AlexOstacchini

Thanks for the compliments all, glad you like it Yes, exactly that. The black dye tends to bleed but will naturally stop at the cuts as long as the brush isn't loaded up too heavily, so I always paint a few mm away from the carved lines and it will bleed up to them. Most of the stuff I make tends to be tooled to some degree, though not always and I often get asked for plain things too. As a process I really enjoy it but the look isn't for everyone. I'm sure you can! The tool upgrades for me made a big difference, but the bread and butter tooling techniques, eg bevelling and decorative cuts was picked up from youtube tutorials and lots of practice. Still plenty out there better than me! Thanks, that is a Barry King bar grounder, it's become my default pretty much. I've looked at lots of ways people orient these stamps and experimented a bit when I first got them, but quite liked the look of angled even rows so that's what I do most of the time now. Alex

Love the colour on this, and also ditto about the neat design around the lock

Hi all, A bit of a photo dump as I haven't posted anything here in a while. I've had to compress the pics to pretty lousy quality to get them all in but you get the idea. Here is a load of stuff from the past year or so, some of it stock things and some of it custom work built to client specs. One of my bestsellers since I started making them has been cases for vernier and digital callipers, so lots of those, as well as cases for scalpels. Then various belts, pouches, knives and sheaths. I upgraded my tandy swivel knife to one from leather wranglers, quite a big investment once you add UK customs fees but it is a big improvement, stays sharp for much longer. Ditto for Barry King stamps, I am a little jealous of the US for leather tools as shipping etc has cost me a fortune, but oh well, I doubt I'll have to buy them again. Stitching here is all by hand with waxed linen, and edge lacing is with kangaroo lace. I had never double loop edged a belt before the one here, did not realise quite how long that would take... My real interest and most of my day job is making historical things, and so there is also a replica here of a Tudor archer's bracer from the British Museum. I made quite a bad version of this years ago when I was just getting started so it was nice to give it a revisit with better tools and experience. It was asked for with a lining, which the original does not have, and mine has no gilding where the original probably did, but otherwise a fairly close copy. Hopefully more stuff like this to come. Anyway thanks for looking, any queries about particular pieces or tips for me to improve then fire away Cheers, Alex

Many Thanks Fiebings dyes for this. I pretty much always dilute them now with a little IPA which I find helps give an even coat. The border for this is mahogany, and the background is pro black, which is much much much better than the standard black. The tooled elements are just neetsfoot oil and the antique is fiebings dark brown with tan kote as the resist.

Thanks again all! Cheers! I am lucky enough to have a full time job in film, often as a leatherworker, so independent stuff like this is for evenings and weekends and thankfully I am not relying on it as my sole income! But it is nice to think that it could grow into something more further down the line. The brief for this project was include lots of gypsy imagery,- The scrollwork pattern, while virtually identical in style to Western stuff (but more scrolls, less flowers), was taken from a painted design on a vardo wagon, and the framed animal heads all have links as well.

Thanks all! Glad you like it Cheers! This was not for someone I knew, and while I have made enough belts to have a reasonable idea of how much work is involved for price quotes, I always manage to underestimate how long it takes to design and sketch out tooling patterns. In this case I was not happy with my initial design and decided to start over, so several unchargeable hours from the offset. It is always a tricky balance I find as on the one hand it is easy to set a nice hourly rate, but there are definite established price brackets for this sort of product and at the end of the day I can't charge extra for being slow and getting things wrong. But with experience I will hopefully get better at this! Alex

Hi all, Here is an order just finished for a gypsy themed tooled belt. The brief for this was scrollwork patterns with some animals incorporated somehow and initials tooled in. The design I went for ended up being a repeating scrollwork section based off a painted vardo wagon exterior, broken up by three framed figures of a horse, goldfinch, and game chicken. Colours were chosen by the client. This is 3.5mm veg tan with a 1-1.5mm liner, which I find makes for a nice sturdy belt without being too chunky for everyday wear. Stitching is by hand and the buckle and keeper are held in place with chicago screws so removeable/interchangeable if needed. Thanks for looking and I hope you like it! Alex

Thanks for the compliments all Cheers, if it's Celtic stuff you're after then you certainly won't be stuck for ideas! Some of the patterns are really quite mind boggling and for me at least there would be no chance of replicating them in leather, but there are some real gems in the details that look like they would translate perfectly. Here is the reference I used for the belt