Sylvia

I admit that Tandy isn't for everyone.... but then again not everyone has the budget to go spend $350 on one side of excellent tooling leather especially when they are just starting out. Nice analogy btw.

LOL I never took a painting class but I did take Ceramics. You know the class where you use the potter's wheel and spin up (hopefully) a vase or bowl? I really enjoyed that class even without the ipod. Very zen spinning up clay like that. I still use some of the bowls, cups and what not, I made in that class.

I'll try to find it for you. A member here "Spinner" did a partial tutorial on painting leather... then he got busy and the rest has been delayed. Maybe that would give you some ideas. Man that took way too long to find ..... but here it is. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=35955 Hope that helps. S

LOL yep, I got mine!

I spent a good deal of time writing Tandy about their foreign made tools and the poor quality of the materials in the kits. I think if more of us grew a pair and wrote a leather "strongly urging" them to bring back quality to their kits and tools and jobs to the USA, we might be able to affect a change at Tandy. just my thoughts. Funny you say that about "neatsfoot oil" I ran all over this valley near Boise, ID and was never able to find Pure Neatsfoot oil. Most places didn't have it at all... and the only thing they had was a boot dressing paste stuff. I even looked at farm stores and found nada.

Sounds like you got an awesome deal on those. The transparencies for laser printers is an interesting idea. I may have to dig around in my office supplies to see if I have some of those already.

Well, I guess they think it's like you are asking for their grandma's cherry pie recipe. Some folks keep stuff very close to their vests for fear they will lose their buyers to another. It's a shame really.... they miss out on a very good collaborator and an extra pair of hands if they ever need help.

That's probably wise... I would take a few pictures to have on hand and call around to find someone. Then you could email pictures before you go hauling them off to Minneapolis. There is no telling what cold weather (even inside of a car) could do to these drums. Err on the safe side and do most of the leg work via the phone and email.

The best (and least expensive) place I've found for Angelus leather paint is http://www.dharmatrading.com. Angelus gives some instruction on what to do... but typically you need a deglazer to remove finishes. If you plan on ordering several colors this is the best way to go even with paying for shipping. Dharma rocks and I highly recommend them. The trouble I see with some horse tack is that it's made from oiled leather. Acrylic based paints won't stick to that. I would think "roughing" the leather with even fine sand paper would spoil the smoothness of the leather and show through your acrylics. Most leather painters thin their paints and use an air brush (from what I've seen and read) However others use thinned paints with a brush and lay several thin coats on.

Here's that book the one poster recommended. Dictionary of Leather-Working Tools, C.1700-1950: And the Tools of Allied Trades by R. A. Salaman http://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Leather-Working-Tools-C-1700-1950/dp/1879335727

I'm reticent about offering ideas because of the nature of these drums. My advice would be to contact a professional restoration person or a museum curator and ask advice. The reason I feel this way is because your item is 45+ years old, made of exotic skin (potentially) and you have provenance. If as I suspect they are worth a good amount, it would be horrendous if you screw them up by improper restoration attempts.

Does this really work?

I tried this with angelus spirit dyes... looked orange in the bottle, rubs, buffs off as orange... the the color of the leather is almost a burgundy-brownish color.

I had a similar problem with "3D" stamps. I found that if it's cased well and I take the time to rock the stamp in the four cardinal directions I get a better impression.

<coffee spew> ha ha ha ha ha!

Did you win your auction?

oh! ha ha ha ha! Yep forgot the link http://www.frank-brushes.de/en/pschuh/inforau.html

Read this to understand a bit more about leather. To my understanding that a hide is split in order to thin the leather to a uniform thickness across the hide.. You don't say if your "scrap" bag was vegetable tanned or not.

LOL you buy the canvas and send it to me I'll make you several for twice it's value. Seriously though, I'd have to see the seam on this but it looks like a tube with draw strings on both ends. Extremely easy to make, even if it has a lapped seam.

The only thing that I have noticed about mine is that as you work the blade slides deeper into the groove which seems to make the blade have less cutting ability. I'm going to use a section of a used guitar string (Probably a low E string) and slide it into the groove to see if that will keep the blade in the right cutting position.

Ok... if this is a "double sided brochure," you'll need to do some serious moving around of things. For instance if this is the outside of the brochure, the left panel will fold to the inside and the middle and right panels are the outsides. So... Outside Right panel: Big Logo image, almost filling up the entire space. (crop and edit as needed to make it fit) Western Style Font with DCCC (spelled out). Rope border image? Middle panel: Information... address, phone, Slogan, web address, etc. One photo of eye of the horse (use a frame) and shadow. (use Sienna's eye here) Left panel: Image (1) of one product and brief description. Inside: Right panel: Photo of Tack. and part of the content you currently have on the left panel, edited as suggested earlier Middle: "eye of the horse" Blue photo here Continue with part of the content , edited. Left. Rhythm beads, more of the content. End this page with your coupon so it's easy to cut out and use. Remember these photos are going to be in black and white unless you pay for color printing. So they need to be edited so they are nice and clear, white background, etc. While you are editing.....that one photo with the Tack.... please do what you can to obscure or cut out that Soda Cup and crop it down so it is more about the tack rather than your wall. Funny you said that about right-brained folks. When I was tested they found I use both sides of my brain equally.

It's improved but still needs work. 1. Your business name and logo needs to be large. Almost the entire front 3rd of the page. (Right panel) 2. You need to completely LOSE the "I" statements. Use Double C Cowgirl C.... Like this. "Double C Cowgirl Couture is the only company in (county or city name) which...." and "At Double C Cowgirl Couture, the customer can....", etc. The idea is to repeat the name enough times that when they are done reading the brochure.... they KNOW the company name. (Remember even though you are "DCCC" the business name is more important in this case.) 3. Never ever end a sentence in a preposition. (we do it all the time in speech but it is inappropriate for a business document.) Instead of , "any design you can think of." write it as "Any design you desire." See what I mean? 4. "Why another custom horse and rider place?" Just assume this question. It doesn't need to be a title. A question like you have it forces awkward answers. So just make a series of statements or paragraphs that use DCCC (spelled out) instead of any "I" statements. 5. Use only the BEST picture of "In the eye of the Horse" To me that is the blue one. And scatter the rest of the rhythm beads photos and the Slinky Top through out the document. 6. Get your thesaurus out. Use it to help you find adjectives and adverbs that say many of the same things in a less wordy way. "Luxurious fabrics" "Dynamic Designs." "Genuine Leather" "Custom Creations" "American Made" Are you going to fold this as a traditional brochure? If so then, is this the inside panels or the outside panels? Consider making a coupon good for "One Free Custom Design Consultation"

Too wordy CC.... business documents like brochures use concise language. A brochure is an advertisement. You have 3 seconds to interest the reader, no more. So you don't want to do anything to detract from your real message which is "Here is my stuff, buy it." Re-write this with an eye on losing prepositional phrases. You also switch back and forth between "you" and "I" in a story which isn't really necessary. . Lose the story or rewrite it so it's not all fairytales and roses, and watch the grammar. Consider a list with bullets

Alaskan natives chew the leather. I don't know if African cultures do, or not but one online source says that some tribes use the Urine method. Read more here.... http://www.gateway-a...nimalskins.html

Barring buying a clicker and having a die made... you could cut your design out of acrylic or Aluminum flashing. Then trace and cut out