Nocturne

Ok, I gotta know... what is it? If I guess from the frame and a design on the cover... a harmonica case or rack of some sort?

I haven't looked yet, but you wanna check Ohio Travel Bag... they have tons of closures and findings, and plenty of other stuff too. They probably have if not that clasp, then something similar. http://www.ohiotravelbag.com/

Hmm... definitely something I'll try, I think my camera can go up to that ISO as well. Like I said, new cam, still getting the hang of it. Thanks!

Yeah, still trying to get the settings right on my new camera to take better pics of my leatherwork. Tried changing flash settings, turning away the desk lamp, etc. Took about 4 or 5 pics with all diff settings, and this one had the least glare.

Very nice work! The shading on the feathers, the subtleties on the beak... love it. I'm always envious when I see someone do such an awesome job with the dye/paint/color stage of their work. For some reason, my hands are steady with a swivel knife, but horribly shaky with a paintbrush.

In the process of making myself a tool rack cover, I showed a friend a pic of the carving I have done on it so far. He flipped out. Turns out, M C Escher's "Drawing Hands" is his sister's favorite picture ever, and her birthday's coming up. So, he asked if I could make one for her, and he'd buy it off me. This is what I made. I think they'll be pleased. Carving time, about 2 1/2 hours. Colorization and assembly, about an hour, with having to wait for dry times to handle. Used an acrylic sealer on the hands to act as a resist against a medium brown stain. Comments welcome!

Welcome to the board! Nice stuff you've made there. What LARP are you a part of?

Those little lines look more like what happens when I use a keen edge beveler and let my hand rock too far upright instead of keeping the 45 degree angle. The edge of the tool ends up making a tiny line just like that. That's what I would guess happened on this piece.

Sifting through pics of stuff I've made, I came across these. I may have posted em on the forum before the crash, but I don't remember. So I'll put em up again, just in case. Besides, Froghunter's always after me to put up more of my stuff. A couple pics of a Polish eagle plaque I made my mother for her birthday last year. Enjoy, and comments welcome.

Very nice.. I love that pebbley sting ray looking backgrounder, I have to get a set of that for myself so I'll stop borrowing it from a friend of mine. The byzantine weave chain looks nice, the closures look to be pretty flush. Nicely made. Did you do it? Do you do much else in the way of chainmail? (I've been into chainmail for at least twice as long as I've been a leatherworker) Also, I must know - The stamp of a head knife crossed by two mallets... is that a personal maker-type stamp? If so, love the design, and it's very nifty. If it's not a "personal" stamp... where'd you get it??? I would love to add something like that to my ever-growing leatherwork tool set. -Noc

Both the floral and dragon embossing are filled with the leather shaving/glue method... not quite leather dust, but more so a bunch of little bits I skived off the back of a piece of 8-10 oz veg tan scrap. I'm looking into getting a small sander with bag attachment to make the dust much easier. Since it wasn't quite dust, I couldn't get the fill to be the right amounts in the areas I wanted, but I'm working on that. As for the embossing leather itself, it's about a 3-5 oz or less, didn't check. Definitely liking the idea of embossing leather, so I'll be doing more projects like this to refine and update. Thanks for the compliments!

She'll be into the shop next Thursday from about 10-2, to work on her sandals. Best thing to do would be to bring the jacket in for her to look at. If you can't make it in during that time, just leave it in the back a day or two before then, and I'll make sure she looks it over. Prolly won't be too expensive, she just wants to assess the situation.

After seeing Clay's embossed lion over in the monthly figure carving thread, the topic of discussion around the shop has been embossing. (I work at the Orlando Tandy Leather with Froghunter) So after a week or so of talking about it, I decided this week to give it a try. Forgive me if the embossing doesn't translate well through the pictures, I'm still figuring out new camera I bought, since my last one died on me a month ago. The first one was a random flower (since I'd just finished the monthly floral carving) that I sketched up and went to town on Monday or Tuesday night. The second one I decided I could do much better at something a little more my style of carving, so I picked out a baby dragon bursting from an egg, and started on Wednesday... finished up about a half hour ago. Let me know what y'all think! And for the heck of it, a dragon head and skull I did off of a Craftaid to hang up as a store display, still in progress.

Looks good, now emboss it. Like Froghunter, I don't do a lot of "traditional" carving... I'm definitely much more stylized in what I tool. So this is my first floral. Here goes...

