WinterBear

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.

Whoops! My apologies. The name is BearMan, not Bearman and it's BearMan and Beary that do the burnishers. Well, there's egg on my face.

Also, what wood is your burnisher? Bearman and Spinner use cocobolo. There's a natural oil in cocobolo that seems to help prevent binding, and it is a very hard wood--the burnishers I have from Spinner (Bearman makes them now) are nearly glass smooth and very dense, but even then can get hot enough to scorch the leather if my rpm is too high on the dremel.

Well nuts. Seems the box of snaps I sent isn't going to get to you. It's been tracked to the Memphis sort center, where it's been at for a week now, and still not marked as leaving the center or delivered. I think they lost it.

You aren't trying to work on it with it on the ground like that are you? You'll ruin your back, and you're likely to tear if you hit a weak spot with your full body weight on your blade. I agree with DoubleBarP. Do get or make a fleshing board, so you can raise the hide up to where you can stand up and work. You'll have more control and be able to accomplish more without accidentally putting holes in the hide. And find your local taxidermists and trappers. Some of these links or similar resources might help: A homemade fleshing board from PVC pipe: http://www.taxidermy.net/forum/index.php?topic=136184.0 http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/ http://www.primitiveways.com/index.html

So why not just tool shotgun shell butts and primers? A could of circular punches in the right sizes can be used to mark the end and the primer, the lettering can be done with a filigree blade, a modeling tool, or a small blade. Paint them black with a wash of light red-brown, then dry brush silver and copper on the raised portions?

What about "bullet conchos" chancey? They look like half a bullet. Or the shotgun shell concho, that looks like the primer end. I could get some measurements for you to see what the height is from the back to the front along the screw and you could decide if they'd make things too "fat" to fit in the case. You could always have a matching guitar strap later, with bullet loops and real (dud) "bullets" in the loops if you wanted to carry the theme forward as well.

Will do. I'll send ya an offer this evening or tomorrow.

I might be interested in the extra hame tips-- How much would you want for them?

Nice! Those would be handy. Could have used the one on the right myself yesterday. How is beavertail to work? I've been thinking of getting some vegtan tail, but haven't had the time to plan the project yet.

I also look for inspiration from woodcuts, cloisonne, relief and bas relief, chip carving, scroll saw and intarsia patterns, stained glass, linocuts (linoleum block prints), ink painting... A lot of the handcrafted arts can take inspiration from other arts.

I find them in fabric stores or hobby stores with a fabric or sewing notions section. Handcock Fabrics, JoAnn Fabrics, Ralph's, Michael's, and Hobby Lobby might be good places to try. There are notion eyelets and eyelets for scrapbooking. You'll want the notion type, which is meant for use in fabrics and shoes. Notion eyelets are sometimes used for scrapbooking, but scrapbooking eyelets are mostly not going to be useful in anything but paper--they are just too short and distort too easily. http://www.hancockfabrics.com/search.htm?profile=&path=c%3a537268~~c%3a537269&numHits=24&query=eyelet&y=0&x=0 You can also try to look for small assorted color grommets at these stores. Grommets have an advantage over eyelets in that both sides would be finished and there is a flange on both sides, which helps prevent the fastener from pulling out if snagged.

I'll be wandering along shortly as well. I have 4 Antique/Vintage Singers.

Talked to my cousin today, he said he thought the City Electric Shoe Shop in Gallup had a box or three of mismatched letter stamps they sold by the piece. Might be somewhere to call if you have no luck elsewhere. five-o-five eight-6-3 five-2-five-2