DoubleC

Nice Sylvia, and aren't vendors like that a pleasure to do business with? Your poly looks almost exactly like the one my friend is letting me use. I think the free mallet is adorable and of course you can use. Yeah seems to me everyone runs their sales at the end of the month :-( But since I have that mallet I don't care. I'm glad you got you some nice stuff. Cheryl

Hi Lisa. I imagine if you're doing immersion, dip, sponge or anything you should be burnishing the leather after to get the excess dye off or it will come off on someone. I hand dye with artist brushes or paint and even that amount I burnish and usually get residue on the rag before I seal it. Kustom makes a good point too. And if you're looking for a supplier, I use Springfield for everything I need that they have. There's ads at the top of most of these pages and you could even 'ask Kevin' about this stuff (that's an actual link on the site). You'll never have a nicer supplier. Cheryl.

Oh I am cracking up. I think it must have been a wonderful time. And loved all the pictures, thank you. Cheryl

LOL, uh no, if I paid attention to stuff like that, you know, the important things in LW, I wouldn't keep making these mistakes. But I haven't given up on it, just doing my usual 3 projects at once so when I need drying time, or just a break I ca n switch. Actually I just put the bridle up for tonight, maybe I'll get my little fire spitter up and get the last wing done so I can figure out how to mess up the coloring part :-)

Terry I did reread it today for the bridle I'm making. You're absolutely right, I had it completely wrong about the beeswax. As far as painting the edges, maybe I forgot the thread already, LOL but I'm not using anything but dye on this. And I think done his way yourself, you still aren't in his league. Just something we can aspire to :-) Thanks though for writing although I've already finished the edge and dye on one part of the bridle, I didn't use beeswax, just my good old saddle soap and denim. Cheryl

It would be the first time if I did :-) If I ever finish my dragon camp stool seat for this months challenge I can practice on that because it's for me. Seriously, I will remember because I've had it pounded into my head the last couple days :-)

Very cool....I've decided mine might be done about July :-) Cheryl

Oh all finished was a 1/2 thought :-) I do that after I dye or paint or both a project but before the sealer. And I've never used the wax before because I just got it so I hope beeswax doesn't keep me from doing the saddle soap, etc. and so on :-(

Hey guy, I don 't have any of that fancy stuff. I've always sanded by hand and used yellow saddle soap. I k now Bobby Parks puts beeswax on it the first time, so I just got my first beeswax since I've worked in leather to do the guitar strap with. I've always been happy with the other way though. I use old jeans to burnish the edges after the saddle soap because I have that. Just cut of a piece off the denim and rub the edges after the saddle soap, and tighten the fibers like the tutorial says, then dye them. The back pockets are really great, fit your hand pretty good:-) What Tom does I do when I'm all finished to soften everything up, and make sure there isn't any dye coming off the edges OR the project itself. Cheryl

When I moved in a house with the same problem on the carpet I used ammonia at the advice of a friend, and it worked. Why ammonia would get rid of an ammonia smell I have no idea. You could try that, and put it in the fresh air and sunshine like Luke suggested. Not sure it will work but pretty cheap fix. Cheryl

Everything I've had up until now came from a box of scraps I got from someone on here :-) The horse you helped me with on negative space was a scrap piece, and I see it every day because I use it as a mouse pad. Nothing gets thrown away around here and i like to see where I've been and hopefully where I'm going. I still have the first 4 eyes I did where they slowly changed from a deformed amoebae into something almost recognizable as an eye. Since I live alone, well with my ever faithful Skadi, most of my feedback comes from here so I have to keep things I guess to keep encouraged and motivated. The old, people who forget history are bound to repeat it stuff. Not that I haven't repeated it anyway a time or two. But I've been so luck to meet people here that are willing to look at a 1000 (or so it seemed) eyes and give me feedback, or horses or talk about negative space like you. I just 'renewed' the end of my stick background tool for this :-) Cheryl

LOL, I don't have a handle on anything other than knowing what the machine will do if I ever learn how to control it :-)

I use 2 a month :-) I use my ATM card for everything else. But being 20 years behind you we get charged if use that for electric or phone. Cheryl

An EIN can get you wholesale at a lot of different places, and since your gonna lose money hand over fist when you start, why not get a free EIN? You won't be paying taxes for a while, and SLC where I get most of my stuff tells you right with the item how much you saved. And you do save because if I do a quick search there without logging in, I see the retail prices. Cheryl

New and I hope a little improved checkbook. I didn't finish sewing the guts in, they're glued and it's sweltering here today so Lucky decided he needed a different needle and thread to do the last. I said no, and took my marbles and went back to the computer :-)

I think I'm going to do the whole thing in red/orange then go over the big parts with their colors. Hell Sylvia, I may just antique it, LOL.

Thanks Sylvia. Let's just say it ain't over until it's over :-) Might be a chapter or at least epilogue left to this story. Stayed tuned to the inlay reality show, LOL.

Well Nick the hole is gonna be pretty big. I don't know if I should do that either. I just washed all the conditioner off of it so it wouldn't be slick. I also have a square can of bag balm that I use to condition that will fit over the horse. I think I could use me rotary easier on that with out cutting off my arm, but I think the circle might be stronger in the ,long run, I really don't know. I wish I understood geometry. Cheryl

I'm getting ready to whomp a coffee cup down on it and cut out a circle. Will that work or be too big an inlay?

Well since I have a ton of lizard, and still have plenty of scraps I can practice on those. When I practice I always want it to BE something, but maybe I'll do key fobs or something with snakes, squares, circles, etc. and sew them. I can still make that into a square and remove the deformed horse, and have thought of doing that. Or circle, oval, rectangle. It's salvageable, but no more checkbooks for me until I practice, really. Cheryl

You really are upset with me aren't you? Probably not as upset as I am with myself. I'm the jackass that tried to do the stupid thing.

thank you for your kind offer. Mine was $54.00 but $29.00 of that was shipping. I have already sewn leather on it, I know what the little bulldog will do, or part of it's potential. I'm not sure I'll ever want to move up unless I suddenly change my whole life and areas of interest and start making logging collars for Belgiums :-) Love to see a pic of yours. cheryl

Busted.....but Mike i can explain. this was a practice run for the strap kinda because it's on hold, my oblong punch wouldn't, have to return it, get another one some where else, and it was just plain idiotic for me to do it and even more so to try and explain. Why do you think I didn't send you a p; picture or ask for some help. I already knew it was a dumb idea (well after the horse turned out deformed....) and I didn't want you to think I'd forgotten what you said. The good news is I'm going to use it, and tell everyone in VT. you made it for me Cheryl

I decided to pick a thread that would 'pop.' Although this sewing went better, I should have picked a thread that would hide :-) This thing is so fast that I still can 't control it because the feed dogs move instead of you feeding the material, but I swear I love it. I still look everyday on eBay because i want to buy one in a bent wood for a mentoring I have coming up (OK, actually I want to buy all of them; Singers are addictive. Anyway I use #30 thread, and a regular needle and you can see it chewed right through this bison and suede. I'm thinking about double loop lacing the checkbook but I may save my roo for another project since I'm making this for me, and just let ole Lucky sew the guts in after I glue the suede to the cover.