Pip

Inspiring others through perfection is a rare talent, thoughts, prayers and gratitude from Liverpool england. Everyone needs a star for guidance, you have been a light for so many let them be a light for you now! Nic (pip)

I work on an urban farm over here and I find it terrifying that children don't know what they are eating... I am also a member of the bushcraft fraternity and can almost feed myself without intensive farming for short periods (without Wal-marts help!!!). I have asked the question when standing in front of our turkey pen and having introduced our animals, where does your turkey christmas dinner come from, I got three answers 1) my mum,2) Asda (wal-mart) and 3) bernard matthews. The same group were flabbergasted when I told them you can eat duck and turkey eggs (the didn,t believe they layed eggs). We don't have enough room for cattle, but our sheep produce fine fleeces (and finer meat) great horns (between 2-5) but children don't understand that lamb is young sheep. I was told by an 8 year old its grown in a factory in blue tubs and they put sellophane on it to keep it fresh. I have the view that (unfortunately is not shared by the government) that if an animal is killed for food I should use any peice for something, this country does not support that belief and doesn't allow animal products to be removed after slaughter (horn, sinew, bone etc). Its rediculous. Ooops better get off my soap box. I do think about the cow/animal in answer to your original question and hope it had a good quality of life before it was slaughtered and its death wasn't too painful, after all bad animal practises don't just effect the animal but its worth in produce.

thanks guys, you been really helpful. Steve I intend to get the stohlman books once I earn enough to cover the leather cost, I got his small projects book off ebay and its great but I am not good at chargin' for stuff, and prefer a barter system, but it don't make you rich! Thanks for the camera info too, I think that my fuji is great for mid to long shots but even with timer shots rubbish at medium to close, I will use more light next time, and a tripod! Bezzachopper I wet formed the original gussetts when rivetting, i encountered a problem with the stretch to the design edges, I got the stages of the thing wrong i think and ended with a crooked bag, because of a stretched corner/curve/hole punch combination... I guess I'll learn when to do stuff in time. I had to stitch the strap protectors in place on a finished bag cause I forgot before I laced it up d'oh. Any general rules for putting stuff together....... ie sequences

Peter Bracer it is then! lol I have always called them greaves, silly me! years of relying on roleplay texts.. he he I struggled with the lacing a bit cause my mate has massive hands and forearms but small wrists. Ross Nice Bracer there, no such thing as shameless marketting, if people buy they want it, if they don't they don't..... we can't be held responsible for the fickle nature of our customers he he. thanks guys

Here is an arm greive I made, It is for a stone carver friend who as you can see has massive forarms, it is to protect his wrists from shocks but i am making some for a LARP event later in the year, any tips?

it looks great to me, those leaves are awesome bud, congrats...

I really like it, wow thats way cool.....

Lacing is a new skill and quite therapeutic. today is a new day and I am relatively happy with the results of my first lacing attempts (after a lot of playing, to get it right - i think). here is the finished piece and the piece before rivet failure, i still like the rivets but the lacing looks fine too. what do you think, I can't seem to get decent pics of my work, I need to learn how to use a camera. Thanks everyone!

Yep, steveb you are of course right, got snagged in the momenet of failure.... The weird thing is I tell my learners exactly that kind of thing, and I get frustrated telling them its ok to fail and seeing them only half accept it, hmm next time ..... maybe its cause I don't take my own advice, I might share this experience, to help them, thanks for the wake up call.... I needed that.

well rivets were a bad Idea, i pulled the hole damn peice apart, redid the gussetts and back to lacing/stitching I think.... I am at an all time low .....hmmm

thats a great saying, mind if I spread it around!

steveb and Nixon 66 thanks for your help I think I know what you mean, alas I am just putting the finishing on. I am quite pleased as a first attempt but for some reason the project has become unbalanced/twisted slightly I decided on rivetting the seams (something I will never do again) I prefer stitching it is easier to fix. I need to sort the back I made a careless slip and it is now bugging me.... I will post a pic as soon as I get the camera sorted.

hey nice work clay, how well did the inks last ? My oldest project with ink is about six months old and seems to be lasting ok. I just got some resolene to try over the dyes? I am hoping for a long lasting covering. do i need to worry about fading?

thanks nixon, i figured that maybe the case so I have now included ears on mine.

I am on! but no-one else seems to be.

wow, really nice! a real shame i am not called patrick!! I can see why you would want to kieep hold of this one, what a beauty.

LCSJ??

looks nice, my only concern is that the stitching may wear over the edges and snap. But it does look good, really neat. but I am a real newbie so... I'd wait on someone with more skin years to advise.

getting it load and clear, do you use beeswax? or some other synthetic wax

great stuff! I love the pumpkins, i can almost taste them mmmmm!

My advice as a fellow newbie, start simple, keep your complicated designs safe and use them later after practice. I started on bracelets, to learn to carve 30mm x 180mm x3mm you can make a load, they do sell (at least here they do) (you learn carving, dying, edging, spacing and working in crampt patterning) and this offsets the cost of the rest of the hobby a bit. give yourself time and leather to play with, you have to make mistakes to learn. Once you've done bracelets belts are longer, with some furniture to think about. And don't give up, but ask for help! If you mess up on a bit no problem, keep it and make a note what you did wrong before you move on. Then try and put it right, experiment! and again make some notes (my memories shot, tale of a mispent youth) even if it doesn't work. thats my two pence worth.

sorry, i must add, beautiful mask.

mm now i look close at the inks they may block up your nozzles there is a lot of suspended sediment.

Yep, thats what its called, it goes on ok, but ni find using a black antiquing wax to seal over the top. I paint the inks first then dye using feiblings dye (which doesn't seem to stain the inks) diluted with alcohol 5 to1 which builds up a nicely even colour. I find that the first coat sinks in leaving metallic layer/pearl layer on top so a cuople of coats works. I know its not great but this is one of my attempts. I think it shows what i mean.

Sorry my point was they don't need heat sealing as far as i have found, i give them a coat of antiquing wax and thats it. they are acrylic drawing inks.