TomSwede

Ah now I got it . I'm a bit slow but tonite it's worse;-) It's elegant! Don't know squat about the sewingmachines yet (well I know they're expensive here in Sweden) so I can't even begin to imagine what it looked like sewing this in a machine. I like handstitching, it's painful and good Have a nice weeken now I'm sure tied down to the make a living job this one, sucks! Tom

Heey man, thank you and I AM honored!! Those letters/font is sure cool. For me, they bring back some sweet memories in a booze haze from the later part of the eighties and the trash metal era outburst. Love that bubbly thing you got going on the sides, gotta have one or two of thos punches. Are you going to implement any other colours? Make sure to have some fine brushes in that case, I sometimes use a womans eyeliner brush (think it's meant for that, works on me thou ). It holds enough dye to make a splotch when you put it to the leather and then..it's out of colour...but...there is a between mode that can be used to brush the colour very gentle on the first stroke so that the leather wont be able to suck it out of the brush and that's when it becomes useful. Well now you got my undivided attention so I'm really looking forward to see the end result, even if you have a strict recommendation from your client to go all black. The stuff from me that you are refering to is much my own creation implemented with clients ideas and I cut the price in half since it's portfoliowork. Always good too see your stuff! Tom

Ah man, you know I love those skulls! Very pleasing first try and I love the way you've stitched it, it gives it a nice shot of sparkling elegance (trying to be poetic, sweet skulls make this way,-) Did you fold and glue the softsides before sewing, or glued them or no glue at all. Stitching one side to the other or from bottom middle and up? Hey, does any one of those canisters with chemicals ever have an instrution that apply? Very nice done! Almost forgot to mention, nice handle and is it possibly...a chain in there? Tom

Thanks Roo! It's just Fiebing pro red on the bottom, sealer and saddletan antiquing on top of that. I went several rounds with the antiquing until I got the right look on it. He didn't want any tooling ('cuz he thinks that's the thing taking the most time and money) so I just threw this twintip with antiquing in. He likes black n red combos so I just thought of having a little "ruby" on the end (or is that the start of a belt?) Think I saw the twintip thing around here, maybe Spiders belt with the skull tip was in that fashion. Wish I had a maker stamp like you now. Also, gonna polish the metal to avoid fraying issues. Tom

Friends belt was of poor quality and he liked the fitting thingie (oh darn can't find the word for it). So i was asked to do this as quickie. Well belts seem to never be quickes. Cut some shorts on edging and didn't go over the tooling around the edges very thoroughly. He wanted it cheap he said but lasting longer than previous belt that was labeled Levis and had a genuine leather stamp on the lining and some greece glyphs. Probably saying original item, ha! Notice a problem when it was finished and I closed it first time. The belt holder (with the Levis text inlay) has sharp edges and will probably fray the belt edges...very soon. Bummer, should have checked that before mounting and thrown that piece away. Anyways, here are the pics. Tom

That's the image I always envision in my mind when hearing about or thinking about those "doctors". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Doktorschnabel_430px.jpg The eyes look very nice on this mask but I think the nose has more of a mosquito touch to it. Some projects needs some maturing, it'll come to you in time. I saw Tom B's Commedia del' arte (did I get that right?) mask and it has a nose that look very close to what you want I think. Good luck with the bags! Tom

Fantastic Elton! This stuff is not very common in Sweden so I'm glad to have the opporttunity here. Tom

Wonderful stuff and nice colouring! What cigarette, thought that was his beard, lol! Tom

I have experienced burnt cd that has gone unreadable in less than a year so I wouldn't trust any important stuff on one. DVD's been reported to be worse in the aspect of loosing data over long term, but I have no experience with those. Being alot into photography and completely digital theese days, diskspace is always a problem or should I say money is the issue in real term speaking. I always have double up of what I use for the internal drive for photography and hopefully some 2-300 gigs extra on external disks. On my system today I have internally: One: scrapdisk of 200gigs containing stuff that could be sacrificed if I needed so no backups for that one. Two: Windows disk of 250 gigs mostly OS and and proggies, some stuff in my documents but never any important files on the windisk (that's the one who crashes most often) so nothing I couldn't live without there so no backup for that one either. Three: Photo disk,contains all originals (raw files and TIF, jpeg copies) alot of artsy photoshop images I've done and want to keep and stuff that I dont want to loose. Starting to get full. 300gigs. Four: External 300 gigs. Duplicate of the photodisk but all TIF and jpeg copies are sorted out to have some margin. Gotta get a new photodisk wich means get externals to match that one, yeah moneyissues I said, OR sacrifice scrapdisk and match with a smaller external only OR rip out photodisk make it external and replace with a 500gigger, 500eds seems pricey now OR take not so many photos and pound some dead cow, get balance in the book and work it out later, yeah that'll be it. The options are endless on the diskproblems one can have. Networkdisks in seperate chassies with fans that can hols several disks and run them in RAID configs is also a nice possibility. A couple of days before the -08 crash I had a wincrash that I couldn't repair. Reinstall needed. I hate to loose previous win install cuz I have alot of special proggies installed and don't want to sit for hours trying to figure out what they were. External disk was swapped with the previous win disk, installed windows wich means my photobackup were lost, started up the external now containing previous win install and did alot of drag and drop and had my system back in no time, hey boots alot faster now too. Then created a new backup of the photodisk. I have no specific advice for you right now but hope the the shared info is of some help. This is a hot issue at photoforums. Tom

