TomSwede

Thank you Gremlin and Hilly! Yeah I did thought about a snap under the liner but I'm out of snaps and wish to seek new experiences. Well I think you just came up with a new idea for the bodmod freaks. Applique lacing on your skin, heck that'd be soo cool to accentuate my tattoos with and a real in that community!! It's like I've always said about sleeping, it's for amatures but tonite I got a full 4 hours of sleep so I feel like brand new;-) Tom

It's been my intention to ask my supplier here if they keep any of the bookbinders equipment but it's not listed in the webshop but they might be able to at least point me to some directions here in Sweden. I can see lots of use with the thin bookbinding leathers, other than books I mean. I've slowly started today to upload some photos to Google earth but it's not a high priority I'd say. Good to have you here with your experience. That 200 year old book is so impressive. Must have been quite a feeling to get that job! Tom

Wow this is just pure candy for the eyes! That bear is fantastic. Looking forward to see the bike themed up with the seat, it's awesome allready so the seat will really set it off. Tom

Me neither, I just like the part when I feel a yank and the sound of the spool of my fishingreel being pulled backwards by THE BIG ONE! Actually I start to think Storm is doing all this fishes just to tease me for not having time to get going with it, wouldn't you say Storm! Good thing we have your pyrotecnique here, seems like you're leading some of us into new terrain even tough the technique has been up before, speaking of wich I haven't seen much of Scouter lately. He has shown some pyro skills. Keep it up Storm, I just love it! Tom

If you make a hollow braid I'm thinking you could afterwards bring in a strand in the centre via a 10 inch long needle type guiding piece and every ten inch bring the this strand out to attach a concho, bring it in the next 10 inches and so forth... Downside of this might be the stiffening of the braid and probably some kind of bends were the centre strand comes out if it's too tight and if too loose the conchos might appear all wobbly and poorly installed. Just a thought. Better check back with the customer to see what is really requested. Tom

Thank you Clay, Crystal and Roo! I agree Clay, it's a good thing Annie came up with this one and inspired us all to get our creative juices going. I'm hoping this one (and possible variations) is something people want to have as I'm spending time in my other house and hate to carry to much of my shop back and forth it would be a good thing to sit with there. I can actually work with those at my job too (sometimes). Crystal and Roo, the closure is great in style I think AND a good thing for the nickelallergic I am BUT there is some question about how long it will last since there aint alot material left in the clutching piece (about 3 mm or 1/8") and it's a twist and pull operation to hook it up. That's reason no.2 for that veg tan liner, to give it more durability. I'm struggling with the issue of: should I let the future seem go all the way along the edge including the narrow part. I don't think a stitching channel in the narrow part is a good idea neither taking holes for the seem there. It's just to narrow there, partially because of misstakes. I underestimated the need for sanding and burnishing on this part when I cut it out so got little to much material taken out. It'll be a good practice to fix it when it comes apart some day but I'm hoping I'm underestamating the strength of leather. Yes Roo. I have two rows of holes following the edge 4mm in from each side. The inner leather piece is 3mm. First I made one edge braid with the liner glued in place (I glued it at the edges to get punch the holes in both inner and liner piece at the same time for perfect match) then I made centre braid under the liner, glued liner to next side, punching the holes there and lastly did the other edge braid. Tom

Thank you Freak and Kate! The reason I choose this layout that came from Leathercat is just because it'll make a great watchstrap so I hope your right Freak since it doubles as wearable art and watchband. I don't like wearing a watch and was just lucky to find that celtic/viking medallin laying around. Yup Kate, this ones quite beefy. Oh another thing about the medallion, it's not perfecly round so that's why it looks a bit out off center it the horizontal plane. If turned 90 degrees the medallion cover the braid to much, on one side. Thank you Darryl! Don't we love braids that doesn't corner, lol. Tom

Oh I just realize I didn't see the dark spot before even tough I recall readin about it. Wonder how many non-leatherworkers who will not take notice of it, probably most. Tom

WOW, wonder how it will come out after all that practice when it looks this good now! Tom

I see David beat me to the punch about seeing the sporran likeliness. Me to love the hair-on and toold leather combo. Nice touch with all those rivets. A great purse and design I think Tom

Oh man shut it will ya! (about the fishing). Thanks alot Stooorm! Very glad you liked it otherwise I'd gone fishing instead of sharpening my swivelknife for more endorsements in leather. Think I'll try to bend the centerpiece a bit to accomodate to the curvature of the arm. Tom

