electrathon

I would keep it all similar but enlarge the flower about 15%. Let the flower overlap the veins and stems a little. Aaron

Tandy's best leather is usable. As something to learn on, it is OK. There are many on here that know way more about this than I do, that can tell you other vendors. I generally buy Herman Oak leather. There is a local store that carries it. Kevin (Springfield Leather) is on here and has been very helpfull, try talking to him. Aaron

You did well. The change I would make is to enlarge the flower a little. It is small in proportion to the stems. Try to "fill" in the picture as much as you can. The goal is to minimize background and fill with flowers, stems, leaves.

I wanted the insert to the kit. Tandy sells some inserts without the outter pieces, but only on a few items. Inserts are one if the hardest things to make and have the item look "factory" and not home made. The leather that is included with the kits is the worst of the worst. Newcomers can easily be discouraged from continuing after dealing with the frustration of carving cardboard and not quality leather (I do not buy leahter from Tandy either, it is a shame).

You have just described my life... if I could limit things to only 6 unfinished projects. This goes way beyond leather. Aaron

Are there and pics or impression sheets of what they make? Is this something that we all can get involved in and Kevin will step up and become then US supplier?

Yes, it is similar but narrower than a pear shader. It is used in Sheridan instead of a pear shader.

I would start with bevelers and or a thumbprint. Aaron

Bee Natural RTC is a good product. Just make sure that when you put it on do not be stingy. Apply a wet coat fast, then smooth it out. When it starts getting sticky, leave it alone. Use two coats. Let it dry. For a non-toxic product, it is very durable.

Nice design. Awsome stamping (especially for a first). Learn to double loop lace and it would be perfect. Aaron

Harbor Freight has on that works well and goes on sale for half that. I have one I have used for 2 years powdercoating and I am very happy with it.

BearMan, Your work looks great. I personally really dislike the look of bargrounders, so I never use them. That pattern is one of my favorite patterns that Tandy used to have. You did it justice. Aaron

Not sure about Walmart, but it is only a semi-specialty item. You should be able to find it without too much trouble. On another note, photocopiers arel laser. Just do not use an inkjet off of your home computer (the inks will run when they get wet).

Perfect example of people choosing not to comply. I have been told that people think that if they title something "look here" that more will look then if it is titled with something like "how do I tool flowers". It is increadibly frustrating to try to search for an old post when they have a generic label, but the attaitude of it all being about me always prevails.

I photocopy the patterns onto transparancy paper (like used for overhead projectors) WITH A LASER PRINTER! They are tough, can be used over and are totally clear so you can see what you have done.

Talk about starting the learning process at the top! Chan is both a great teacher and great at leatherwork. Aaron

Praise from one of the masters, very cool!

Yes, the antique is only to fill in the low spots, it is not to color the whole piece. It looks good what you did.

Very good on the lacing.

Practice on something you do not care about first. If you do not have a good coat of finish on the leather, you will have an icky dirty looking mess. If you do it correctly, it will highlite all of the crevaces and it will be pretty.

I am open to critique here is anyone else wants to chime in. Aaron

Tom, Did you make both ot these today? It seems to take me way longer than that to complete anything! Not sure of the size of the finished piece, but I made a card holder for a female friend similar to this so she would have a mini-wallet. She would use it when she did not want to have to carry her purse. Lacing: The slots look better than the round holes. Move down a size in the spades on the punch or move up on the lacing thickness. It will "fill" the holes better and there will be less space between the laces. Notice the spot 5 holes from the top left in the 2nd to the last pic where you joined the splice. When you work your way around to the starting point undo a couple stiches of lacing. This will move you to a place where the taper on the loops are consistant. You will get a flawless transition that way. I also tend to adjust each lace as I am doing it to keep the tension consistant and the lacing laying perfectly straight along to top of the leather. Aaron

I am rather embarased by some of the responses here too. Badger is spot on. Noah, I thought of this last night. Would it be an option if you found/used salvage leather? Leather that was reused from other projects or was bought at a thrift store? A purse made in the 70's might have a piece of usable leather on it. Things like that. Aaron

The quality of the Crafttools is very low. Few of them are shaped properly to do the job they were origionally designed to do. The unfortionate part is that they have gotten bigger over the years, making it impossible to do fine or intricate tooling. The chrome also smooths out the impressions that the tool is making. Many people resort to regrinding the tools to be the proper size, this is where the chrome really is a problem. Chrome plating is very hard. the metal the Crafttools are made from is very soft. So, they are easy to reshape, once the chrome is gone. The trouble is that it is tough to remove a hard coating that is stuck to a soft underlayer (think of it like trying to peal a hard boiled egg that has stuck to the white.

When you get to the corner do the same thing as you are doing but double hit the 3 holes on your corner. Think of it like you are moving forward, just overlap. The trick with the two colors is when you are coming around the last corner count forward to make sure that the two tone pattern will meet corectly on the last stitch. If is does not, simply add an extra double hit on the final corner hole. What you have done so far looks great!