Ladykahu

Hi FIrstly I am new to leatherworking, but have used natural plant dies for years for my other textile arts. I have a book "Dyes from Plants of australia and New Zealand" by Joyce Lloyd Quoted directly from the book Walnut English It is not necessary to use a mordant when dyeing with walnut as it is a substantive dye. From the bark and from the green case surrounding the ripening nuts are obtained good browns. The green skins with mordants produce: Acetic acid - green -gold Iron - grey-beige Chrome - golden brown. She recommends using an enamal pot for brewing the dye in. She also says to make sure you make enough in one go for the project you are working on, as no two batches will be the same because you are using a natural product and even if you measure the same amount natural influences will have affected the chemical make up of the 'dye' product. Basically you chuck it in a pot and stew it slowly until you get the colour you want. I used to do a lot of mine on a coal range and just damp it down over night so it 'stewed' all night. Don't boil it though, just a gentle simmer. then strain and use. Because I was dyeing wool and fabric I used to put the wool in with the dye and simmer for half an hour to make sure it fixed, but that won't work with leather, so I guess you have to start with a slightly darker colour. Hope that makes sense Natalie

This short youtube vid shows how to use on... Natalie

Get yourself some sort of dress makers dummy, or make a duct tape model of whomever the armour is for, that way you have something to wet form the leather over for the rounded shape, and also something to hang it on to check it looks ok on. Natalie

New groovers also come with a layer of waxy stuff on them. Make sure you peel this off or they don't work look carefully for any inside the little hole, its easy to miss a bit Natalie

Very nice bags! Seeing your work is inspiring me to make a messenger type bag for myself Any chance of a photo of how the catch works? I haven't seen one like that before Thanks Natalie

I am a complete newbie, so hopefully someone with real knowledge will answer properly, but I did watch a video on the tandy web site that showed how to make a sharpener for a beveler, might point you in the right direction Natalie

If you look up someone who supplies copperfoil for leadlighting, they will have little bottle of 'patina' for sale that will do the trick, you can get black or blue green pre mix stuff Natalie

I have just brought from england 'making leather cases volumes 1,2 and 3, but they haven't arrived yet. There is a motorcycle pak on ebay, and I am wondering if its worth getting, or does it just cover the same material that I will find in the leather cases? Could someone that has seen both give me an opinion? thanks Natalie

Hi I have used these people's patterns in the past for costume stuff I have had to make. some of them are really simple, but others appear to be fairly accurate from a historical perspective http://www.folkwear.com/frontier.html Not sure if something there might work for you Natalie

Wow! I really like it Who knew our heart rate changed that much doing similar tasks.. mind you thinking about it.. mine probably goes up when I am cutting, always afraid I will make a mistake. thanks for posting this and its good to see a leatherworker on show in such a prestigious place :-) Natalie

Out of curiosity Did you just use 'normal' printer settings or did you go for one of the more 'saturated' settings? I know when I have printed directly onto fabric I always have to play a bit to get the right amount of ink saturation, so presumably if you over saturated the paper, more would come off on the leather? and, I wonder if other paper types would be better or worse? thinking glossy, or super matt, or even overhead projector film? Natalie

By the middle x I would take the leaf past the stem downwards just a little bit, the empty space doesn't look right nor does the leaf ending under the stem, its to blunt a leaf ending New to leatherwork, but I do lots of other artwork so get flow and design :-) Natalie

I do a bit of other textile art (thats whats led me to leatherworking) and have also tried the bratz doll face as a mold. they are just to pointy faced for my liking, and lacking in detail. I ended up using some clay molds similar to these (scroll down a little ways to find the faces) http://shadesofclay.com/products/Tools/Molds/Molds.htm I then used a cheap air drying clay to make several that I 'tweaked' a little as my forms for molding felt.. so I would presume the same would work for leather. ebay often had the same molds come up quite cheaply. I just varnished the air clay to waterproof it a little, as at that small size using glad wrap (not sure what the american term is for the thin food film?) gave me to many wrinkles. Natalie

Hi When you do find the australian substitute, could you post its name up here please? I am also looking as I am in Melb. Cheers Natalie

Hi all This is my first post, I am just starting out with leather work, but have been a textile artist for many years. I want to do a celtic pattern on a case I am making, but am having trouble with the beveling order. I have done quite a bit of searching but can't seem to find any prior posts on tooling order specifically for celtic work. Do I bevel the inner ribbon cross overs, tool the inner background amongst the knot, then bevel the outside edge of the knot? or? I have tried several practice pieces but don't seem to get them to look right. The underneath ribbons seem to vanish into the outside beveling no matter what I do. Hoping someone who has it mastered can point me in the right direction, or at least at a thread that has already answered it! Thanks Natalie