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OMG Robert, that's quite a find. Cheryl

Thanks Rae, I've decided to do the piece as wall art for myself. Will start very soon. C

Carson, this is great. I am so impressed, gave me more ideas for mine. I don't have it on leather yet so will use some of your ideas for mine. Great job. Cheryl

Rae sorry it took me this long to get a sketch up. Feedback always welcome before I commit to leather Cheryl

Rae that's cool how you are going to mold yours some too instead of just using shading for the 3D effect you're going for. And Keenan I'll be watching out for the revenge, LOL. And the Fourth has been with me all day, doing some lacing and it's coming out good for once, LOL.

when you start sewing or have to splice, tuck the extra you leave between the leathers and continue on sewing over top of it which will hide you ends. Your stitching holed look pretty good to me. I groove lightly down the leather and run an overstitch wheel down the groove (use a square for both of these steps) and then use a stitching punch to punch the overstitch marks. But a lot of people use chisels instead which automatically keeps your holes aligned and punches at the same time. Cheryl

simply beautiful work. Cheryl

Wink, I use saddle soap on every project I make out of veg tanned to burnish my edges with. I'm not sure of what articles you are referring to. I've never seen it mentioned here that saddle soap may be harmful. Perhaps it would be to a rough out leather or suede but I don 't use it on those leathers. Cheryl

Oh Rae I'm so excited and I have some 3oz to work with. I'll wait for more instructions tomorrow Cheryl

Hi Jonathan, I'm glad you enjoyed the challenge. Yes Q is going to do a steam punk challenge for us but didn't have the time for it this month. They are a little bit of work but I enjoyed all of it. Hope to see you soon. Cheryl

I want to thank all the challengers that joined me for this. I learned so much from you all. And don't forget Rae Nae's challenge starts tomorrow so head back for some more fun. Cheryl

I tried to indicate the tears where going in by making them dark like the hole, to make them look further away. But the dye job went wonky on me and what's supposed to be dark came out light, and i decided I liked it John. So I'm going to leave it like this, like a photo negative. Thanks for your help. Cheryl

OK the horse and cougar are carved and tooled. I'm getting ready to dye them unless someone has some suggestions. I have to get some resolene on them for overnight so I can antique it tomorrow. I am way behind you guys, sorry. Cheryl Oh that's my new swivel knife holder in the picture. A friend of mine made it I looked at these on here and they are still difficult to see the burnishing but they are darker than this although this HO was very light and nice. Hopefully it'll show better with the dye.

Jonathan that is a superb job. I love the way the coloring came out. What happened to the 'no stress' part of this, LOL. This was supposed to be fun. Hurry up on your bag and pouch because Rae's challenge on the human form starts in two days, LOL. You think you're stressed? I still have 1/2 a portfolio to do for this before the new challenge. Seriously very nice job. Cheryl

Hi Gianni, they have several on youtube. This is the series I watched to learn how. Cheryl

Hi Cogs. That's a function of where his button is. You could actually do the same on the front as most people do on the rear and do a more narrow strap through oblong punch holes and then the wide part would lie flatter. Or he could use the string thingy that goes under the frets and it would lie flat. I hope one of these helps. Cheryl

Mikey that is nothing short of awesome. Cheryl

Rae it looks awesome. You did a great job. Cheryl

Thanks Stewart, that's good feedback. I'll try that. Cheryl

beautiful bag, really. Cheryl

Jonathan I use resist block out with dyes. I thought maybe you meant paint when you mentioned the white because I've never had any white dye because I've heard it doesn't really come out white. But if your dyes are that same kind that can be mixed too, and you can always 'paint' the dyes on if you don't have any block out. However you do it, I think it's going to be awesome because the tooling is. Cheryl And aguilerag I'm glad you're going to be doing the challenges. I think they are a fun way to learn new things. Cheryl

Welcome, welcome aguilerag, we're excited to have you. I think your drawings are excellent and next month we're doing figure carving so I hope you join us then too. It's not too late, this is no stress, have fun and if you learn something that's just gravy. Jonathan in answer to your questions I've never had any luck with resolene as a resist for anything but antique. but if you're painting you don't need to resist anything. If you're going to use dyes that will be another matter. But for the background and stone you can add the white and blues right in with the paint to get the shades you want. you don't have to paint twice. The acrylics mix very well with each other. Just be sure and add water to them so they don't look too thick on the leather and do light coats. I can't wait to see it finished. Cheryl

Oh well that makes sense Chris.

Chris I hope you do put it on your workshop wall because you did an excellent job. The only thin I could suggest is you put some brown in your red to make it look more 'dried' on the ground. I'm so impressed and glad you joined us. Please join us again next month when Rae is going to tech us to do people or faces, your choice. Great job, cheryl

Oh Harley that will make it easier to give it definition. I use a stylus with a ball end to trace the patter, then go back over it with the stylus after i have the pattern on the leather so I'll just do that again next to the cuts to make them stand up more. What I good idea, wouldn't have thought of that. Thanks Harley. Cheryl