TomSwede

OH MAN!!!! Nice work, shure got an evil touch to it. That lining is way cool. Tom

Thanks RDB! The bag is not my work just the wristbands, sha later ordered a necklace in the same style and man can I tell you this celtic pattern won't be done for a long time from me. She also has a pair of wristbands with that pattern in antique brown..and NO I was not in love with the woman, I just know how much money she makes, lol..seriously we are colleagues (spelling??). About that charter, I might ask my friend Bruce Dickinson (of Iron Maiden sometimes double as pilot on commercial flights) if he can sort it out...NOT Best regards Tom

Nice stuff guys, hey Kev, those keyrings is real eyecatchy :jump: Sometimes I think it would be cool to meet some of the leatherworkers but most are WAY far from Sweden so I have to settle with sometimes running into a previous happy customer! Tom tomswede1__Medium_.bmp tomswede1__Medium_.bmp

That's amazing! I've been thinking that a koifish design would look great on leather but haven't dared try it yet. It looks fantastic! Tom

Hello Randy! When you say Photoshop I'm thinking PHOTOSHOP and that's way expensive for just some casual photography touch up's and managing. If you really desire that program you can buy an older version second hand (the license is important) and later on use that license to buy a newer version with some nice discount. However there is another option and that is Photoshop elements and tha'ts a pricey proggie with lots of sharp functions from the bigger brother. I got my element's bundled with a flatbed scanner. It has that nice little file saving function that is called "save for web" wich drops the 32kb exif file and let's you control the compression with a slider and you do get to see the actual result as you make the adjustments. I love that function but I don't know how other proggies perform on this. I use the big brother PS and don't really feel the need for another program except for when extracting jpeg's or TIFs from the RAW files. And remember always do your adjustments on copies from the original files and have backups aswell. Tom

You sure got the expression on that dogs face down real good and that does it for me. I like it alot! Tom

That is very nicely done! Just gotta love that scroll! Tom

Nice goin'! Should be intersesting to see finished. Tom

I used a golden dye (compound of yellow spirit dye and golden flakes) once to cover up a project (posted before 08 disaster) that had a messed up red background (Fiebings oil red) that came from a danish company called ROC. It gives complete coverage on any spirit dye, and also comes in Silver and Copper. Don't know if anyone in US carry it but I think that there would be a match amongst the leading companys. This dye is totally amazingly fun to paint on with a regular cheap brush, it refuses to get streaky because of the flakes but the brush needs to be thrown away or kept apart from any other stuff or goldenflakes will be all over the place like snow in a storm. Tom

Hey Drac! MANY THANKS for this great tutorial, I won't be using it in the near future but man I gotta tell you, I been dreaming for years about having a fishing rod tube in just this style so I saved this topic to the old photography HD and Yes I do run backups for sure on that drive so hopefully one day it'll come true, that is if it is possible to do it in a larcer scale. That'll beat those all luxury-equipment-makes-me-better-than-you-fishermen with their aluminum tubes for sure :jump: Tom

Thank you for the link. I've been thinking about ordering from Pecards but I'd prefer to use something that's is a bit more accessible from my location and there seems to be very few items to choose from and most of them seem to be in the leathercare/conditioner compartment such sa neatsfoots oil, lexol and I'm not sure those products hold it up as a sealer. My first seat might be black so I'm also worried about crocking. Confused Tom

That is very beautiful, I don't know much about floral but I just love the different tones of brown and the nice touch with that black backgrounding. Tom

Since Max brought up a sealer question I just fill in with some more and excuse me Steve for hijacking the thread a bit. I would like to hear if anyone ever tried the acrylic sprays for bikeseats and if it could do well. Reason for this is the limited sealers available here in Sweden. Pecards doesn't even exist. It says saddle lac on all those acrylic cans so I figured a seat is just a variation of saddle ( I guess). Thanks Tom

The compound is called Jewelers rouge and is available at Tandys. Go to their page at tdo a search for jewelers and it will come right up. http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com I also received this months tutorial from Painting cow wich dealt alot with carving. Go there and signup and you will immedietly get access to some online tutorials in PDF format, very nice service from Paul Burnett. http://www.paintingcow.com/free_lessons_signup.html? Good luck on your journeys in leatherland Kaos! Tom

Thank you for that! I'm not sure what will go on anyway cu'z I'll be getting a spare from a buddy and if he likes it he will buy it for cost of leather n labour, if not we just sell it and split somewhere (if there is any market in Sweden?). Best regards! Tom

That's a good idea!

