Tina

We have put the date down in the calendar, hopefully I see you there:-)

Hi all, I came across this web page tinkering around the net and want to share. Its full of holster, ammo cases, belts and such including "how to" and the pattern it self, enjoy:-) http://eightbits.home.att.net/

She came out absolutly great Clay...Awesome:-)

Thanks Bruce for sharing your experience, I'm sure it helps here:-) Some of what you write about I do recognize, some I don't. I have never excepted a wholesale order, I'm to easily bored. I guess I'm lucky cuz I love cutom work, it keeps me as busy as I like. But still, from time to time you do come across someone that thinks it's "only a piece of leather" and wants to make "a deal"...Thanks but no thanks. Like you I'm all for not undermining the time we spend on this, and (hopefully for me by time) knollage plus all the tools and material we have to have in stock, it all costs money. I'm all for keeping the prices to an accurate level where we don't sell our self short and where we do get recogized for the craft. Wishing everyone a great week end//Tina

Bruce, I really don't know anything about floral carving but I do know when my eyes like something...They like :-)

Hi Marlon, That is fantastic:-) I love the coloring and the shading...

Hi Pete, It should have said...The inverted on the right side. Sometimes the brain is qicker than the fingers:-)

I'm a bit of a neat freak I guess :angel_not: (I actually wish I could let go sometimes) Clay...Here is some pictures of the lions and the "quilting" as I call it. I used a checkerd beveler towards both ends.

I just wrote the name that was in Al Stohlmans book - "tripple loop"...

When I first met my American husband, this is what he said to me: "Americans, don't touch our cars and Don not touch our guns" :-) Have fab evening//Tina

Hi Pete, This is awesome...The inverted one is actually my favo, beautiful work:-)

My style is more towards realism too in leather. If possible I would like to put my own twist on the subject, usally I can do this when it's not a comission work, then again, it also have to do with the purpouse of the item. I need to get this subject a second thought in about a year when I have some more items to compare with:-) In art, I'm an absolute fan of surrealism, anything goes,. but I also love cubism. I have tried to come up with themes for this to leather but have not yet come up with an idea that is good enough. To just take one of my painting and trancfer it to leather...Naw, that would most likley look really strange:-) Intersting topic Clay. Yes, interesting topic, but I can't take credit for it, it was Alex's idea

Hi all friends and Super Thank You for all your input and knollage. What did I do before i found this place? :-) (wasted a lot of leather!) Oki, some of this is new and some of it I've seen in the book you get with a starter kit (Al Stohlmans something It's upstairs and I"m to lacy to get out of the chair to have a look *s*) I'm going to lace together 2 pieces of around 7 ounce leather, quite thick and want to be sure I cover it as much as possible hence the tripple loop style. I have one of the revolver punches (not sure if the name is right, makes round holes) a 4 and a 1 prong chisel prong so I should be covered:-) Marlon, you only go through the corne holes twice? In the manual I have it says 3...I guess I have to di trail and error:-) The taping over the laced pieces, that make sence Clay...Well let's see how this is going to be:-) This is going to take some time, I forgott, I actually have to cut the lace too (it's called atzhimers light in the family) I have a nice piece of kangarooo to that. I just finished of a huge (in my book) piece of carved leather today, I enclose a picture, it might look goofy at places, I had to put a couple of pictures together the scanner isn't big enough. This is going to be a handbag...Hopefully:-)

Hi all, I'm in process to start with some lacing for the first time. I choose the tripple loop style. The question is, should I use holes from a punch or from a chisel prong? What would look best and if holes from the puch, how far between the holes? (I bought that little spacing tool for holes with 3 different spacing wheels to help if I need it) Have a great day//Tina

Thank You Marlon for the useful info:-)

Be Proud Freak, it's Awesome:-)

Hi Syd. I sometimes use a very pointy scalpel for tricky places. After some experimenting my experience is that you can only cut down maximum 1 mm (0.04 inch and less) Otherwise the cut will crack wide open when the leather dries and that is not attractive at all.

