lightningad

Perfect - thanks very much. Thats exactly the info i was after.

thanks McJeep - i have already downloaded that pattern but not got any printer ink! Hence asking about sizes! regards Adam

I want to have a go making a guitar strap for my dad, but i don't play guitar so have never had reason to hold one let alone study it! I've seen plenty of straps online for me to work out how i'm going to make it. (I'm gonna try a two parter with the thinner strap weaving through a series of slots) Can anyone tell me what the usual sizes are for the pieces i am describing? I can't really ask my dad as its a surprise and he lives too far away for me to make the trip to try grab a sneaky peak at any he might own. thanks adam

it could be affected by the thickness of the leather, the wetness of the leather...etc. I have made a couple of pouches using wooden forms for the moulding and found that the best way was to make a positive and negative form, with enough gap between the two to allow for the thickness of leather. You need the leather to be thoroughly soaked, and then be as gentle as you can stretching it with the formers. The formers need to be as smooth as possible because any grain. etc will be transferred to the leather. You can see the finished pouch here...My first wet form and some photos of the forms in action are on this thread forms in action (the one thing it doesnt show is that i also put a smooth plastic sheet on top of the larger piece and weighted it down to give a flatter surface as it was bowing slightly without it. adam

my wife bought me the Basic Tandy starter kit this christmas, and now i'm totally hooked. Tandy seem to have these kits on sale quite regularly, and whilst many on the forum whinge about the quality of the stamps, they have worked out fine for me as a beginner. You get a lot of stuff in the basic kit. Certainly enough to decide if the hobby is for you, and without overspending. Be prepared to start spending once you do get hooked, as leather is not cheap and each project you tackle will set you wondering what tool you could buy to accomplish the next task easier, neater, quicker, etc. Tandy also have lots of free how-to videos on their website, so you can watch beforehand and learn some of the tips and tricks. Just remember to keep your blades really sharp! adam

for those of you who live in bright areas, you could always shoot your photos outside and make use of the most efficient light source thats available - the Sky! Overcast days will give a more diffuse lighting, sunny days will give more stark shadows, but these can be overcome by using reflectors to bounce light into shaded areas. Ever seen Star Wars? The Death Star attack sequence as well as the models of the town Mos Eisley were all shot outside, making use of the sun as the light...just like reality.

I'll endorse this one Brent. I have been using the Calumet Portacube for the past three or four years to photograph my wife's sculpts for her website. You can see the results here Sculpted Bliss. The only shot we got a pro photographer on was the "film noir" set - as the model was just too big to light and shoot with my kit. The lighting is done with a homemade contraption - basically a free standing wooden frame that fits up the sides and over the top of the cube. I have two bayonet light fittings screwed to each side (six in total) and have daylight fluorescent lightbulbs in each. I also have another lamp attached to a magic arm so i can position it to the side of the camera and give a little more sparkle to the shots. I also use white foamboard hard up against the bulbs to direct as much light into the cube. Depending on the model, and the look we want, i don't always use all the lights. Shadows can help bring out the 3d aspects of the models. Some of the images have been taken with a Digital SLR (canon 350d) and some with a fujifilm f40d (little digi cam) - as long as a tripod is used, then you should get good pix. After shooting, i always optimise the images in Photoshop, adjusting the black and white levels, as well as adding a touch of sharpness using the Unsharp Mask tool. Then optimise the image for web use and the results are high quality images with very small file sizes. adam

I'll be using the waxed leather for the main stitching. I was thinking more for the subtle inner stuff like the credit card sleeves (i'm using recycled suede for these, so need to hem the tops). It'll probably look a bit neater if i use unwaxed. thanks

Is there any guidelines about when and when not to wax your threads? I can understand it for items that may get wet, but i'm thinking of hand stitching a wallet and was wondering if its recommended or not to wax the threads for hemming the internal pockets? adam

i'd wet the leather, then when almost dry try rolling it up tightly so the flesh side is on the outside of the roll. Do that a few times and you'll get some creases.

do you need to case the flesh side of the leather? I found that gluing down onto stiff card, then using a sponge to case the top side of the leather was all i needed. I didn't think the leather had to be wet all the way through. I have found the impressions to be better if its not totally wet, adam

now that looks useful for a newbie like me! and all those great old paper textures as well - fantastic for my day job!

not implying, just speaking of personal experience! each to their own.

for me, i'd rather spend my time learning and running the software i need to do my work, instead of mucking about trying to keep the OS happy. I have never seen a piece of software yet that has made me wish i could run windows! Everything i need to create broadcast quality video, 3d animation, music and sound mixes are available on the mac and at the same price they are on the pc. OK the mac costs a bit more, but for me its a work tool, not a hobby. I want to switch it on, work all day without problems, then repeat daily for several years. In the time i keep and run a mac, someone in the office here has usually gone through two or three pc's, and had endless hours of tech support . Initial outlay may be higher, but i reckon over its lifetime it works out cheaper. Oh yeah, I don't buy a car with the intention of changing its engine - i buy the right one to start with!

