tg lucas

that is so cool, i love the stone setting, any tips for those of us that would like to try that too?

wow those are really nice and almost too pretty to use, somebody is going to really proud to have those

very nice, i love the stuff bag top to it, should keep a lot of rain out and looks really great

wow that is totally cool, tells us how you did it!

hunter what is the name of that stuff? does it work in ink jet printers? going to call ron on monday to see if i can get some of it

the problem with leather is it like painting on a sponge, the more you load into the brush, the wider the spread will be on the leather, sometimes you can make a small groove to "hold" the color but that depends on the application, also i try to make sure my leather is dry when i do small details due to the capillary action of the leather.

i use a smaller brush, sometimes i even trim to only 10 hairs and make sure the brush is not loaded

very cool, i like it

ronflmao....attention whore!!! Ok which of us artists are not?

Hey maybe this guy has hit on a great point....lets just ship all the hippies to China?

hey john send me an email addy and i will send you the illustrator file and that way you can change the font to whatever you want, typing on an arc is one of the tricky ones in illustrator because of all the options

hey john will have a little time available tonight as i start a new design, let me know what you are looking for and i can fix you up

that is sweet!!!!!

Use a drill press if you have one so that your angle and depth stay consistent. Also mark out your hole positions prior to any drilling and keep in mind that tools vary on shaft diameter even within the Tandy/Craftool line.

Just a correction, the documentary "The Cove" actually was filmed in Japan.

Very nice, I like them both just dont let my wife see them. She has just about wore out the pair I made her, lol. I might suggest finishing the edges as she complained that until she wore them awhile the edges were a little rough on her heel straps.

That is really nice work and that blue really pops, great job!

Oh one more thing, lol. If you decide to airbrush, make sure you make a spray box out of something like a large cardboard box. It will keep the overspray way down and wont get you killed by your wife from stray splatters getting on something that it was not supposed to get on.

i have a Paasche, a Badger and several Central Pneumatics(HF), I use the harbors to apply my finishes because if something happens while i am working and get called away before i can clean it, a $14 airbrush loss doesnt hurt anywhere near like replacing my more expensive brushes(yeah, it happened once). A little adjusting and practice will make the HF work just fine for edge dyeing and finishes but i prefer my other brushes if I am going to be doing a lot of fine detail. I use a cheaper 20 year old Craftsman diaphragm compressor to fill up my portable 5 gallon air tank (used to use an old tire) fitted with a regulator and moisture trap and another filter that attaches to my airbrushes and it works just great. You can get the Deluxe Airbrush Kit, the tank and regulator for less than $50 right now at Harbor Freight. They have a complete set for $89 which includes a small compressor but diaphragm compressors have a tendency to "pulse" the air and I dont like that but a lot of my friends never even seem to notice the "pulse", that is why i use the tank, smoother flow of air for me. You could also use the little cans of air from places like Hobby Lobby but that gets expensive over time if you start to use it much and they "ice" up quickly and always seem to run out of pressure before I am done. Do yourself a favor as there are many exceptional artists on this site that have way more experience using airbrushes on leather, read their posts and decide for yourself what is best for your budget and style of anticipated use and it goes a long way to making it a better experience in developing your skill. Oh one last thing, always...always use a piece of scrap or paper to test your brush out each time you use it. It is very east to accidently change your brush adjustments and screw up by getting in a hurry.

you might try applying it with an air brush. light coats and let dry. i was getting a terrible pickup of color when i did my finishing no matter how long i let it dry or how much i buffed it. had the problem with both water and spirit based dyes and it would often bleed over onto other colors and especially my acrylic paints, usually i only use white and that is not the place to get any tint. airbrushing my finishes on eliminated all of that streaking, color pickup and transfer.

Spinner your side covers rock!

To start out you cant beat cheap especially when it delivers. The previous posts are right though as you get better you will expect more from your tools but do yourself a favor get a decent pulseless air source or compressor to start out with. No matter how good your gun or brush is a pulsing air source will screw up your best efforts. I used an old tire for years because my cheap compressor pulsed. And make sure you clean that brush up good every time or you will regret it.

well those look really nice, good job!