TomSwede

They are so nice David! I can't decide wich one of the SPS I like the best and for good reason. Seeing them separately I would be convinced that one I'm currently looking at looks the best. Good thing I don't really have to choose because they all look great! Tom

Wow I'm imressed with those. That is such a clean design. Those should be able to find their way into customers hands. Tom

Clean and nice design! One pointer about sliders from my own experience is that if the inside gets right on top of the hip bone it can cause an annying irritation there. I have a smaller sheath for a laserpointer (use it a lot in my job) that no matter how I try to move it away from the bone it slides back after a while. Tom

That's a beautiful bag allthough the arguments wether it should sit on that motorcycle. I love those folded in sides, it just looks so elegant and beautiful. Did you form them in a mold before sewing? Tom

This looks to be awsome, I'll bet you finish it off before I'm done with that tube, lol. I like the touch with the tree on the right hanging in and the way that you got those typical clouds down to the leather. I also like the way you let the border break up in the middle, playing with shapes and just adding more eyecandy. I'm excited to see this one done and I love Japanese designs. I have only vikingstuff on my arms and on my left arm that is close to 100% percent done I just couldn't resist throwing some Japanese cloud/filler stuff to my elbow to get a fluid dynamic pattern that will nicely follow my underarms movement. Tom

Nice stuff! I'm with Ken about the 13. Love people that use the stamps creatively. I'm just to chicken or as with the Motörhead bracer trying new ways with the old simple worked in tools and go at experimenting with dyes and antiques. Whipstitching around a border looks good. I thought of it but never tried. Gotta play with that sometime. Don't worry 'bout rogh edges, some of us prefer it that way, it kinda makes the art of handmade leather shine through in a way but for stuff I send out to others I try to keep up another level. It's hard and takes alot of time too. If you hang here you'll up the skills with that in no time. Keep it up and show us more! Tom

Thanks Ed! I'll have to get a hold of some jars. They're perfect fot those diluted dyes that you wanna keep in stock using specific blends. Tom

I replied in that thread that we're about 8 USD if you calculate from Swedish crowns but then again everything's more expensive here wich naturally affects our salaries to appear to be higher. Something that really pissed me off a few years ago was when Swedish government denied a really small company that makes a refined and really clean petroleum based fuel with no volumes whatsoever to expand their production because it would compete to much with the established petrol companies , :wtf: ! Environmental effect is a good cashcow for governments today but where's the moral in such activitys. Tom

Good idea! are you talking plastic or glass jars? Recycling stuff is good and I'm a bad guy using small plastic cups that get's thrown away after using it for mixing. I re-use the ones the are for straight out of the bottle use, just pooring the colour back to bottle after using it and store the plastic cup with that bottle. Do you know if the jars (I'm thinking glass jars here, that's the only thing used in Sweden) can be cleaned out and used again, let's say I cleaned a jar with black spirit and now I wanna mix up a light yellow? Thanks for sharing! Tom

Congrats Tazz! I have a purse to make soon, I wish I wish I wish! Really happy for ya' and enjoy the beltmaking! Tom

Sorry to hear your trip had to be put on hold. It may not be of any comfort for you but the price for a gallon here would be almost about 8 USD today. That's bare naked robbery! Tom

I like the overall look with the weave framing the mountains and do I love that mountainpicture. It looks just great and when I'm photographing alot of my pic's turns out in that fashion. Really dark and lots of detail just get swallowed up in the black shadows. It's hard to make black items but this one is really cool and suits the piece well too. I'm second to none with basketweave experience so I'll pass on judgement on that. Tom

Looks very good and skulls are so sweet!! Thanks for reminding me of the Shirleybraid, you've probably solved a prob for me. I was thinking about how to float mexican into a tripleloop and breaking over a corner at the sametime. Think I just float it over into the Shirley braid instead. Nice going with those burst edges, very clean transition and the tones are to die for, it's like looking at an icecream a hot sunny day. Tom

