wildrose

Nice work! Especially dealing with that belt.

I'm with you, Kate, I loved his voice in that vid.

I think they meant Gaye, as in Marvin Gaye? My guess. I loved the Where the Hell is Matt vid too! As to not judging by appearance, anyone ever see that BIG guy from Britain's Got Talent (or whatever it was called) sing opera? That's a true case of "don't judge a book by its cover"!

Thank you for enriching my day. That was beautiful! I seem to remember seeing a similar "montage" with a different song though.

I don't have an actual stamp yet, but since others are sharing the story of the business names, here goes: I grew up on a small horse farm in NJ. It was a very rural area, surrounded by old stone walls, wildlife and a variety of wildflowers and flowering trees (inc. our apple orchard). My favorite of all was the wild rose. I could smell them as they started blooming, while I took our dog on long walks down a nearby dirt road. In honor and memory of that special time in my life, I chose to name my business Wild Rose Creations. So NO, it has nothing to do with being Irish (though I am)

Love the color and the sewn border. I see you have the same problem I do : rose leaves. It's hard to get the serrated edge look, and the veining. Many times I'll do just the rose and skip the leaves! LOL!

LOL Johanna! For one friend I had, it was lipstick. She had a pale complexion, but wore a REALLY bright lipstick, which she constantly applied after every cup of tea/coffee. (We went out to dinner together once/week). You could tell her cups by the marks on them!

After the fantastic replies, suggestions, and alot of thought on the matter, I decided to turn him down. I wrote a polite note to him about it, and wished him the best. BTW, I realized I should've specified that OCD was an abbrevation for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I've known a few people who clinically had it, and for those who mentioned it: you're right, they often cannot be satisfied.

At this stage, I turned the customer down, but it is something I'd like to keep in mind for the future - so thanks for the info!

I'll be setting up at the local farmers' market soon, and thought these might be good sellers. Will see....

If you mean the lighter colored bumps, I think those are stitches of a thread lighter than the stain. If you mean on the leather itself, that's a background tool you'd want. There are a variety, I get mine from Tandy personally.

I was just curious, as I've been experimenting with some of the new EcoFlo colors (last night, I used Thistle Purple)

I have a customer who wants quite a bit of lettering (esp. Bible verses) on a project. Someone suggested laser engraving them. How is this done and where can I get the equipment and how much does it cost?

When I was volunteering with 4H, the kids actually used cereal bags, cut into pieces. Good recycling!

I use one that I've had for years from Tandy. It's a strip of leather on one side, wood in the middle, and some sort of pressed wood on the other. I use jeweler's rouge. I have a ceramic blade which is all I use for carving.

I'm sure I'll get jumped on for this, but in my opinion Peter Main is the best. That's not to say I don't think there are other phenomenal leatherworkers out there, but he's my favorite. http://www.petermain.com/

I love a good challenge, that stretches my ability levels, which is why I'm considering it. Plus, the subject matter interests me. Plus a good friend sent him my way. I do take 100% up front on jobs like this: custom, not able to be sold to anyone else. And I do a paper-plan/layout of what will be done before we agree on me doing it. I'm confident enough about the design work (oak leaf corners, a cross, a knight, his name and Holy Bible); what worries me is the interior layout (pockets, notepad holder, pen holders) and the amount of Bible verses he wants. I cannot stamp them, because they are too long and need to be too small. I have a set of really tiny letters (I think they were for metalworkers), but they don't line up right all the time, and I don't want to do them for such a thing. So do I print it, then trace and carve the letters? Or do I just "free hand" it with fine tip fabric markers (which I've done before)? And he wants the whole thing BLACK! ('cept some silver here and there) Oh....and he doesn't even have the Bible yet....

Having used both, I can say I prefer the antique. You're right that the effect is very similar. The chief difference I've found is that the hi-liter is...well, liter - LOL. Honestly, that's all I can tell on it. That antique does have some splotching issues though, somewhat like the old Fiebing's paste. I like Tandy's new raisin mahogany (liquid) antique better.

I've had someone write me asking for a Bible cover. He has admitted he has OCD. (is obsessive compulsive) His requests bear this out (i.e.: "NO brown, anywhere, at all" as if this was a BIG deal for him) Also, it is a REALLY detailed project. I know I'm capable of doing it, just not sure I want to. Thoughts?

I'm having deja vu on the "label topics better" request. I used to ask that ALL THE TIME in reference to email subject lines when I was in the IILG. It NEVER happened. Sorry to burst any bubbles, but it's just a fact of life that sometimes people don't do what we wish they would.

love love love love that thing! I'm in need of buying it again since I only have it on floppy and need a cdrom.

Every once in a while, I’ll buy a bag of “sheep wool scraps” from Tandy to trim down and use for staining, etc. I got a bag recently, and it had a BIG grey piece in it. Ethan (my 4 yr old) pounced on that right off. He carted it away and flopped down on top of it. “My snuggly friend!” he says with glee. I’m thinking, “well, that’s a loss”, and start chopping up the rest into little pieces. Meanwhile, he’s lugging the thing around with him, rubbing it on his face and all. Days go by, and I find he has moved on to other things and left it under his train table. Not wanting to cause a fuss, I sneak it back into my workshop and put it up where it’s not quite in his line of sight. Not good enough: he comes in a few days later and spies it sitting there. “You’re not cutting up my snuggly friend????!!!!” “No, darling, of course not, I would never do that!” (Lying through my teeth…) So he carts it off again and I wait a few days before retrieving it and HIDING it in my shop again. At that point, I begin to snip pieces off a little at a time so he won’t be suspicious. Didn’t work: he spied one chunk on my workbench and cried, “is that from my snuggly friend??” and I said “oh no, Ethan, I wouldn’t do that to you.” Satisfied, he trotted off to find some new plaything. He never did ask about it again. Oh the lies we tell!!!! I remembered all this today as I found the rest of the “snuggly friend” in the bottom of my buffing scraps box.

Best wishes to you Jordan!

A while ago, I did a poll here, and was amazed at how many leftys are in this group! It was disproportianate to the general population.

I'm a lefty and have the "good fortune" (?) of being right handed with shears. Other than that, I find leatherworking to be pretty easy to adapt to as a lefty. (I'd also done calligraphy, and found all the pens were cut for rightys) I did have a challenge learning the double loop stitch, but found that if I sat opposite my husband, I could watch and do it that way (same way I learned guitar chords). Basically like looking in a mirror, after all. The only tools I have for leftys are a stitching palm and I modified my strap cutter.