Ladykahu

Lots of information! thanks Helmut :-) Natalie

I put a vote in for using cute pdf writer as well. I am a computer technician at a middle sized college, and we have this installed on all our 120 staff computers (teachers are not the smartest people at times!) and even the complete technophobes manage to use it ok. Natalie

If Handstitched doesn't want to sell you toad skins, they are available from Birdsall http://birdsall-leather.com.au/home.php?cat=97 I buy a bit of stuff from them and they are good to deal with.. but I am in Australia as well. Natalie

You might need a mordant to really make the colour stick. When dying fabric in the past I have boiled it for 30 mins.. not really an option for leather. Natalie

This lady does some amazing video's that explain the 'maths' in a way I could understand http://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart?ob=0&feature=results_main#p/u/9/ahXIMUkSXX0 I love her elephants one too!!! Natalie

I had the project upside down :-( Worked until 1am last night and am at the same point I was on a new one today! Once I finish I will look for border idea's to re-use the one I did the wrong way round. Natalie

So... I am working on a custom order Journal cover (my first from doing the Torquay market!) for this lady, whom I know is a little fussy by the way she was unhappy with an 'uneven' dye finish on my ready made for market cover (actually I had deliberately been going for a water ripple dye affect as its got a dragonfly print on the front). I had got the dye even and the inner lining and sleeves in glued in place, trimmed, put my makers mark on and was just getting ready to transfer the print when I realised I had put my mark on upside down! (well on the front rather than the back, so upside down when the journal is the right way round) BAH!!!!! time to start over.. and its supposed to be finished this weekend! its not a total loss, I think I will try incorporating the makers mark into a border on the front and do a different print to add to my collection I have for sale at the market. So very glad I got time to make it into lefflers leather this week to buy a new hide though.. Natalie

Ok.. so I don't wanna know how you know what dried saliva smells like! But you could try giving it a rub with some beeswax to seal it and hide the smell. or some other beeswax based leather conditioner. Natalie

I would check out embroider supply places and look for 'couching' thread. I have a roll that is made of some super pliable metal feeling stuff coated with gold, its very strong and would spin up ok into a thicker thread. I would take a picture but its in storage as I am trying to sell the house! half my craft room is in storage.. I miss it :-( http://www.berlinembroidery.com/goldworkthreads1.htm#japanthreads is an example Natalie

Love the shades of pearlesense on the white one, very nicely done! Natalie

You could always follow your fleur de lis pattern through and carve one on a separate bit of leather and then stitch it onto the front? the bag is looking very good, I hope when I eventually get the courage to make my first big bag it looks half as good! You could also maybe crease the edges, it might help to make the flap look more 'finished' Natalie

Ray, sent you a message privately :-) Natalie

My business name is LadyKahu Designs. Kahu is maori for hawk, and where I grew up in New Zealand I loved watching them soar around the hills as a kid. LadyHawk is a favourite movie of mine. I went with 'designs' as it was generic and started using it when I made leadlight windows back in NZ, then again when I started making and selling garden statues here in aus.. and it works for leather as well :-) Natalie

Ray, I think I might have one for you. I have a mixed set of camo's I got second hand.. and one that is a different more golden colour than the others which I believe is older. But I can't tell if its a C453 or a C458 Could you give me a measurement across the smaller curve ? If its the right number... its yours. I haven't used it in a year and suspect I never will. Natalie

I have used water erasable markers for sewing (cloth, not leather) for quite a few years. Don't leave the work anywhere sun can get to it, or it will leave a yellow residue on your work. also, wipe it off as soon as possible for the same reason. I stopped using it on muslin and silk because it would appear to vanish.. then after a few months yellow lines would appear. Didn't seem to happen so much on cotton and never on synthetic fabrics. No idea how it reacts with leather, ok I guess if Bob Klenda is using it.. just thought I would add in my experience with the pens. Natalie

Hi Terry /wave from Melb. Can I ask a question please... how do you stop your leather from molding in the humidity? I am planning a 6 month trip up the east coast and around the top in a bus and am worried that my leather will have issues with humidity. Planning on doing craft fairs while travelling. Cheers Natalie

a mulga is either a tree or a snake.. depending on the slang of your area I have been playing with some leaf barrettes, and smaller leaf pendants and they seemed to sell ok. fairly quick to make and if you go for a leaf with crinkly edges ... no burnishing :-) just skiving and wet molding Natalie

Perfect! just the idea I needed for traveling in my bus this year with all my leatherwork tools! I had been racking my brains for a decent way of storing and travelling with them that was light weight. Natalie

I also use this method, but put my pictures into a publisher file so I can resize them and save for later use. I lay a slightly larger than screen size piece of clear hard plastic over my screen then tape my velium to that. This prevents damage to the screen, but still lets full light and image through. One note on using any LCD monitors.. make sure you only ever press LIGHTLY on the screen. LCD stands for liquid crystal.. and the screens are made up of tiny little pyramids of liquid, and if you push to hard you can pop the crystals which will leave you with little pink spots permanently on your monitor. Natalie

I had similar issues from the sounds of it as you are having, I found that I was putting TO much glue on each side. I now use two strips of leather glued together (an off cut) thats a good solid 1cm square to scrape the glue , and I really do mean scrape! onto each side. I get much better 'stickage' with the really thin layer than I did when I applied it to thickly. I then squash it down well with either my hand or a handle of some sort, then leave it under some heavy books for a few hours. Then overnight before I touch it again. I am no expert.. still working out this stuff for myself but I have better results lately with this method. Natalie

I use butchers paper for practice, then either a heavy weight artists paper (I scored several large artist pads for free) or for really long term patterns I use the cheap $2 shop plastic cutting boards Natalie

Wow! I just love your bags.. and look forward to you posting pictures of them :-) How are you getting the celtic stamps to be black? is it just a really fine paintbrush or?? Natalie