Lookin' good, man. Definitely coming along. For only having been tooling a few months, you're making some great progress. See ya at the shop! -Noc (Tom)

I saw in the other thread that some of you add a few drops of Dawn to your spray bottles... What does this do? I'd never heard of doing this before. Personally, I've tried the spray bottle, and find I do a better job of "casing" the rest of my work area than I do the leather. So for now, I do the ol' sponge in a bowl method. I've immersed pieces before, but never for more than a minute tops, and more often than not when my intent is to mold or form the leather, not carve it.

I'll preface my response by saying I've not used that pattern before, this is just my guess at it. I think that precut kits are more prone to have specific instructions regarding your stitching/lacing. Where to start, how to tie it off, that kind of thing. (I've used a few to make a quick couple items, and used the kits to make my own patterns) However, I think the patterns are really only there for you to get the basic shape. How you construct it is more or less up to your creativity and imagination. Whether you choose to do a lock-stitch, lace, blanket-edge stitch, etc. All depends on how you want the finished product to look. I know that didn't really help with how to go about it, but just my thoughts on it. Looking forward to some pics of a finished product. -Noc

That very much rocks. Lovin' it. Reminds me, anyone who hasn't seen, TLF has redone their line of modeling spoons, etc. They actually make sense now. They've paired their styluses together, big and medium spoons, small and tiny spoons, and best of all they've brought back the petal lifter. So I finally picked one up just the other day, and will be trying it out soon. -Noc

Thanks! Your help is much appreciated. Very nifty site, I'd never heard of them. Time to go peruse what kind of cool findings I can get... -Noc

Hey there. Anyone out there know where I could find this pouch clasp... http://www.eleatherworks.com/product.php?p...&cat=658&page=2 ...but in a silver or pewter tone? Any help on this would be much appreciated. Thanks! -Noc

Any old acrylic brand will do. FolkArt "Artist's Pigment" acrylics however (the ones with the gold caps instead of white) are super super thick.

New to the board, but a lot of my work ends up being painted... First some questions, then some general opinions - Will the piece be flexed a lot? Will it be exposed to water? If going the paint route... Acrylics are what you want to use... never ever ever use enamels on the leather. This is from bad experience. Any flex whatsoever, and enamel will peel right off like it was never there. Any force (rubbing) and you get the same issue.. only use acrylics. For items that'll flex a good deal (belts, bracelets, etc) thin your first few layers of acrylic, and if you have an airbrush, use that. The way it applies the acrylic in tiny droplets to form a coat make a more flexible bond than brushing on the paint. If you don't have an airbrush, water-thinned acrylic works... paint thinned with fabric or textile medium works even better. The point is thin coats to keep the flex. Acrylic WILL peel off if it gets wet, however. Like a rubbery skin. It's how it's made. If the item will be exposed to any water, use a sealer. NOT NEAT LAC... Neat Lac and acrylic do not mix. Oddly enough, an acrylic based *sealer* will resist water, but regular paints will not. Do at least two coats. Shouldn't change the colors of your paints other than maybe make them more glossy. Hope this helps.

Actually, no, not anymore. I have used Cova in the past, but was very unhappy with the white. Always tended to crack even under normal wear. For the white I use regular acrylic white thinned out with airbrush medium, then apply two coats with an airbrush. A friend of mine has used white shoe polish (the kind in the bottle with the little felt applicator) and had good results with that, but I've not personally tried it. For the detail work on the belts, I used to use regular acrylic on top of that. Lately, my fiancee has taken over the detail painting, and has found that Testors brand acrylics (the little bottles like for plastic model painting) are way better and more vibrant. Once that's all done, I airbrush on two layers of acrylic sealer and call it done. I've taken belts painted with this method and literally wrung them into a knot and haven't had a problem with cracking. One thing I have found though, is this method does not lend itself well to really thin leathers, it will still crack.

Hello all, My name's Tom, and I'm new to the forum. So here's a quick bit about me... I've been working on leather tooling for about three years now. Started as a spin-off hobby to a LARP I'm a part of (hence my forum name). I started out making custom belts, and have branched off to pouches, wallhangings, armor, etc. Unfortunately I don't take many pics of my work. Just recently, my fiancee has been reminding me to get pics so we can start a website. Here's a few to share, of some belt detail work, and a Polish eagle wallhanging I made my mom for her birthday. Enjoy! Comments always welcome. -Tom / Nocturne