bob

well Im totally new. so new all I have done is practics. the funny thing is, I was planning on making one of these as my first little project so it caught my eye. I like the design of the stamp. all I have seen for weaving says yeah, scribe you a light line first and alternate on either side of the line. but you will find much more experience here then me to find that right solution. I would say that, I probably would have done the stamping prior to assembly. then if you muff, you can get another piece. my design is going to be alittle different, but I got go get some real leather. the cheat scraps I been using quality wise isnt very good, but its a start.

I couldnt believe this was only 6 1/2 hours of work. the stamping looks longer. as a real noob. I got a couple questions if you care to respond, one already asked. the scallops around the center. they are so clean and sharp, how did you do that? another is, the acorns. the decorative cuts in the middle seem to me to have a bevel on both sides of the cut. so far from little I have seen you dont get that with a normal swivel knife. is there a specific blade you use to get that effect? you certainly didnt bevel every single one of those cuts. in any case, how could mom not love something so nicely done regardless of speed.