TomSwede

Very cool and clean design! Less is more! You've a right to be proud! Tom

Heeey Crystal!! That is a beatuiful cover Nice touch with the pearls!! Tom

I use a steelruler and utility knife to make straight cuts. Strop the blade of the knife first. Don't rush with it and plan the cut, like make sure that your fingers on the ruler have maximum grip and don't get in the way when cut...could hurt;-) I have masking tape on all corner on my cutting rulers to avoid sharp corners scratch leather and also the non-cutting side of the ruler is taped. Tom

Great looking vest Ian! Looks professional. You've done good Tom

Hey bigsis!! I'm a big fan too!! It looks excellent and sooo nice with the twotone mexican. I'm curios about the decorative carving at the bottom of the back. Do we get to see it?? Seems like a very nice extra added touch. This is decoration and personalisation at it's best!! Get your butt over here so I can see this one personal and up close and also express my appreciation for your help and support!! Tom

Ah that explains it!! Hope you do more Africa type masks. They are cool! Hmm maybe a good challenge for the monthly comp or maskmaker mania!! Tom

That's a sweet looker Tom but what is it?? Seem to fat to be a fold over thingie like a bifold!! I second Kates question! Tom

Cool stuff! Welcome to Leatherworker! I also like photograpy and the backdraw today with it is 500 GB RAID SYSTEMS;-) The large bracers are a really cool set. perfect for Sunday shopping;-) Tom

Yeah the first thing I said was just a possibility to as why we don't so many LARPers her but the point was like you said, the tchnich stay the same (basically, there seem to as many methods to do something as there are leatherworkers, lol. This is really noticeable with the edging. Soo many techiques to achiev about the same result) I'm not sure about using metal for your edges. Boneantlers and cocobolo wood dowel are commonly used. Some use justa cloth. I use the Tandys bone (imitation) edgeslicker. Yo have to practice a little with it to ge the hang of when the leather is taking the slicking best. Too moist or too wet and you wont get much action out of it but when it is just right it goes really fast to make a highgloss edge. In my experience, others will prolly disagree. I think when you say the edge gets rough again that you mean that you slick just to long. My experience there is that the gloss get's a craquelured effect from overheating or sumting. Edging is strange I think. OR you mean that it gets rough after you have been wearing it sometime?? Anyway, a good thread is up and active at the moment. You have 47 re's in it to plow through if you like to get deeper into it. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?s...ic=3680&hl= Yur gunna have a loooong evening;-) Good luck with it (Oh and BTW, I'm no expert on edging but manage allright or at least half decent, I think) Tom

Good looking stuff! I like the No2 holster wich had a nice matching colour to the woodpanels on the gun. Tom

Hi and welcome Tac! Good story and introduction. Seem like you have come to the right place and the Tandy store will get more visits from you;-) We love to see pics so feel free. People is always very kind and "bad" criticism is an unknown term. People are also very friendlyminded and there seem to be no secrets among members here so don't hesitate to ask for anything. No matter ho good you are there is always something new to learn in here. Coffee is good but don't eat the donuts, last time I heard some nut was dipping them in formaldehyde to preserve an aging breed;-) Tom

Welcome to the board! I don't know why but there aren't alot of LARP people here, maybe they think we just make handbags and purses with cute braids?? Nothing wrong with that, it's just personal pref. We do have alot of variety and some VEEERY advanced armour and maskmakers. Look for Azmal if you haven't allready seen his stuff. TO DIE FOR!!!! I really like the first set of vambracers. Always thought I'd do sumting like those but faith has it that my carved bracers is high in demand. I like the clean lines in the cutting and that you have put your head into it and rounded off the corners. Also you saw the good value of eyelets, that makes them stand out more professional. I like them!! One thing you can do is to study the threads here about edge slicking/finishing/burnishing to learn how to get really professional and slick edges that are well rounded off and highgloss, if you'd like to pursue that. Then of course to go deeper into it you may look into carving designs onto them or differents colours with dye, perhaps combined with stamping. One thing I like to do is to wetmold my bracers to shape for my customers. I want them to be hard and armourlike. While damp I tie them onto my arms (gently when carved, wich they always are) and let them sit until dry. That is a good time to do massive posting to this board;-) Before completely dry I pinch the bottom edge between my thumb and indexfinger and bend the edge a bit outwards wich gives them a nice fit to the hand and allows for more movement. Tom