Dale, You think alike:-) I'm thinking of using a spray, one to get it thin, two not to disurb the picture at all. Hi Skipknives and welcome to the discussion:-) I have never used a finisher on my oil paintings. I paint layer on layer upon layers (many super thin ones) and at the end there's quite a lot of oil in it and it gives a natural finish if you like. I know I still have paintings that I did decades ago and they are rolled up due to lack of storage space. Every now and again I unroll them and they are just fine, no cracks or nothing. The acryllic paintings with the same age, well, still OK but not as good and small cracks. Even if the paintings have many layers you can not tell, it looks as it's only one thin layer and all the grain on the canvas is still showing. I think people that paint "impasto" (thick layer in like 3D) might have a problem after some time? So...My thoughts is to paint very thin and to apply a very thin but durable layer of some finisher. It sounds good, lets see if it's going to work. I'm going to give the lioness plenty of time to dry before spraying any finisher on (IF it's still wet the finisher will go opac) The recommended time for a several layer oil painting is around 6 months, this leather one, well I hope a months or so will do it (???) Have a fab day every one//Tina

Lucky You Marlon, Peters web site was one of the first I found when I started to look for information about this craft. I can say that his work was one of the reasons I started trying it out. I wish he would show up here i Michigan at some point, I'll go:-) Tina

Oscar B Thank You, this is very interesting stuff. I like the look from oil paints much, much more than from acryllics, like soft velvet. Im going to give a practice piece a try and see what happends. I really don't need to thin it out but I guess you take away some of the oil in the paint by doing this. The info about mixing oil/acryllics make sense...Going to take that to my heart. Normaly if you mix in the same painting you always start out with the acryllic, then the oil, but letaher...Well it can crawl under, I did not think of that. This is why I love this web site:-) Dale Because my paint has the consistansy of soft room temperatured butter I can really paint this in very thin layers with out thinning it out. As said above, the benefit might be getting some of the oil out? Normally oil paint is much more durable than acryllics, and more beautiful, vivid, alive...Hard to put words to. The draw back is the drying time. You think it's going to rub of anyway? Lets see if this isn't something that can be solved (Detective Tina is on a mission)...Persistence Perseverance Patience :-) Have a great night all//Tina

Dale, I looked at the link...This is actually something I have at home but hesitate to use on leather. The reason it's not as flexible as I would wish for, in other word, it could crack easy (?) TwinOaks I'm not looking for oil, just a non water/acrylic lacker (laquer), type super sheen where you get a clear surface but oil/thinner based. Ideal might be the clear stuff you have on type mahogany boats, that must be flecible but I'm not sure how the leather will react. I found this one on Tandy, but I probaly have to call them to see if this is what I'm looking for: Master Quick Shine Spray 13 oz 84300-000 The shoe repair shop secret to a high gloss shine. Good for luggage, handbags, shoes and boots. It is ORM-D and must be shipped by ground. Can someone tell me what ORM-D is? I'll keep posting when I have jumped over a hurdle:-)

Hi all:-) And Clay, it's OK for me if you want to post our PM's, no problems. That helped me a whole lot and I think it would help others too. The line that's talked about (mouth)...I totally missed to copy that before I carved my lioness, but I did remeber to ad it on the drawing for this task. Just a screw up on my part When I did this drawing, many times I ad stuff as I go along, for example the lines around the mouth and such...Thinking of how cats look like, how their hair is growing, the direction and length etc. I use to breed Burmese cats and had quite a few, now I just hope I remeber right. The hair I made with a dentist tool, a really pointy one. Now to depth. I try think at least 4 "layers/steps", more if possible. It is after all many times a trick of the eye. Remebering how my cats looked when they where hissing, spitting and growling, the lines on their noses was rather defined and sharp with deep folds. I wish I had a good photo of that, but I can't help but share a few of my all time favourite European Burmese Boobs (looooong story behind the name, lets just say, an Aussie got the last word *S*)

Hmmmm...Me like Clay:-) A perfect candidate for this project. I'm so looking forward to see the result.

Froghunter...This is so cool:-) It's going to get really interesting to see how different this one can be from the same base. I painted mine, but kept her as a lioness.

Absolutly beautiful work, Amazing...Thank you for sharing your work:-)