WinterBear

Ooh, thanks. I couldn't get the profile page to load. Gonna go gawp.

So you going to post us a link to your etsy store?

Argh, I hate it when a class degenerates into an exhibition of yard apes. You did what you had to. Sometimes the best way to get the point across is to end the class. And even if the point isn't gotten across, sometimes it has to end before someone gets hurt or the tools or facilities are destroyed. Were your stamps and tools badly damaged from the abuse? I'm not going to even ask about the arrows--I'm sure a lot were shattered.

benlilly has some great advice. You can also use your window or outdoor light with two other cheap items that will help with the glare. Neither item shows in the final picture, they just help distribute the light. 1) Glue or sew a piece of tightly-woven white cloth (such as a piece of sheet, broadcloth, or even a piece of white unprinted tyvek) onto a frame of some sort. You want the fabric taut, unwrinkled, and light should shine diffusely through without any shadows. You can place this frame between the sunlight (or a separate camera flash unit) to soften and diffuse the glare during a sunny day. 2) Get a piece of white cardboard and paint one side black. You use the white side to reflect light on the opposite side of your item to lighten shadows. It can help concentrate light if it's just a little too overcast. If it is a bright day, the black side can be used to "eat" some light and reduce the overall lighting. You can use your posterboard to bounce light from a lamp to augment light a project indoors as well. You can get fancier, and make frames that fold and collapse, or that have pegs that allow you to poke them in the ground, or make diffusion covers for your camera, you can even get strips of gold and silver mylar glued to a board to change the quality of the reflected light (usually gold mylar for warmth and portraits, silver for technical photos, a mix of alternating strips for a moderate balance). You might consider making a photobox as well. I think there are some instructions on this site, and on photographer's forums as well. A couple of lamps with full-spectrum lights and a photobox can give really good photos.

Spew in this instance means the wax used in the preparation of some hides has worked out to the surface of the leather, leaving a dull white coating on the leather.

Springfield would probably be a good place to start. They have ostrich shin, ostrich whole hides, ostrich scrap, some stingray, black frog, scrap exotics, caiman, some sea snake and python, rattlesnake, off-white cobra, a cognac color elephant, and will sometimes have shark. They often have odds and ends that are too few to wind up on their online store, so it's a good idea to give them a call and see what else they have. http://springfieldleather.com/ ST Leather has rattlesnake, frog, shark, sea snake and other snakes, python, American alligator, ostrich hide, croc backstraps, whip snake, cobra, lizard, frog, and stingray. http://stleather.com/

I can offer these: http://1.bp.blogspot...00/IMG_5766.JPG http://hidden-prairi...hp?topic=1339.0 Also, the homepage of thecoonskincap (http://thecoonskincap.com/) has three-step-by-step videos of the hat or a similar hat made from the same or similar pattern as the one in the second link there. Ugh, bad video link. Try here instead: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-263320978690588548 Looks like only the first part is available anymore. Oh well, it at least shows some pretty good tips.

Came out beautiful. Your AC tech is going to have to slap a lot of fingers because everybody is going to want to touch.

Well shoot. Ok, Plan B? I'll see if I can't get a hold of someone I know that does vector and logo work and see how much he would charge to make a vector of your desired logo (rather than a full alphabet, which might prove too costly).

Well, it's not stitched yet, and when it is stitched, the thread will be part of the design and a contrasting color. Those marks are where the stitching will be, and where I've marked the stitching holes. I didn't use a groover to mark the stitch lines as I didn't want to remove any of the grain and potentially weaken the thin parts, like the base of the ears and the legs, so the stitch lines are just beveled in. It is also a very thick piece of leather, and was lightly hammered and well burnished before being cut out to compress the grain and make it tougher.

It will be hand stitched. Glue wouldn't be as aesthetically pleasing as a contrasting stitch, plus I tend to always make a mess with glue. I'll show it as it progresses, but it will be a long wait I'm afraid. Much of my "free" time is eaten up by Scouts and projects in the summer, so I don't get to do much with leather.

These are fantastic. I liked the first set, and then I saw where you had redone them, and they are even better. Will you finish these into a Bible cover or something similar?

I agree with sandycreek now that I see the end. A setter for fasteners of some sort. The end of that thing looks like one of these snap setters: http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/department/Tools/Setters-Anvils/8105-00.aspx

Looks something like a screw-punch? Jewelers and some hobbyists use something similar to punch small holes in thin metal (usually brass, copper, and silver). http://www.craftcritique.com/2010/08/eurotool-metal-screw-punch.html

I know of one, but it's a True Type Font. It is actually from pictures of horseshoes that were scanned in and altered. You can see it here: http://www.artistmike.com/fonts/HorseShoeFont01.html

Nope. The lion is an applique quilt, primarily cotton, with some cotton-poly blend fabrics and cotton batting. It might have been simpler to make in leather. I wouldn't have had to satin stitch all of those bloody edges or quilt the hair lines into the mane!

But the Lion isn't leather.

Are you attaching them to the post after uploading and before submitting the post?

Yeah, well, it might help things if I could actually spell worth a hoot tonight. You might be waiting a good long time to see this notebook finished with the way my schedule seems to be lately.

Double C convinced me to come and post this here. It's a small piece of inlaid overlay for a notebook cover I am working on for myself as time allows. The jackrabbit is a fairly common symbol of traditional and modern pottery in the 4-Corners region. It ranges from a very simple outline to elaborately speckled and striped variations. I purposely kept the outline a little blocky to imply pottery sherds. The red and black colors are meant to imitate the burnished red oxide slip and the black burnished pots, such as those called "Santa Clara" pots. The brown is the color of some detail work used on the white painted pots. The black around the edges o the brown portion is similar to the char a more traditionally fired pot would show. Jackrabbit is 8-9 oz veg-tan cow, dyed orange then overdyed with Ecoflow scarlet mixed with a little blue to acieve the shade I wanted. The underlay of blue black for the crescent and the eye is 3-4 cow skived thin after dying. Dye was the Tandy blue mixed with emerald green and burnished into the leather until the leather turned glossy. For the body inlay, thin tooling pigskin was oiled with neatsfoot and darkened around the edges with a little black soot collected from a candle and mixed with neatsfoot. Following a burnishing to remove any extra dye or oil, the jackrabbit was sealed with 3 thin coats or Fiebings Tan Coat.

Ok, so line art rather than tooling. Still great. But it will still look different after antiquing.

Let's see if it will let me post today-- I really like how Sienna is staring off at something she sees and the overall shape of this. I can't wait to see it finished.

Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear in what I meant. Yesterday was rough, and my brain isn't up to speed. I meant that maybe the thymol crystals could be stored with dry leather to prevent spore growth? Maybe you could just spray Listerine and water mix on the leather and allow it to dry on the leather before the leather is stored.

I was poking around last week and ready some old threads when I came across this one post. Art suggested Thymol crystals to control mildew when dealing with cased leather. It might work for storage too. Maybe you can store the leather in a fiberboard box or drum (to keep the pests out and to allow the leather to breathe, and place they Thymol crystals in the case to ward of mold and mildew. Art would be a good person to ask about this.

I use the poundo board, which is on top of a wooden cutting board made from endgrain wood. If I punch through, it marks up the poundo and saves my edge. I haven't yet hit it hard enough to drive it through the poundo and into the block though. And when I drive into the poundo, it is easy to wrench the tool off/out. I've also heard of several people using the end grain of a post or section of log too.