FCP-X is just very different to any other video editing app. My own personal dislike of it is down to having tried it, and not liking it. Premiere is very similar to the older FCP, only it will run in 64bit. As for Apples claim that its a pro application....they would claim that. But i don't know of anyone using it for professional broadcast work. That may change over time, but i'm sceptical in the short term. I'm sure you could buy a big screen for a pc and get as large a resolution as the iMac. But don't let the screen resolution be your deciding factor. You need to keep in mind where the finished video is going to be seen. If you are putting them on a dvd or on Youtube, or broadcast tv, in fact, any place other than your own room, then the resolution of the screen you use to edit is completely irrelevant. The quality of the screen will have no bearing on the quality of the video you create. It'll just look nicer while you are working on it. Great as the iMac is, its upgradeability is limited to what you can plug into its external ports. I would imagine that for most tasks its perfectly acceptable but if you play a lot of games, then its probably not quite up to that level of graphics. I know a pro photographer who swears by his 27"iMac. I use various flavours of mac, including MacPro's and a MacbookPro - which i have edited tv commercials on whilst sitting in an airport lounge! I doubt i could have done that on a pc.

It all depends on what you want to do with video editing. If like me, you were a professional video editor, then you would be in a strange place right now. Apples introduction of FCP-X was actually a kick in the teeth to many pro editors. They decided that the professional user was no longer that important to Apple so decided to re-invent video editing for the consumer user, and brought out FCP-X at the same time as discontinuing FCP - which many thousands relied upon for their living. This allowed Avid and Adobe to regain ground they had been consistently loosing for the past decade, and a lot of Editors have dropped FCP altogether. Many have stated they are considering PCs for the first time in years. Personally, I don't like editing FCP-X - feels too gimmicky to me. It does some things very well, but not enough to make me want to relearn everything. When i need to upgrade, there are plenty of other options to consider. Personally, I love the Mac, although a lot less than i did a year ago. The two major OS (mac and windows) seem to be getting closer and closer to each other, and the various edit applications that are available for both systems are said to run the same regardless of the OS in use. I can't say whether or not you should go for the mac or the pc. That choice is yours alone. My own experience is that Macs work a lot more reliably than PC's. They also seem to last longer. They are not infallible, but then nothing in life ever is. adam

If everyone used a Mac, then who would us Mac users have to feel superior to?

I have seen plenty of tutorials showing different ways to braid, but the one thing that always seems to be missing is showing how to tie off the braid to stop it unraveling. What kind of knots should be used? Or are there better ways to complete a braid? I know it will all depend on how i wish to use the braid, but i'm hoping somebody can give me a few pointers to help me in the right direction! Just for starters, i recently have tried some 4 strand round braid, 3 and 4 strand plaits and i have been unable to figure out an acceptable way of finishing them off. please help - i'm starting to feel like an idiot! adam

if you want to see the completed pouch, its on the critique forum ... here

i had, but after watching Tandys online video i decided not to bother! The video shows the leather being rubbed but it doesnt appear to make any difference to the colour. I guessed that the glass was too smooth, like the steel on my jewellers burnishers, and that there needs to be some friction to create the burnish. The walnut (and the tool handle) are smooth to the touch but have more resistance when rubbed on the leather. I think if you want smooth and shiny without a colour change, then stick to steel or glass. if you want to see some burn, then you need friction. but then i could be completely wrong!

Thanks - i had read it, and it was that site that gave me the idea to use the walnut (its the only hardwood i have in the garage at the moment!)...only i had forgotten what the site was so had not been back to re-read it for a while. I'm intrigued by his mention of "burnishing compounds" - i thought it was all down to the oils in the leather and the use of water as a wetting agent. I wonder what effects it might have if i use a beeswax polish on the walnut?

i might have a go this weekend - we bought a lathe last saturday so it seems like an ideal project! I'll just have to glue up some walnut pieces to make a thick enough lump to turn.

right - done some tests with quite interesting results. firstly - here's the pouch i'm working on. The colour and shine is purely the result of burnishing the leather with the wooden handle from one of my tools. Looks great but takes a heck of a lot of rubbing and looks rather uneven due to the small contact area of the tool handle. to try improve on this i have made two new burnishers today - one is made of soapstone and the other is american black walnut. Both have been sanded to a very smooth finish. Here they are with the two veg-tan scraps wetted ready for rubbing! following some frantic rubbing i discovered the soapstone seems to give a deeper browning but probably because of poor polishing of the stone, its scratching the leather and looks quite uneven (difficult to tell in the picture) The walnut gives a very glossy and much smoother burnish, although it takes a lot more rubbing and pressure than the soapstone, and the colour seems more even. Considering there is no other finish or oil or treatment of any kind, i'm amazed how rich the leather is starting to look. I might try some of the dremels buffing attachments to see if they do anything interesting.

Hi, i sent a message over a week ago but have yet to have any kind of response. I have seen other forum members mentioning a forum dedicated to more adult leatherworking topics, and its something i am interested in. Please can i request access to this forum? or could you tell me what i need to do to be allowed access? thanks my site username is lightningad adam taylor Name: adam taylor UserName: lightningad IP Address: 87.113.63.240 Email Address: adam@moose.co.uk

i'll do some photos tomorrow of the piece so far. Basically, i decided to try burnish the leather instead of stamping and carving. Its got this lovely deep glossy brown from the burnishing, but because of the shape of the tool, its difficult to get an even burnish - theres streaks visible because such a small area of the wooden handle is in contact at any one time. I'm also going to try an experiment with soapstone - its a very soft rock that can polish up nicely, so i'm going to flatten a profile, smooth it off and see how that works as a burnishing tool. The very quick test i did this evening certainly looked promising.