So I finally got to making this one. Main idea of the shape and the celtic piece came from seeing Leathercats version. Vikinghails from Scandinavia to you my young friend (those containers holds juice!!) Also this is the tecnique used as a handle on the second rodtube I did. Mexican roundbraid on the edges and the simplified version showed by ShirleyZ in the middle. The dark red lace is hand painted after lacing and antiqued (after a coat of sealer) with saddletan wich contains a bit of silverdye to make a sparkling effect when the light is right. I also blended in silverdye to the final sealer for the red lace. Unfortunately I couldn't get this effect to show in pics. Gonna try outside someday. I also added a liner in thin veg tan to hide the innerounds of lacing and protection from possible arm pinching probs. An idea I didn't have time to execute on that handle. I'm not satisfied with the edging on the closure pieces. Had to use contact cement to the edges to hold the liner piece wich spoils the efforts to get it look as one piece when burnishing. When I get hold of a nice red thread I'm gonna put a seem in those now empty groves. I really tried to get this one up to competition standards so feel free to critice and give me tips on anything to do to get it better. Tom

Stooorm, you gotta stop with the fishing motifs!!! I'm so dying to get out to fish and it's the nicest season to go for eels right now since it's nightfishing and around midsummer we have magical nights here. OK! Now, wonderful creations and I just love the pyrostuff you do. Tom

Hey Gampa, the first show off post I se from you look really good I think but the image is a bit small to make it out completely. Is there any chance of getting to see it in bigger format? The lacing look to be really nice and consistent and it looks like you'd be able to pull off a rodtube for your friend. They are a ton of fun to do but hardwork with all that mexican basketweave I put on them. Looking forward to more from you an by the way to the board! Tom

Very nice day planner! Yor wife will be pleased. Nice touch with a little hummingbird design on the inside too. Tom

Awsome! Nice and clean and a perfect match for this bike. The colour is great and the braid is in full glory and shines like a jewel. Love it! Tom

I have done experiment with silver in saddletan but most of it comes of when I apply the sealer (with sponge and cloth) so I added some to the sealer aswell. Gotta continue experimenting to get the right amounts silver/gold to dilute the sealerliquid with. I'm making a pair of footpedals for my brothers camaro soon. Gonna try the black and gold and some gold to the sealer aswell. I so envy those of you with sprayguns when it comes to sealers. Tom

Thank you Annie! I haven't heard of Hewits and know nothing bout bookbinding but I sure want to look into it someday. We landed in Prestwick and from there it was af fast as possible journey to the the paradise island, Isle of Islay. We had a 15 min break in Inveraray at that's about all mainland sightseeing we had. I rushed to the wc and than back to the bus, got my camera just in time to hear the busdriver call us in, sigh. The journey home was the same tour, without stops. It's a great country! Next time Annie!! Tom

Thank you Crystal but I think he'd appreciate it more coming from you. Nice work with that cap! Tom

I've been thinking about doing the gold leaf to beveled letters (or whatever) and come to the conclusion that one would have to be very steady on the hand when applying the grounder (the glue) to get it right. With dyes a steady hand is also required off course but doing retouches to gold leafed areas seem to be alot harder. Also I think one have to be careful and pamper the edges and make sure they have no unintended indents 'cuz the gold leaf probably would give away any surface faults very quickly. Any opinions on this would be much appreciated. Tom

They are all so very nice. Love the skull design. As usual I'm gonna pick a fav and this time it was easy, the middle one. It got the best of the other two. More black than the lighter one and a good "spotlighted" area for the oh so nice tooling job. Bravo! Tom

Very nice and interesting! I'm currently researcing the possibilites for making more and better gold/silver/bronze jobs on the leather so all I read is greatly appreciated. In time I'll look into gold leafing and I have a nearby source for pigments in this spectra and also that funny metalpowder that Tom Banwell is using to coldcast the horns on his helmets.I have found that if you sheen the gold (my golden dye is actually more champagne in colour) a quick coat of saddletan antiquing and sheen again (for sealing) will get a more authentic gold.For my latest project I added some silver dye into the sheen to get small sparkles when the light is right and normally just the very nice red colour under it is what you see.I'll get pics and post later today.Thanks for sharing JOhan!Tom Do you mean you put the gold into the black dye before applying it to the leather?Tom

Very nice and good looking spurs Timberwolf! I made a pair just for fun in biker style and just like Grumpy I wetmolded them to sit where i want them. Tom

The second is very slick with that black strap. Very inspirational. Tom

weeell, if we hang around here long enough time should come to us.... and a couple of these , listening to a cd or two , oh and a whisky upon that and now check out the latest post on LW and so we're ready to do some leatherwo.......oh, oops almost morning and time to go to sleep. Oh well, tomorrow... Tom