TomSwede

Hey man, that looks way cool! The design and elegance of that skull is veery nice. Looks like KK might get competition in the future. Tom

Very nice knotworks, straps are looking good and having them gathered that like that for all band members is nice. I've done quite alot of celtic designs and they can be alot of fun but then there are some with repeating pattern that I just can't do any more, they would stress me out and probably puke all over my table. Two favourite Irish things: Bushmills and Cruachan Looking forward to see more, especially that album cover would be cool to see. Tom

Be nice to Darren! His beard looks better than mine (I have like a few spider legs comin out from under the chin when it grows long). Tom

First one's really cool! Very catlike. Might have a go at that one for my speedcarving sessions. Oh bummer, my printer is out and I can't view leatherworker and print at work. Well well...nice treatie from you Roo! Tom

Hey Drac, I just knew it

I'm sure he will let us know any time soon!

Cool stuff! Looks like some wicked tattoo flashart. I just wonder what what kind of nasty notes that will go in there;-) Tom

Yup we've been there. Cut out an archers bracer for right hand Twice in a row the wrong way, not going into details I can tell you the cursing and swearing was enormous. Two days ago I spilled silverdye and got splotches and silverflakes all ovar that Motörhead bracer. Luckily it was all salvaged. Hope this cheered you up a bit and if not you can just have a laugh at me for making same error twice in ten minutes, well the lefties got new homes pretty quickly. Tom

That's a real kewl wallet. I just love the stuff you do with the backgrounds and were looking around for some of your work two days ago when I was about to do some additional backgrounding to the Motörhead skull I'm working on but couldn't find any. Solved it cautiosly. So I'm looking forward to see more of your stuff and those wild blends of colours of yours. Great stuff! Tom

Aaaaahhhh maaan! Your stuff is so beautiful that I probably wouldn't notice if your website was all up and down. Nice job on freeing up the objects from the rest of the picture, they almost pop out of the screen here...just a little bit more and I can grab one! Think it will look great when done. Tom

Gotta tell you a funny one here. Sorry if a bit off topic. At a local quite big street fair I saw a guy sitting and carving (or looked to be) the most amazing woodenboxes, really nice with advanced carvings on them and the cost is next to nothing so I just turned one of them boxes around. Made in Estonia and factorylabels aswell. I just asked him if he sold his own handmade ones aswell, he gave me a short -No, on that one. This was a few years ago and I always regret I didn't ask how the business was going but I haven't seen him around so maybe people saw through it. Tom

That is some very fine items there! Now you got me all worked up about that Swedish elkhorn crown that's been laying around here for a while. Looking forward to see some more from you, really! Welcome to the forum! Tom

Thanks Rawhide1! I feel more at ease now! Roo and Johanna, thanks for this good guide! I'm sure it will come to good use one day but then again my neighbour is said to be the only one in Sweden that knows this art of sea and ropes and knots fully out so I might knock on his door aswell, lol. Tom

Thank you RDB! This is the first time I actually get confirmation that they exist but I had my suspicions off course. Good to get a perception on pricing aswell. Just hope those two tubes attract attention, this guy has an exstensive network of fishingpartners so hopefully some attention can broght to it. I'll just have to keep my tounge in the mouth an make sure it comes out real nice. Best regards Tom

Tack Tina! Dalahästar och dryckeskåsor är väl vad som är gångbart här, stentroll också förstås. Thank you for your good advice and support! Tom

Fig.66 Tomfool knot Hmpf

Hey RDB! Lookin' good! Hope you have a real blast off total sale on that fair! I recognize those pricing thoughts and wish the best of luck for you! As someone mentioned, try to get a crank work for comparison. Tom

Thanks Grumpy! We'll be shopping the essentials at the end of the next week and week after that is a hard week at my job so I probably just get the stuff layed out and start tooling and assembly after that hard week at the job. I also need to squeeze in a bikeseat and probably another whisky flask sheeth with deadlines somewhere in may. Pictures will definetely be posted as I finish off the stuff but probably not while in progress. I am very afraid to show anything before completion, it often draw bad luck upon me. Thanks for your support! Tom

Yup! Just keep 'em comin'. Theres always something handy laying around and all one have to do is look hard enough in the junk corners of the home. Money and time need to be saved wherever they can. Two days ago I did that Motörhead skull all over since the first one was to big for the customers tiny arms and being a bit of a slacker that day I just took the glass sheet and taped down the graphics and sat myself down in the livingroom with a beer and a scotch, clamped a flashlight between my legs and put the working surface in my lap and made most of the transfer right there while watching telly with half an eye. The tricky parts of it were saved to the day after but that may well have been an effect from that whisky, lol. Nice and comfy it was. Tom

Cool stuff there! Chains and bolts look good. Megadeath is a great band. Never seen this image before so I'm wondering if this is your own Megadeath inspired concept? Again you say something that strike a string in me, love the different, against the grain and since time is lika running lika sand in my hands I seldom get to doing some normal stuff wich makes me appreciate it even more. Gotta have a balance of things. Now I really have an urge to finish the Motörhead skull. Nice work, keep 'em coming! Tom

