TomSwede

This one truly amazes me. Nice work and soo realistic. Just look at the veins on the ear. Good luck in the competition. Tom

That's a really fancy display, never thought of that. Now I want one too and a portable one for the pocket aswell. Both themed up together. Nice basketwaving. I admire that but never have time to practice it. The backsupport seem to be a good idea that reduces time with needle and thread. Tom

From a Swedish movie. -Sleep, hm..naaah that's for amateurs. I just close my eyes for an hour, get up, have another dram and be as good as new. Cool stuff and excellent done but I like the previous ones better, off course. Tom

Superslick! Kaleidoscope sensation on this if you stare intensely on a given spot on this hat. Very cool job. Hats of, or on or done well! Tom

I have a plastic piece that I prolly fit on the bottom. It has perfect rigidness (what am I writing here..) to roll out the bottom nicely. Plastic 'cuz it will get wet down there (OMG..not again, cant stop miself). With a flat bottom glueing will be a lot easier. I use contact cement to have time to adjust the lineup and to get time for hangin' out at my favourite site, viewing my favourite projects. Good nite for tonite, Wednesday night and Thursday aswell. Have the graveyard shifts...unscheduled work sucks, need to be home and work the leather, oops! Tom

Nice pattern, i like the element with the diamond filled shapes, makes a cool contrast to the soft and flowing floral theme. Not for me at the moment but shure would like so see it done with antiquing. Tom

Started stitching mine. Not as easy as one would think with this type, minor mistakes hav been made. The purpose is to gain experience so I'm okay with that. Fisherboy doesn't know he's gonna get as a freebie so I can do whatever I like with it but the endresult must reach to a certain level at least. You pulled off your fine so I'll keep my fingers crossed I don't make any more mistakes. I hate showing of stuff before it's completed or near completion. It'll draw bad luck upon me and there's just is that stuff i posted in Drac's thread with the mainpiece on this one. Makes me nervous. Did you glue the sides before sewing lacing? I think it's damn hard to line up the sides when sewing, equally hard to glue the whole side it seems to me so I have glued the start on both (about 4 inches down from top) and try to go from there. No energy to deal with it now so I'm just hangin around here annoying people Have a great evening, over and out! Tom

Thanks spider! Ah. now I get it. The prince gotta be OZZY, right! Just thought about heading over to your bag thingie post and clutter down some stuff. See ya' there! Oh BTW, I have only one strap made, not a pair. Running out on shelf space here. Tom

The castle rocks! Cool idea! They way I work I think I would end up spilling them arrows out of the quiver of the first one, but that's me and I'm not into archery..yet. Tom

That's a beautiful nameplate or what you will use it as. Nice colouring and that border frames it up neatly. The sweet ambient lighting makes it seductive too. Tom

Nice stuff! Black n red sure is a given success! The scales on the third looks awsome. Got me thinking off that tv serie V but those were green I think. Nice work, one sure wishes for an airbrush equip, but..money..money, sigh. Maybe you could look back at stuff you sold before and come up with what it costs per hour when you work and the throw in what material costs. Seen people here suggest to double the material cost for buying in new material and some hidden costs, like how much would a few tiny drops of paint cost, and then a few drops of oil, a few drops of sealer and so on. It all adds up in the end. Tom

Welcome Peter! The forum is nice and friendly and people are very helpful. Looking forward to see some stuff from you! Tom