Oh I'm really looking forward to the plaguedoctor mask those are so cool. Give's me chills up my spine, must have met with those in past lives! Those were worn 'cuz it was believed that diseases were spread via odours so a touch of smell from herbs and spices would be a neat feature for finished product. Tom

Photography is tricky and just like with leather it's a lot of different sciences when you break it down and takes some time to learn, anyways what I was trying to say was that I'd just would like to see the photos already put up here rotated, that's it. That's more of a software issue luckily. Irfanview I believe is a freeware proggie and probably easy to use and should rotate pics really easy. Software is not a science due to it's simplicity, Microblast saw to that Hey while I'm still at a funny mood, if spider turns out to be really skinny I could model that 'cuz the age starts to show and that boobproblem could just be solved but it take alot of antiquing on me. My girlfriend (korean of origin) say I'm a paler shade of white...in summertime!!! Looking forward to more stuff from you Maeshin! Tom

Wow, some money saved aswell then. It'll sure be an awesome sight to see those pics, lol. Tom

I agree with others, nice finish. Love the colour choice, I'm having somewhat of a black n red period right now in the bracer field. Really fun to work with as with black n white but the red just looks better to me but it's all about contrast (to me anyways). As Scouter pointed out it looks like a seem around it but I guess it's a decorative groove around the edge and the rivets is holding it together. Tom

I want to have the ability to skive too. Moneyissue so I solve it when i can. Extensive carving is really nice and impressive to the yawdropping point but when you put a simpler detail like this that brings out som nice untouched leather, to me it's just like having a symphonic orchestra playing really well toghether. Hard to explain the feeling but the whole piece just got a sense of complete that often get's left out when you just have the massive stuff. Thanks for sharing, it's a very good item to draw influence from 'cuz it's about more than just extreme carving/tooling. Last but not least, a very fuctional item aswell. Hope the mechanics last a long time. Tom

I think it looks nice aswell but really would have liked to see those pics rotated the right way. That is why i wrote think, perspective is a tricky thing for the mind. Looks like a fun thing to do and unique too so maybe you got a thing going there. If you get it out to a customer you might just have to do another. Hm, 'bout that tan. Maybe some antiquing on Spider and send him to stand model for it;-) Tom

Nice one, love stuff that catches you and makes you think at a little deeper perspective. Nice burst effects on the edges and cool figure. Sewing looks good aswell. Tom

Cool stuff! First one reminds me of those masks that doctor's from the 1700' eds (18th century I believe for many of you here) used to wear with a long nose thingie stuffed with herbs and stuff ( Ithink think it was that century). The owl is just spot on aswell, for me a Swedish children tv show comes to mind and the owl of winnie the poo, doesn't he wear spectacles too? Good work! Tom

One darn fine clock! The floral piece over the top is just awesome, but what intrigues me the most is the little detail on the bottom, the roped line. Just finishes off the piece so nicely. Is that piece a thinner leather? Tissue box is great to! Tom

Oh man, gimme a break! Utterly crazy wacky stuff! First one is really mean, Batman on steroids and having an breakdown. Last one is...Shiva? It would suit her with all her arms. One sure would like to take a look inside your mind when thinking these ones up, lol! But seriously then, do you have an idea and a plan when you first start cutting the leather or do just go with the flow and make it what it is along the way? I'm guessing on the last answer. Have you seen that Bangladesh cardesigner in London on Discovery channel, chop chop garage? Love that man in action, no plans no nothing, just shreds a car into pieces and then work on with ideas as they appear and causes some major problems to the hysteric mechanic. Tom Edit: Now I've read your text too, heeh..kind of forgot that. I think the first mask is finished with spikes. You wanna go for spikes? Why not not a mask inspired by Pinhead from the movie Hellraiser. I'm not sure bout the piece in the third mask, have to see it without to make a call on that one. If it'll get ruined from being plucked out I'd probably leave it and let potential customer decide if that's where it's heading. Tom again

Whatabout some cheating to get some time over for photography too;-) Thought about getting a cheap wooden frame and stitch/staple/glue the leather frame right on it. To get nice edges on such a piece I thought thinner leather sewn on the front edges and rolled back over the frame to the back of it and stapled there could work. No experience in this but take a look at some of Keving Kings wallets and you know where I got the idea from. Happy snapping! Tom

Looks to be a darn nice seat. The letters came out very nice on the natural background. The font looks very neat when painted the way you've done. I usually go down with the dye all the way so it meets the background but some just looks better done like this. Love that font! Nice n cruel bike! Tom

That's a great looking bag. Nice colours and I really like how well the black straps go with the antiquing. I'll might just borrow that for another type of project. Got cow? Love it! Tom

Thank you Spider! I really appreciate it! Tom

Hey Spider gimme a break, just come home from work with ...tada..a broken belt that I'm gonna redo for a friend at work. No tooling except a little edging. He want's it as cheap as possible, ah well bread and butter money. Sooo, this piece is fantastic it really rocks! Every little thing is great, the skull tip, the lettering, backgrounding, laced edges and really cool beltbuckle. But..what are you doing on that chair, isn't it easier to hang from a string? I'm guessing camerashakes is the reason. Great work! Tom

Thanks David! Have you seen my explanation and the interior pics. Tried my best at explaining. Sorry for disturbing your binder thread. This one will be great. It's nice to see you master floral and tattooflash on the same piece. Hope we'll see more shots as it comes together, I'm curious to see if it features basketweaving on the floral side. looks thou as if you got a smoth and nice lineup on whatever stamp you used there. Further down the road i wanna have a binder with photos aswell so thank you for the great idea. Tom