Oh an expandable portfolio! I just saw the word portfolio and thought "working on my portfolio". I also consider myself an hobbyist but it sure would be nice to live of this. Papermill work is just plain boring but I'm very well paid with it so hard to break out (+ I'm very low on education). I just love to work with leather and can't really see myself get tired of that. Tom

to the board Elvis! If you can't find the needed info here all it takes is to post the question and you'll get some answers. The gathered knowledge here seems endless not to mention all the inspiration you can get. Lots of biker related stuff and stunning artistry in the seatmaking branch and above all a very friendly society of leatherworkers. Looking forward to see your stuff though I'm not a biker or in the biker related category...yet. Someone pass this man the coffe and donuts, mine are still fresh Tom

Figuring things out is the hardest part and making templates and such. Should I charge for that time no one would buy anything from me, lol. As soon as all thinking is done a project can come together faster than a fart in the wind. I wave my stuff around alot in front of friends and that way I get portfolio orders where I have an order for something specific but getting quite free hands on what to tool, lacing, sewing and stuff and they get a pricecut instead. Making new stuff (learning), building up portfolio and get some money to pay off some of the vast amount of money it takes to get a decent shop up on two feet. That's not so bad. Tom

Progress info update: Yesterday HD troubles and just now I discovered that I mixed up measurements and built the damn thing around the minimum innerlenght so I missed the extra 4" I was gonna have. Phoned my friend and asked him to measure exact actual length. Turns out to be 2" more than what he told me for minimum innerlenght, ha ha I can just laugh at it. I'm like dyslexic with numbers, totally hopeless so stuff like this is expected. Someone here wrote recently that what makes a good leatherworker is his ability to hide/mask up the mistakes so I'm going for a nice decorative braid at the bottom of the tube wich is attached to a 5" leatherpiece to extend the tube. With all the lacing going on with this one I think it'll look just as good. Got the final leatherpieces cut out and tooled today, some lacingholes too so mostly straightforward assembly left. Had the worst time making templates for top endpiece and you'll see why later when finished. I'll post pics when main assembly is done before I fit the maintube liner. I'll probably put that on hold to have time for the other stuff. Tube nr 2 has a shorter deadline and Laila wants a purse. Over and out! Tom

Ahh så inihelvittes läcker!!!!! Yeah girl, you sure made something very appealing to me here! I get a medieval sensation out of this one. The decorative borders are soooo nice with that triweave stamp, I'm just gonna have to steal that idea sometime, lol. The dragons are way nice, don't tell me you drew up them yourself aswell? I'm all curious about the rings on top, did you buy them as is or maybe made it yourself with lace?? They look awsome! The lock is to die for, wow. WELL DONE!! Tom

Nice Joker! Can't determine if you used a checkered bevel or a smooth one. If it is the smooth one you could use a modeler to smooth out the beveling, I always do that when I use the smooth one but I mostly use the checkered lately and with that one I go about 3 passes with the tool to get it smooth and sometimes nothing seems to help, lol. This will be a cool wallet! Tom

Cool!! I like the effect of blacking the background only in the skull. Gives it more dimension I think. Tom

Lookie lookie here, now this book cover is really beautiful! Love those dragons, they look super when left untouched leather. Nice brading on the edges too, I like! Looking forward to see whatever else stuff you will come up with! Tom

Googling around and stumbled upon the link. Joining here made my work take giant leaps in really short to time and I'm looking forward to up my skills a lot more and hopefully give some back to others. Thank you Johanna and all the rest that makes this place the best! Tom

Just finished backin the most important stuff, like the originals and family pics. The drive is fully functional now so I'm all happy and reallay tired. Time to hit the sack! Tom

This case looks great with it's black backgrounding and matching lace. The shape is interesting too. To me this is something I really would like to see in my own hands and turn around, viewing different angles. Wonderful! Tom

Looks very nice, I like the colour. Is it just natural with tooling burnish? Tom