I have no idea what Rodeo drive divas with pedal pushers are or what it means. I can tell you living in Sweden I don't know much about that stuff. What happened is I saw Lary Lassos spur straps and got inspired to do them in my own style and thought it might be an item for bikers. Like Spider says they sure be nifty for keeping the cold out of the jeans when temp drops. I sure do know some people around here that are probable customers. They buy anything Harleyrelated for sure. Tom

That looks very nice and authentic, I mean you managed to capture that lively look of a person. That seem to be so hard to do on leather. I have not much experience in this but I did tool a vikingface some time ago and it looks quite dead or like I portrayed a dollface. Nice frame going there also. Tom

I make things in leather simply because I love to work with it and the leather is a nice canvas to work with as an creative outlet for someone that can't paint or make drawings and more importantly it's a real pleasure to do things for other people. What I don't like is to push lot of money into display items (own portfolio) if it's something that is not in high demand from myself simply because it's hard to get the money back so whenever someone comes up to me with an idea for something new I reply, -Yeah, I can probably do it so I'll give it a try. I ca'nt guarantee the outcome but keep a lower price just for you. The real reason for the lower price is of course that I don't have any expenses for developing a new product and maybe some useful templates for future products, experience and last but not least a small "profit". The profit most times get spent on new leathers and tools but when I took a break from leatherwork a few years ago I could pull some nice money out it for whater use I felt spending on. Now that I'm back in doing leathers I have had to spend some serious money from the pocket to get some stuff needed to take my work to I higher level wich also have meant been doing some display items so my work account is way on minus right now and I have some serious costs to cover this summer so the timing is really bad, but I just can't stop myself in doing this, it's way addictive and all I wish for is more "shoptime" and have a balance in the shop account. Soo..all of this leads us into today when a friend payed a visit with a special request It's been a long dream of mine to make a fishingrod tube but for costreasons mentioned above I never gotten around to make one. My friend knows about this and is now taking the step into fullblown hardcore flyfishing fanatic so He wanted to have not one but two rod tubes. I answered as previous mentioned and then we discussed how it will be built up and graphic themes and such. I have 2 1/2 month to build them and he will pay for the materials as well as being a part of selecting them, wich means i get to shop around a bit with a privat taxi driver. How great isn't that! They will be built around a plastic innertube and the leather will be like a sleeve going over. The sleeve will be a bit oversized since we're gonna use a sheet of foampadding between the plastic and the sleeve , mainly beacuse that way I can adjust the fit by choosing from different thicknesses of the padding but also because this way the leather becomes less sensitive to indents and buckles when loading in and out of cars and such. There will also be a carrying handle on the side. The sleeve will be 1/8" leather that rolls around and get's laced together with that nice little MEXICAN BASKETWAVE lacing (estimated time for that alone is about 15 hours). I won't get into the bottom or the lid but I can tell you they will be kept fairly simple. They're gonna get his name tooled down and we're thinking maybe some decorative carving aswell to keep costs down a bit. So by know, if anyone still is reading, you're probably wondering why I'm writing all this down and that's just because I'm just really happy right now because it's for a loved friend, a long desired project, getting payed what I ask for without questioning (it'll be friend price off course), I get new stuff out on real life display and get those precious templates for making more of them, alot of fun and possibly chewing off a bite of that minus balance in the shop account. That's about it! Supersatisfied Tom

Hey man! Always a pleasure to meet some with a sense of humour, those emoticons are great little helpers. The Kat seat was indeed very nice I'm sure she'll love it. I got the same idea for bootstraps as you have. One testpiece has been laying for over a month now and waiting for the hardware to arrive. Larry Lassos post made me think that if cowboys use why not bikers. The hardware I have ordered is a pair of western spurs but I'll cut off the back thingy and see what I can do with it. Just made the strap right out of my head so we'll see how it will fit. I also thought of a chain going back over the heel and another chain right under the sole (military boot style) witch attaches to a hidden smaller strap over the boot front that is adjustable so one can tighten it, thus preventing the chain to fall off the heel. The tightening strap would then be hidden under the main piece where one can have the wearable art for a nice display (HD logos or whatever). A ring could work as connection point for the chains and strap on both side of the shoe. Talking about good pics for art on leather. I'm currently doing a Motörhead skull on a bracer. All pics i find with it is depicting the skull in cast metal so that's what I have to deal with. I'll try to make it look like a cast metal piece, I have figured out one way to do it to leather but I sure aint sure what final result will be. I'll use silver spirit dye and some antiquing on top. That's all I say for now. Cheers! Tom

For a friend??? phuuuii..yeah right duh. I bet that heart is "for a friend" too But seriously then, that's some nice stuff and that heart has a very nice touch to it. I bet someone is really happy with those items despite the trouble you had with the ECO stuff. Good work! Tom