chriscraft

These belts have to be all black for work. Good to know Golden paints work great on leather, I already have some paint and will be trying it soon. Thanks

I found an older modeling spoon set of 10 on eBay, should arrive soon. Thanks for letting me know what to improve on. Thats why I'm posting here and trying to upload close up photos of my work so you can see what else I need to get.

Well, it was a learning experience to say the least. Need to invest in some equiptment to end up with a better product. Not happy with my sewing thread size and wavey sewing but it will improve. Chris

are these scraps still available?

Making this belt for my partner at work, "guinea pig", this will be my first leather project that isn't on scrap leather. Plan to make myself one once I make a few and work out all the bugs since i'm new to this. The belt will be dyed black since were required as part of our uniform. I'm not working from patterns and will be using my own layout. Gotta stay away from all that copyright stuff since I plan on to sell them once I get the hang of it. I showed off the layout design at work and all the other medics are looking forward to how these will turn out. I think they will look perfect when done. I can already see the end result and i'm not even done. Guess thats just normal for me. Chris

again, thanks for the kind remarks. I posted an intro under " critique my work" and have posted the finished tooled skull practice piece with drawing layout there if ya want to see it. Chris

Cyberthrasher, here is a better one to break apart. Started this one today after your last post. It's still a work in progress and I'll have to come back and finish it in a few days as time permits. Again, still using scrap veg tan. Broke out Granpa's Old Craftool smooth bevelers and a few finishing nails for the smaller dots. Would like to make a larger Pebble stone matter to use in the foreground under the skull to add a 3D effect and really make it pop. Chris

Okay, Thanks. As far as the background inside the skull. I hear ya, it was all I had to work with till I expand my tool selection. Sad excuse as it makes the piece look flat and 2D. Also not a great angle on that skull. I'm also gonna take a stab at making my own tools out of SS bolts to get the effect each piece will require as I get more into this artform. Thanks for the kind words on my practice piece. Chris

Hi, I just started leather carving/tooling two days ago as soon as my new BK tools arrived in the mail. The local Tandy shop personal doesnt tool leather so she was unable to answer my questions but recomended some of the Tandy books. My Grandfather was into this craft and left me some vintage late 50's Craftools & old Craftaide patterns for wallets/belts along with a bunch of rivets and snaps. I still need to pick up the rest of my Grandfather's old literature as I feel it's the same vintage as what Tandy offers today. Would prefer some newer Leather Tooling/Carving books if anyone has any good recomendations. I'm a self taught artist so I decided to just dive into this craft and will be starting with custom work belts & suspenders. I plan to give away my first samples, at least till I improve. Most of the tooling pictures i've seen here are not close up and I can't tell when the beveler is used when using the backgrounder or matter. So my question is, When using a backgrounder or Matter, Do I bevel my swivel cuts first? Chris attatched is a picture of a freehand swivel knife cut skull using the new stainless steel Craftool-Pro with 1/4" angle blade on a scrap veg tan 7/8 oz. piece. I used the BK checked #0,#2 beveler then used a HideCrafter pebble matter.