Clay

I would like to say thank you to all of the members who took last months challenge. There were some really nice pieces presented. Congratulations to carr52 who is the randomly drawn winner of the ASB Round knife provided by Rapid City Tandy Leather Factory. carr52 I will send you a pm to get your info, If you dont get it send it to me so that I can get your knife on its way. This months challenge will be anounced shortly. ClayM.

Wow, we are off to a great start on this challenge. These are examples of exactly what I was hoping to see. Leatheroo and ferret great job!!! Thanks!!!!! ClayM.

Here in the US, July is a patriotic time of the year. We celebrate our heritage with fireworks and barbecue. We think of special images like the Bald Eagle, the Statue Of Liberty, and Mt. Rushmore. So for this months challenge I challenge you to tool in leather that which celebrates the heritage of your home land. LW has members from all over the globe and it will be great to see all of the wonderfull and patriotic items our members can show. As an added incentive to take the challenge, one member who posts a piece for the challenge will be randomly drawn to win an Al Stohlman Brand Round Knife donated by the Rapid City Tandy Leather Factory Store. Good Luck I am looking forward to this challenge ClayM.

When I joined LW I was not quick witted enough to think up a cool nick name. So I am Clay. Clay is the name I go by but it is actually my middle name only my mom and sister call me by my given first name and they are the only ones who don't get yelled at if they do.. As I have grown I am less bothered by my given name but it is too late to change back now, I have also been known by the alias Bert from the early episodes of the Bert and Ernie Show withe my good friend ClayB being Ernie... ClayM.

Bruce, Very nice!! I am very impressed with what you came up with!!!I like the rope look and have never been very good at it. I am trying to remember if you have done a demo here on how you do the rope stamping. If you have it would be cool to see it again. (hint hint) ClayM.

Brent, Great job on the tooling. Gotta do something about the turbo tho... LOL Thanks for taking the challenge!!! ClayM.

Well I am sure that there is a simple explanation on the way that this is done it is way above my head and I am a tall guy!! LOL I tried cuting out a washer of leather and streaching it out but the problem I had was making the outside edge shrink to matche the inside edge. Hmmmmmmm. ClayM. Just a second here, I think I figured it out. The packers skinned the cow with out cutting the hide they just turned it inside out and then the tanners tanned it with out cutting it into sides or spliting it, then when Peter got the hide it was a big vegetanned cow balloon, the tanning process had some how shrunk it like the canibals in the jungles do with the little heads with the eyes and mouths sewn shut, so all Peter had to do was cut the legs off and cut them into rings.......Think I am on the right track here!!!!!

Crystal, That looks great!!! Great job on the stamping, and the lacing looks very nice. I like how you took the patern and made something usefull out of it. Thanks for taking the challenge and posting the pictures. ClayM.

Well it is finaly back. The monthly challenge for June is a celtic pattern. Just like the other challenges, you can tool this pattern in any way that you like, change it to fit and color it if you wish. This is going to be a fun pattern and a little "challenging". ClayM.

I am so there next year!!!!!! be on the look out...... ClayM.

Glad I dont have a carer as a chap maker... gona have to change my info deal that says I like to make chaps and chinks cause I ain't never gona (is that a triple double negative?) be that good!!! lol Great job on these by the way!!!!!! ClayM.

Timbo It is a Barry King stamp he has two or three sizes to pick from. I don't have his contact info but he is a member of this forum and I am sure if you sent him a pm he would let you know how much and where to send the money. ClayM.

Tim, I moved from Colo Springs last summer and there is a good group of leatherworkers in the area. Dale, joet, Yaklady, are among some of the memebers in the area. There are two great leather guilds, Pikes Peak Pounders and Columbine Leather Guild. Kurt is the manager of the TLF in Colo Springs, then you have Brian in Littleton, Violeta in Westminster and Dennis in Denver. All are great managers and will be more than happy to welcome you to the area and help you with your leather purchases. I worked with Kurt and he is a goof ball and has great stories. For saddle makers Bob Brenner is in Colo Springs and he also is a great guy. I am not sure but I think he does leathercraft lessons for a fee. ClayM.

I don't know how close it is to you but Jim Linnell will be in Norway in the fall. If you want the details I can get them for you. ClayM.

