TomSwede

Thank you very much all!! YEah working for a tattoo artist I sure felt I had to put a little extra into this one, lol. Prolly have a eye for details!! Tom

There is blue powder mixed into the dye to create a blueish tone. It dosn't show throug well in the pics and I just hope it doesn't show to much when the sun hit it. A big thanks to Jim Linnell who suggested this method for raven feathers. Tom

Hi all!! Sorry for abscence!! I have my butt full and compromises has to be done. Customers and various sideprojects with some of them who has now become my friends takes alot of time. Anyways, an old friend of mine found me on facebook and as it turns out her hubby is a tattooartist and she wanted a bracer to surprise him with. A skull and the company name NM TATTOO was mandatory other than that I got totally free hands. I decided to go with an old school design and play some with dyes and brushes and try to top myself. There is a statement from that I'm not very good with dyes and brushes and I still stand by that, More training needed but I got this one down to my full satisfaction. IT is a bit dark and that came efter I applied Leatherbalm and buffed it. The sword is thinned down black. Skull and banner is antiqued. Most contours have been lifted but I didn't go all in on that. A bracer will be used alot and I think that in short time lifted areas will recess from daily use. The leafs got the most lift. Critique is as allways welcome!!! Tom

Good looking spur straps!! I like the clean buckles very much for some reason allthough my logic tells me they should be more matching with the concho. Tom

Overall execution is top notch. Nice clean stitching, slick edges, nice design of the bag and excellent carving job. I love the smooth and rich finish!! Superb!! Tom

Excellent Storm!! So very clean and nice!! Should be able to attract customers!! Tom

That is such a sweet bag!! Love the red tone and the edges on that one!! The little I've tried wetforming is that is not very eas so seems you have a talent with it (or I suck with it). Well done!! Tom

Excellent Bearman!! I have seen oakleaves before and you're great with them so what really catches my eye is the stamped backside. It looks great!! Tom

They are stunning and the tooling + fade colours looks really great!! The lacing I think is up to each and everyone to decide but I'd go with a braid for these two because they're so beautiful that they deserve it. For criticism I like to add that rounding off the corners on the front flap would lift overall apperance very much. Tom

Thank you guys!! The buckles are great fun to work with but those lions we're kind of tideous tinywork and I had to do five. I don't like repetitive!!! I'm always glad to see when other people post pictures of their stuff shown in the use it was intended for so figured I should post the live pics. Nice looking guys...ehh;-) You're a sweetie Roo!! Looking forward to see your seat. Is it a solo or what?? Tom

Thanks David!! Yeah the future looks interesting and busy. Ha ha got a new nickname from the bikeguys too: Leather rebel ha ha. I definetly like it!!!

Hi all!! With a separation comes lifechanges and dealing with them takes time and efforts so productivity is not high but pickin up speed now. I have had alot of social activities and starting to make changes within my social network. Funny part is that I suddenly have a bunch of friends in Swedish capitol Stockholm and all because of my leatherwork. Working with a few heavy metal bands has rendered invites to release partys for their albums, concerts and last but not least a membership in a cool bikerclub. Here's a few snaps of what I've got done lately. Northvegr bracer is a replica of the one I did last year for Northvegr bike clubs president. The 300C Hemi bracer got a problem with the silver coming off during the buffing. I sealed the silver with leathersheen first and then applied leatherbalm on surrounding areas. My guess is that the balm smeared out onto the silver during buffing and caused the sheen to dissolve somehow. Two more of the five set Finnish belts was Done. Liveshots of the strap I did for DIE HARD. It's great to see your stuff in action and hear how happy he was with it. Besides all this my regular papermill job has kept me pretty occupied and I had a four week long period in July-August that I was ill and were very exhausted from that.

Very nice and clean Johann!!! Tom

Aww that is heartbreaking!! Tom

Awsome Busted!!!! I'm gunna have to make a wallhanger this winter so nice with some inspiration!! Tom

Good looking case Storm!!! I really like the look of a regular whipstitch when it is tight like this. Black backgrounding is nice too. I prefer to do my backgrounding with a big brush and really small one to get into tight places. A shot of whisky helps me to keep my hands steady when I work in tight places (yeah it really does but remember one or two shots, 3 and 4 makes ruin;-) Tom

Great looking mask bro!!! Just love those wonderful creations right out of your insane mind. Gunna keep this one in mind and try something like it one day. (hey, my leatherwork just got me nestled into a vikingthemed MC club with some great dudes...even though I need to fix a bikelicence and bike, lol). Tom

Nice bracer Kustom!!! The lettering pops out with great depth. This one should attract some attention from people in the music biz aswell as the audience. Tom

Good work with the figure carving Marlon! It makes me miss my naturephotography moments and being close to the eagles so surely it does strike me as lifelike! Tom

New look caught me by surprise yesterday and I haven't had the chance to surf around to much but the general feeling I have is that it doesn't differ too much from old look that I have much problems finding my way around in here. Good work Johanna and everybody else working with the upgrade!!! Tom

You could go with thinned dye as suggested to get different tones of grey. I used Cova-color white once to get a sorta marbled stone effect to a background. It is a logotype and the letters are white so it was important that I didn't make the marbled stone to bright. The cova-color was diluted very much with water(to a milky white fluid) and then I brushed it carefully onto the background that was structured and making sure I didn't get to much color into cavitys and crevages. Pics from the process can be found here: http://blogg.1eye1.se/category/rev-168/ I actually use this method with diluted white for all white pieces and paint layer by layer until I get it to full strength white. It makes the paint sink down into the leather leaving the nice looking leather structure intact. Painting with undiluted acrylics makes it sits on top and makes it more prone to crack or even come off in flakes ( I guess). Tom

IT's a nice to design to start with. I recommend getting some vegetable tanned cowhide, 2,5 -3,5 mm thick or so to work with. Keep the design as it is but round off the highest corner. With veg. tanned you'll be able to mold it very well and instead of rivets you can easily put a stitching line all the way around the knife to keep things in place. If you have a gouging tool you can put a nice groove (sewing channel) for the stitch to sit in. Makes it look alot better and protects the thread from fraying. Another good thing with veg. tanned is that you can polish the edges to a high finish but first I'd recommen to bevel them with a edge beveler. If you don't have one you can also sand the edges so that they are rounded and smooth. It is wise to put some sort of welt in between the two leathers to avoid the knife cutting the sewing thread. A welt is just a trip of leather that goes in between the two leathers. Keep it up, you're doing fine!! Tom

Good looking stuff!! I think you're ready to make some money;-) Tom

Hi and welcome to the board Petsha!!!! I believe that knife was made just a couple of hours drive from where I am;-) There's litterally tons of good stuff to pick here. People are very generous and the atmosphere is friendly. We love pics so looking forward to see what you have (and maybe the Mora clipper?) Tom

Lacing and overall apperance is impressive. That design looks great in black, nice tooling. Tom