Just thought I'd share my simple yet functional lighttable solution with you all. I don't often need a lighttable but for the type of work you see on the pic I really do and since I needed to free up workingspace a couple of years ago i chucked my bigger lighttable out and replaced it with this. The lamp is the cranelooking type wich I just pull down on my table and then I tape a printout of the desired design and the transferfilm on top of a clear piece of plastic glass (don't know it's name in English) and put it over the lamp and..voila'! It's not the best solution but for now and then occasions it's allright with me. A piece of tape between the table and plastic sheet keep it from sliding around to much. Cost: next to nothing. Lamp, is what I use for whatever I do on the workingtable so: nothing (Storing)Space: Less than a magazine Tom

Darn, I'm gonna have a go at a Harley seat sometime soon and that is one of the design I was out to do! Got half a template done, bummer! Well, there are plenty more designs to go for and it was great to see how wonderful it looks on leather. Nice work! Tom

That's some sweet stuff, just got to tell you I love the masonic item with just the black colouring. Tom

Scouter is spot on. Curved lines and circles are hardest ones. Here's a few other pointers i thought of: Lighting: I have light from all directions so that I can see the outline i'm following. If I get shadow on the line I reposition my work (or lighting) and pick up just were I left off. My LED foreheadlight is a treasured item, a little weak but never shadowed. Carving: I think I actually have lesser movement going on with my carvinghand than the other that moves around the leather mainly because (for me) it's very easy to accidentally tilt the knife with to much movement (wich creates undercuts that are nasty when tooling later on) so I have a technique were I kind of drag the leather around the knife. Also, as pointed out by Scouter, strop the blade properly. I use a piece of scrapleather with compound and with circles/curved lines I strop everytime I have to take the knife off of the leather. Happy carving! Tom

Ok so heres a post from someone who likes birds of prey. I've been photographing them in the wild mainly because it's really challenging to not be spotted by those razorsharp eyes of theirs. That's some nice carving and tooling, you did good with the feathers. Looks like some kind of hawk or possibly kite. Nice work there and hope you'll be posting the final result! Tom

I love it. As Kevin says you have your own style! Nice combo of colours and I love that pebbler. Tom

Thank you guys, I really appreciate it! Ken, I really wish I had a chance to se that lineup but..too young then, sigh! :skull3: Spider, seems just like black and red enhance the depth of the colour when combined so it's really a thankful contrast combination to work with. The red is so hard to apply evenly but with black backgrounds it seems to smooth out or become a little less noticeable. Tom

Once again I've been comissioned to do an Ozzy bracer. He wanted red simple logo on a black batshape (wich he provided) on the batshape type bracer but when I layed out the tracing patterns I just didn't like what I saw so I gave it some red borders and red tribalistic art aswell as working with some backgrounding. So once again I ended up working alot more than paid for but as I need items for future online portfolio I guess it's kinda ok to give friends and foes some discount or extra art to be more correct. It sure was a nightmare to paint since the red dye can't be applied over the black without showing but yet very fun work and I really enjoyed myself over this one. Just hope I get to see it when it has been used alot and that the sealers plastic shine comes of a bit. I wonder if this type of dyeing/painting would go lot easier with an airbrush, anyone?? Darn it's hard to get nice photos after that acrylic sealer is applied, need to work on lighting but also try to get another sealer solution ASAP. First two pics is without sealer/finish. Tom Edit: added one more pic from the backside!

Wow, that is so awesome! That bracelet holding it together just takes it to another level aswell. Looks really professional. I wanna have one of those for my old house on the countryside for sure! Tom