Johanna, You can do it!!! (said like the guy in the crowd in all of the Adam Sandler movies) Keep up the hard work I know you are strongenought to make it!!! I am there with ya, I am in week four of no chewing tobacco. Each day is easier than the one before. ClayM.

Hi all Jim gave a great class. The pattern was a buffalo done in the embossed 3-D style with some floral carving in the corner. The class was alot of fun an I am positive that they learned alot. The buffalo was stapmed and then pushed out from the back side with a ball modeler. Then it was filled in with a mixture of leather dust and rubber cement. This was allowed to dry ovenight. We then used a stiff cardboard and glued it to the back side of the leather to keep the dust mixture in place. We finished up the floral tooling and the detail work on the buffalo and the scenery behind it. Then this morning we followed along with Jim as he showed us his way of painting with acrylic paints. His attention to detail is amaizing. Enjoy the pictures...There are pictures of the class and of each of the students pieces in progress, some of Jims other work and a close up of my buffalo painted ClayM.

Dont forget the triplets and the two teen boys that occupy rooms in my house that would be great stamping rooms..... LOL!! ClayM.

The filler is a stamp that is used to fill in the lines on the shell. It also adds a degree of depth the the stamping. Hopefully you can see in this picture there is a filler in the first row if stamping in the first group and in the second line it is done in the fisrt part, these two show what it looks like with the filler and without the filler. Hope this helps ClayM. sorry bout the bad picture

Well, I got the carving finished and will pe puting on some oil and getting the other side done tomorow night. That one will just be the shell weave with the whatever you wanna call it shape and no floral. Then I will put on the liner and lace it up. I am thinking that I may use some 1/4 inch foam between the stiffener and the leather to make it a soft "squishy" cover. If I do that I will cut the foam to the same size as the square border then bevel cut it at a 45 and glue it in place. Thanks, ClayM.

Hey all, On the post I made about the album some, one suggested that the shell stamp would make great scales for a dragon. I was thinking about it and came up with this. I started by stamping out an area with various background stamps. Then over that I did the shell stamp and the filler. Makes very cool looking scales. Now if I ever have to carve a dragon I will have something to make it different. ClayM.

Freak, That is some strange stuff!!! lol I like the way the skull is suddenly there then it is gone if you look at a different part of the piece. This is cool!! Thanks for sharing!!! ClayM.

Thanks for the compliments everyone. I did not get to work on it tonight but hoefully I will tomorrow. To answer some of the questions, The back ground or basket stamping is a BK shell stamp, this can also be done with a veiner that has bee modified a bit. The stamping on the edges and the spine area is a M657 background stamp. It is the one with lines going this way and that across it. It has three sizes available. I like to use this stamp wto cover up marks that I accidently make like the lines from my pinkie fingernail. LOL Thanks again, ClayM.

Hey all, I have not been able to do much leatherwork lately but I started this and thought that I would share some pics. It is going to be a two piece photo album with chicago screws instead of a three ring spine to hold the album pages. Each piece is 11 3/4 by 12 1/2 inches and has gouges on the spine edge that are at 1 inch and 2 1/4 inches from edge. These lines will be the fold lines to hide the chicago screws. It will be lined with black smooth pig lining and will be laced around the edges. The tooling pattern is 8 by 10 inches and is done with a shell stamp and a "Sheridan Style" pattern that I drew. I am starting to get confident in drawing patterns but still need to work on it. The tooling should be finnished in a day orso and I will post more pics when done Thanks, ClayM.

Johanna, Like Bruce I never really smoked much but I was dipping 5 cans of snuff a week and I suddenly realzed one day that I was spending lots of money to make my self sick (Aprox $1300 per year!!). So I thought about it a while and slowly lowered my self to a couple of cans a week down to a can a week then I stopped. I am right with you though because it took a while and I am on my third week of "copenfreedom" Lol You can do it!! The thing that helped me was to just not think about it. do something else. ClayM.

Hilly, I had a customer with a similar problem, they sprayed it lighty with water and alcohol mixed 50/50 and then ironed it from the flesh side. Iron set at low heat. I was a little skeptical but they swore that it worked. I think thie iron would be a little dangerous. But the water alcohol mix seems like it could help and mayby just use something heaqvy to press it down. Hopefully someone else has a better idea lol ClayM.