Mike

Another good reference book is 'Handbook of Ornament' by Franz Sales Meyer. First published in 1888 and now published by Dover books. It's subtitle is 'a grammar of art industrial and architectural designing in all its branches for practical as well as theoretical use'. While much is not useful for leather, much can be. If you have access to any old 'Make It With Leather' magazines, Alan Dale articles are also very good on design instruction. Mike

I would do some research before I would take a Tandy dye over a Fiebing's dye just because of the cost. Sometimes a company has another company make things for them but according to their own specs. Just because Fiebings may make Tandy dyes does not neccesarily mean they are the same quality. Maybe you could email someone at Tandy for the lowdown on it. Mike

Not sure if I should start a new topic or not. I have white (natural) unwaxed 6 cord thread. I have used it in belts, checkbooks and so on without a problem. I wax it with beeswax and it still seems to stay white. It is what I used on the checkbooks on my website. My problem is that this is the only size thread I have. (I'm not counting pre-waxed nyltex.) I would like thinner thread to use on smaller items or perhaps on inserts. Some books will tell you to create smaller thread from larger thread. Has anyone really tried this? I did and I won't be doing it again anytime soon. It was not much thinner when I went from 6 to 3 cords and it took too long. Where can we get thinner thread and info on which needle size to use with them. This info does exist for machine threads. Most sewing machine manufactures have it available. Does it exist for hand sewing. The Stohlman book is good but seems to be dated. It does not cover light objects. My checkbooks are too thin for a groove so I use a scratch awl to mark a line and very carefully use either an overstitch wheel or wing dividers to mark the hole locations for the awl. Thanks, Mike

Most figure carving patterns are not complex. The fun starts when the carving stops. That's when the colors come out to play.

I do not know if this group shares patterns or not. Here is my latest pattern that I did for a checkbook. It's about 6 7/8" x 7 1/2". I've included a picture of what it could look like when done. How you interpret it is up to you. Feel free to comment. Mike Of course you're allowed to post patterns! Thanks for sharing, Mike! ~Johanna

I'm going to mention some prices I have either gotten, had suggested or thought about when pricing certain items. Please give me your feedback as to whether these are low, high or just right. Checkbook - $125 - $175 Clutch - $150 - 200 Belt - $75 - $125 or more I do not make a lot but I try to make things nice. Mike

Just curious. What do you folks use for inserts? Do you make your own or buy pre-made inserts? I've done both and I tend to prefer pre-made interiors if one fits my project. My own wallet has a Chaylor-Finelli insert which is really nice but fragile. (The finish wears off.) Mike

I have 2 Chuck Smith knives and various Tandy (pre-TLF) knives, Beard, Henley,ceramic and steel blades. The Ol' Smoothie works just fine as does the Tandy Craftool Pro-Line. All of these knives are extremely smooth. Beard also makes wonderful tools. I use a Henley blade on thin leather. I use 1/4" regular blades on thicker leather. I also have a Sheridan blade that I think I got from Robert Beard. Just keep the blade polished and adjust the length of the knife to your hand and you should be set. Unless I'm working on something real thin or detailed, it really doesn't matter which knife I use. Mike

I just get an urge and create something once in awhile. Or when someones really wants something. Right now I'm trying to come up with a good deer profile for a checkbook. I'm almost done with the main drawing. Then I'm thinking along the lines of scenic side panels. It will depend on how much room I have and how much detail I can cram into small frames. I submitted an entry to an IFOLG show just once. It was inadvertantly placed into the wrong category prior to judging and as a result was ineligible for judging. That was many years ago. Since then I have thought about it but never got around to entering another show. I do worry about having work good enough to be shown in competition but I am believe I am getting past that. Maybe I'll enter something at some upcoming show. Mike

What look are you going for? Do you wish the leather carving to be low relief, monochromatic like the images you supplied? You can reproduce this as is or tooled and colored. When colored, you can go bright or subdued. You have a whole range of treatments you can use with these. If you want them left as is, HideCrafters had/has a video by Billy "2-Shews" Stockil that detail transferring images to leather. Mike

Thanks for the compliments. A tip... when embossing, watch how the piece is turning out. Especially in embossing cutouts. I have found that I frequently have to nudge lines around cutouts. When looked at flat as in a tracing, the line will look wrong. When embossed, they work. Usually the embossed items are only partially embossed (the part facing you is embossed and the back half meets the leather background). Just my 2 cents.

I tend to be very critical of my work. I'm always looking for ways to improve it. In this piece, I can only think of about 3 changes I would make if I were to do a similar one. The flowers are based on wild roses in my front yard. I'll have to dig up a better picture but the thorns are left in natural and the vines look very real. The actual roses in my front yard are pink, I believe. Little bitty things with lots of thorns. The rider is from a photo. I had to make the rider look slimmer, younger and more female than the photo I worked from. Mike

I made this for a friends wife. I made a mistake that I didn't really catch till it was done but my friend liked it as it was. How does it look to you guys? Mike

I'd like to meet other artistic folks around here.