This mask is brutal and cool!! It makes me think of those African tribe/horror masks (in lack of a better term). Well done! Tom

Think of those who got your fine artwork pieces as your ambassadors or PR guys and let them now this too. The least you can expect from them is that they promote your work whenever someone admires it. I just pointed out a true friend as an official ambassador of my work because she brings in work without my asking for it and she loves what I do so now she is very proud of this and wears my official ambassador tee and I think I'm gunna have to reward and honour her alot in the future. Invaluable!! Only problem I have is to keep up with orders (so far this year) + I still do not get paid enough to make very much money out of it but I do overwork every single piece in my pursue for perfection and think longterm about getting paid. Off course I do this because it's a burning passion and I can't stop and love to develop, learn and try to top myself every single time. Tom

Once again Roo! We're in the same seat with limited access to stuff so I stick to acrylic finishess for now and gunna experiment more when I have time for it. I have Carnuba cream available so gonna try with that on something. Mayby just paint on sheen to the acrylic parts when I do those. Tom

Here's a sidekick to the original question. Hope you don't mind Ray? Luke will smack my fingers at next ambassador meeting if so;-) What do you use to finish of your work when it is painted with acrylics?? I ask because the beefy guitarstrap I just made was as usually for me finished with Fiebings leeather sheen, applied with a soft damp sponge with a soft cloth on it. Black stain came off and blended with sheen and got onto the white acrylics. Not a catastroph but I wish had sprayed it on but do not like to use the spray sealer at winter. It just stinks to much and also leathersheen gives a better shine I think. An airbrush won't be affordable in a loong time for me. Tom

I actually had the opportunity to pass a job onto TC leathercraft through Myspace/LW. A message was posted from somemone looking for a maskmaker and I know Tammy has her hands full keeping everything up and doesn't have too much time to scan LW so I posted a message to try and connect to her via LWs PM system or look her up at myspace. So definetly good tools we got with the tecnology available today. Tom

I'd put on the finger parts on my fingers, that way you get the benefit of a good grip but keep the tight sweaty glove off your palm. Tom

Happy birthday Barra! Formaldehyde might be the trick for the donuts around here, thanks for the tip. I'll go and make the birthday donuts and you'll be tha happy one first out to try;-) Tom

That is a very nice added extra touch of skillful hands! Tom

I'd buy a LW tee too!! It'd be great to use for those attending physically to the IFoLG events to recognize each others or other shows. Tom

I'm on there aswell http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...endid=395810153 Nickname: Tom Leatherart I have my evil;-) customers at myspace thanks to a certain LillaSol who has promoted me alot. So my tip is to try and work your way into a group of people that have lots of common friends and try to get a "rings on water" sell effect. Sol took care of that for me and it was just one of those lucky coincidences. I actually adopted the Ambassador idea from here and titled her as my ambassador officially yesterday since she's done such a great job in promoting me and she has some knowledge about my work through our nightly discussions. Also gave her a freebie t-shirt with Toms leathercraft logo, www addy and AMBASSADOR title on the back. What is great with myspace is that your work can be put up at the frontpage as clickable thumbnails and/or slideshow. I use both to smack it into peoples faces when they slide in but usually Sol is in the background and put people through to me. I almost never add people/bands except leatherworkers. Your page looks great, not too cluttered and using those slideshows effectively. Tom

That is some beautiful stuff! Love the mini holster and the rest looks just as good! Tom

Ehum .. have you read the subjectline yet;-)

Good throwing Art!!! Wish I have had one those last weekend when I had a big one in my inside pocket and boozing around like a mad viking on the prowl;-) Superslick!! Tom