Happy birthday Beeza! I'm worse than Barra at singing, next one perhaps.. Tom

Thanks a bunch guys! I really appreciate it! Alex, love to hear that about the backgrounding. Took alot of time and perseverence and still think there are a few spots that could have been done better. The little A104 craftool is the only one used. Drac, Masters voice have ruled! Spider, Prince...Pffffffh The tribals on the sides originates from a tattoo tribal flashart magazine, don't know anything else 'bout them. The circular sawtoothblade border is the element of water (waves) and that is essential for life. The ironcross, as I see it, is an incarnation of some reminiscent symbols used by vikings, celts and other heathen beliefs representing the sun, again an essential for life. The tribals on the sides is life itself in the shape of two birds holding the sun between their tails. From the beginning I had the cross in the back of my head and when my eyes fell on this tribal I noticed the similarity to a magpie with it's long tail and the motif was born, the border was just given after that. The red colour should have had a sort of a black haze over it and it had too but I was just so eager i forgot that I had to let the stains harden before that leather balm with carnubawax. I'm used to plastic spray, wich can be applied after a short time. Thank you all! Tom

Larry Lassos beautiful spurstraps inspired me to make one in my own style. Just adding one more item to portfolio that (who knows) might appeal to possible clients. It can be used to stop drag under the legsleeve for stylish bikers, just tuck the sleeve in under. It is actually two straps, the retention strap sits underneath the stylish top strap. Top strap is loose in the fit so it can swivel when walking and to allow clearence for bootstrings, legsleeves. Top strap is realeased by pulling it off the inside fastening knob, wanted to have one big piece of leather around for an uncluttered area to work the tooling art on. About that spur, it's meant to be cut off for final product. As I sometimes do, the art on this one is really portraying some personal stuff disguised in a tribal, biker/metal way. Free coffee and donuts on me if you can figure out the motif, ClayB and Drac already knows and I'm feeling generous so they get a free round aswell. BTW, I'm not a biker if anyone thought so (nor metal diva) and what is really a heavy metal diva? Answer: Tom

Hey Spider! I been wondering what you were up to last few days! Once again we have same idea. My bag of the same type is just laying on the table waiting for assembly and top coat. I hate stitching! That bootstrap is also on my workbench just gotta fit it on the spur and it's ready. That's a cool nice looking bag, but off course, anything with skulls seduces me..lol. Love the skull with that headband girlie thingie on the forehead. That's the type of ideas one gets when tinkering with nailpolish, I just stick to my scoth and wearing a skirt for men What will you use the bag for? Mine is going to one of those flyfishingboys and the purpose is to carry the rel in it. Nice work, keep 'em coming! Tom

Felt like this a couple of weeks ago. Then i stocked up on material for the two fly rod tubes I'm gonna make, hardware for my own style bootstrap arrived. Started making of strap two days ago, almost done. Today I started to make a box (pursestyle) for flyfishing reel, only assembly and topcoat left. Also I picked up the important plastic innertubes to start production of those tubes + had a day at my job Saturday aswell. Hey time flies right now, so many things in my head now that I'm almost dizzy. In a positive way, just dreading that lockout that probably appear after this...oh yeah I can always attend to those planned motorcycle seats top coat sealer has been an issue for me in Sweden but I'm nearing a solution, hopefully. Tom

Thanks for your time and explanation Drac. Just got a little restless waiting for my buddy to go shopping tubes (yes they are home now) so i started tooling with this and just mixed Fiebings pro oil dye red mixed with Tandys saddle tan. Great stuff, got a gooey, gloppy mixture (like gumtrag in consistency) wich can produce similar results. Alot of black thick cream that leaves a nice red surface when swabbed with a damp cloth. I took most of the black of from the lettering here but this isn't the shoestrap I've talked about. Started this from an old carved, nontooled piece from the scrapbin. Will be a small bag to go with the rod tube to carry the fishing roll in. Working with this gel-like formula was nice 'cuz I had lots of time to apply a thick layer and then toodle around with the cloth here and there. It dries slowly compared to spirit dyes. Maybe we should copy this to another how to do it thread. How to make "Dracs bloodred with black haze"! Anyway, posting two pics here so you can see the result. I don't have th colour combination you used at home so I'll stick with this for bootstrap. Happy now and gonna go webshopping for some high end scotch. Hosting next event. Cheers (sla'inte in gaelic) Tom