I inserted a thin aluminum piece between the leather up front. The was then bent to fold just under the lip of the gas tank. At the seat, their is a screw to hold the gas tank on. I put the leather under this screw. The gas cap also sits on top of the leather. I kept the leather a bit thinner here to allow the gas cap to fit snugly on top of the leather. BTW, this is on a 2001 Honda Valkyrie.

At one time I owned motorcycles. I planned to make leather goodies for them. This is all I got around to before I lost the bikes. What do you think?

Al Stohlman's Top 20 book has several examples of filigreed wallets.

If you look at Silva Fox's website, you could get some ideas.

The knife was made by Chuck Smith. When Robb Barr needed a transplant operation, these were made to help raise money for the operation. The design is a wolf head drawn and autographed by Robb. My knife is #87 of 100.

Look in some of the older Stohlman books offerred by Tandy/Leather Factory and HideCrafters. Top 20 has hunting and fishing patterns. Mike

I'm curious. Would you guys use a knife like this or just keep it for a display?

Colors. I'll explain what I did but I'm kind of figgering this out as I go and it may not be correct. This is done primarily in spirit dyes. The belly is in acrylic white. The brand I usually use is Liquidtex tube acrylics. I believe that I also put a very pale wash of acrylic white in the sky area prior to using a diluted blue on it. My spirit dyes for the most part are Fiebing's Leather Dyes. I used Tandy Supersheen (3-4 coats) over the whole thing and then used a polyurethane varnish on the eye for gloss. The gloss is by Delta Ceramcoat. I was going to give the fish a wet look but the varnish started to pull the paint up even through 4 coats of supersheen. It has been suggested that I go over the supersheen with Neat Lac spray. I'll get some of that soon. I think I broke the rules on this one. I wanted more color. I also incorporated design changes to the pattern. The corner curves are tighter, there are trees on the horizon, more clouds, and subtle changes to the fins and details on the fish. Some of these changes reflect input from Peter Main who has been very helpful in emails. I do not even want to discuss the dragonfly. I still don't like it. The sky is completely acrylic colored. No spirit dyes. The water has both dye and acrylic washes on it. I believe the water was a bit too green to start I washed it with some pale blue dye. I mix my dyes prior to use. I strengthen/weaken them as necessary as I go. Once the water was done, I noticed some scratches in the leather I missed prior to carving. These were light and existed in the hide. When dyed, they jumped to the forefront and were very noticeable. On the left side you can still see one scratch if you look at the larger image. I used an acrylic wash over the dyed water to hide the scratches. I also used a pale blue acrylic on the ripples and foreground splash for highlighting. This is also supersheened . I believe I prefer to use dye under acrylic rather than vice versa. I seem to get more subtle edges when the acrylics go on last. Dye shows up edges of underlayers of acrylics that my eyes did not detect. The ridge you see at center is because this is made to be naturally closed. It does have a ridge when open but no wrinkles in it's naturally closed state. I hope this doesn't bore you guys. I do not have anyone around here to work with so I ask questions via email or just experiment. Mike

Beaverslayer, Thanks for the nice comments. The only show I have been to was the last IFOLG show in Ft. Worth. I believe it was ten years ago. The work at these shows is so good, I get intimidated. In the wallets section of my website, I sent images of Bass Checkbook #2 to Peter Main for comments. He was kind enough to give me suggestions which resulted in some of the changes that you might discern between Bass Checkbooks #2 and #3. Little things like the water rings around the fish, lighting and so on. For now I am going to try to finish a purse kit I started a few months ago. I was stymied on coloring the horse but now I have some ideas I will try out. I've attached a picture of what it looks like now. This project is not on my web site. It's an old kit that I'd doing for practice. Mike

Ok, I sent my first intro to the wrong forum. I'm re-intro'ing myself here. My name is Mike Rodgers and I live near Lake Tawakoni, which is east of Dallas. At thae moment I am a member of the Lone Star Leathercrafters Guild. I do not have a specialty yet. I just carve things as the mood strikes me and for friends. I was going to enter in this years IFOLG but I was not satisfied with my work and funds are real low right now. I hope to try to start entering shows/competitions in upcoming shows if I feel my work is good enough. Currently I am working to improve my coloring techniques and my hand stitching. You can see my work at www.pmrleather.com. Feel free to comment. Constructive criticism is welcome and praise is always gladly received. :biggrin: Here is a picture just to give a sample of my work. My newest stuff is in the Wallets section of the website. Mike

Howdy, someone told me about this place the other day. I live in Texas, east of Dallas at Lake Tawakoni. I thought I would use an image of my latest project as an introduction. This is my first post, I hope I do it correctly. Mike Rodgers