Tesla Ranger

I tried making a cardboard pattern a time or two but found I was getting inconsistent results with it. It may have been the cardboard I was using but it just wasn't living up to my expectations. I've since made a habit of printing out patterns I intend to re-use on cardstock (usually 110lb paper, specifically) and then carefully cutting them out. This has the advantage of being cheap and relatively expedient and the patterns are easy to store and generally pretty durable. They're also a bit easier to trace than regular weight paper. Of course, if you're printing designs to transfer onto leather with a stylus or pencil then using something heavy like cardstock tends to work against you.

Research is indispensable but it is immeasurably more useful when it is done -before- the project is finished.

Well that would've saved me a fair bit of time if I'd've been able to find one of those. I did look for light tents available in my area but none of the ones I could find were more than 10"-12" on a side. That one certainly looks like it would've worked nicely though.

Looks pretty durn nice! I too like the tones.

I went back through my settings and noticed that little box. I also noticed that I was getting notifications for another thread I was following, so I'm betting that was probably it. Thanks. =)

When I started taking pictures I was using a Canon 340 HS (on the theory that a point and shoot would be better than a smartphone) and I think that that could've taken pictures in RAW. I didn't quite get that far into getting familiar with that particular camera. It seemed like it was highly specialized for taking pictures of people (rather than items) and I couldn't get it to focus well on anything a few inches away. It might have just been noobishness on my part, but I found my smartphone was taking better photos in this conditions and wound up taking the Canon back to the store. I probably should make an effort to learn more about photography but so far I've made do with pictures that were just "good enough".

After coming to the conclusion that 1) I needed a lightbox and 2) it needed to be durable enough to survive being shuffled around and dismantled a lot. I do all my work inside a small apartment so a lightbox large enough to hold the items I usually make would be too large to easily stow. I wound up using 1/4" hardboard for the structure and lining it with poster board. The tracing paper was left over from a starter leathercraft kit I picked up from Tandy five years ago (always figured I'd use it someday). The light was provided by a couple work lamps with 100W Daylight LED bulbs. I'd originally tried CFL bulbs to keep the costs down, but everything was coming out all yellow. The LED's were pricier but I think they've turned out pretty well. If anyone's particularly interested, I wrote all the details and posted all the pictures on my little, personal "blog-thing" here A completed box: After I figured out it would work better on its side: Broken down: With CFL bulbs: With LED bulbs:

Neighbors indeed! Howdy. =) This may be a bit of a goofy question but I'm used to get email notifications when a reply is made to a forum thread I'm following. I haven't seen an option for that on these boards but I'm guessing that's one of the "additional features" that come with a subscription? I'm trying to subscribe anyway but have some business to sort out with PayPal first. Apparently they disapprove of having a US-based PayPal account when you're living in some place that isn't the US.

Thanks. =) I spent yesterday building a lightbox and should be taking some photos with it today if all goes well. I'm still figuring out how to camera beyond which end to point at the target. Having sufficient lighting should be a plus I reckon.

I usually treat the flesh side with an edging agent like Fieblings Edge Kote. I'm not sure how grease-resistant it might be (which could be relevant for a holster) but it seems to stand up to wear and tear a lot better than most stains or finishes.

I'm originally from Texas but I just finished getting my Permenant Residency in Canada. So I've been diligently working on turning leatherworking from being a hobby to something I can do as a living. I started working leather about five years ago to suplement some wood carving I was doing at the time and I've kept doing it ever since. It's been interesting to learn the craft doing one project after another and I kept a blog to keep up with what I was learning. I'd run into these forums every so often when I was trying to pull together a pattern or draft for a project, most memorably when I built myself a workbench a couple weeks ago. I got my PR a week or two ago and since then I've been pulling everything together so I can use all this leather-y goodness to supplement our usual income. I've got a little Etsy store I'll be opening in another month or two and I'm looking forward to seeing how well that works out. So howdy all!