It will be a jewel on that bike! The shape of it is just a very nice feature for suiting it to that bike. You sure have an eye for detail. Tom

Excellent stuff, I agree with fossil tendencies but that's just adding to cool here! I was just commenting Don's nice classic holsters so this was very nice contrast to that. Couldn't choose from either one if a had to pick a favourite. Nice job! Tom

Thanks Don! Quite an inspirational post this one. Lots of eyecandy, the rifle scabbard, WOW! Some day I want to get a replica western gun and make belt and holster for my self, I sure now where to look for inspiration now! Tom

Hey Drac! Mighty "snazzy" masks you've made there, like 'em alot! The first one has exactly the kind of red colour I want for that bootstrap we've talked about. Tried some antique blended with Fiebings red but all that happened what that is was alot easier to get on evenly wich is not a bad thing of course. Want that "black haze" in the red that you seem to manage allright with. What'cha do to get get it that way? Excellent work (buttering you up here;-)! Tom Edit: Just noticed that the second one from top have some more work done above the eyes and I think that looks just alot better than on the above mask.

Well, just sittin' here with an itchy running allergic nose wanting to go to bed so I'll give it a go here. I live in the mediumsized town Gävle (about 100 000 citizens) some 2-3 hours drive north from Swedish capitol Stockholm. Very much flatlands here since the ice from the iceperiod shaved of the land when sliding into the baltic sea. Work in a papermill, boring stuff but pay is very good. Live with my son (10 years old) and his mother wich came here from Korea when she was a small child. Our home is sort of a chainhouse (don't know what to call it in English really) and is located in a suburb. Not a concrete ghetto but a ghetto of chainhouses, mostly familys and older people. Pretty quiet place but the youth here are very much spoiled brats without parental control so sometimes little disturbance there. We have always lived here (in and around Gävle) and if I were about to move somewhere, up north is the only thing appealing to me. I really miss the snowy winters. Last two has been 4-8 inches of snow that lasts a week before gone and then grey wather for a few weeks before next little snowfall..and the circle starts again. I hate it! Leatherwork (especially tooling) is not very common here so I don't have any competition wich also means that people around here aren't familiar with tooled leather. Most times they recognize my work as art OR handicraft (except for the flask sheath shown here) and that's why bracers are the thing I always end up doing. Not so much handicraft as tooling art and makes a more affordable item and off course fits some peoples image. I've been on and off with the death metal musical scene (still are a little bit) since it started around -86 -87 so I sold about maybe 75 percent of my stuff to theese people. Good customers they are, never a complaint about pricing or anything. Nowadays I have a second home in a sleepy little village with 500 resident's just 1 hour drive northwest from Gävle. Really nice place with lots and lots and lots of forrest. One step of the trail and you could be lost for days. Small mountains starts here and the place is a little higher up wich means more snow (but not enough) and also 15 minutes drive from Swedens biggest leather shop. Yes this place was strategically choosen. It also has an appealing wildlife with a few species that's hard to come close to when photographing in other places, bears and wolfs mainly but also lot of elk and deer and some birds that are hard to catch. Well, won't boore you any more but I post some pics from my alternate home. Wish I could be there more often, sigh! Tom

That's about what I have come to aswell on the subject. There are some fimding of small figurines with hornlike birds on the helms, I believe. Just like to add that some historians suggests that the myth about horns is influenced by the findings in mosses in Denmark (also). They are some strangelooking helmets with big big horns on top that look more like some sort of blowinghorn (trumpetlike) and (I think) they are from the bronzeperiod, pre-viking age. Tom

I think your talking about what has kept me from bow and arrows. Always wanted to do it but only if I can just take stroll out of my backyard and just shot a few arrows for recreational purpose (aswell as serious practice training with a club) but people are gonna notice that and soon officers arrive and stop that. Booring but also understandable. I now have a place on the country side so maybe I'll pick it up one day. Have relatives that are somewhat experts on the archery subject. Hope your day was nice anyway! Tom