YinTx

This item has sold, thank you all for looking! YinTx

AHHH!! AHHH!! AHHH!!! (running around with hair on fire)!! I need some chat! Help us! (sorry, late at night.. .couldn't help it...) At least let us little ones know what is going on... is it gone forever, or just getting a reboot? Many thanks... YinTx

That looks like it was a lot of work! It came together really nice. What weight of leather do you use for something like that, and do you put a lot of neetsfoot oil to make it flexible? Or is it better off stiff? YinTx

Not the best pic in the world, but here is the inside. And thank you all kindly for the positive comments. I know we are our own worst critics, and it looks pretty good in the photos and from far away, but some of the fatal flaws were: upside down "Handcrafted" stamp in upper left corner, stamped over again to cover up using the geometric stamp... uneven depth of stamping... uneven ribbon border...gouged leather.. rough inside corners.. difficulty with the antique, and no closure strap included in design... I've been trying to improve on most of those things since then, I'll post future stamping efforts for critique! YinTx

Well, despite all the grievous errors in my "learning" pieces, I decided to finish it out and make a cover for my Kindle. Started a larger one to better fit it, with fewer errors, better leather and hopefully I'll get the antique to apply better, but until then... I think this one is at least functional, and I finally have a cover to keep the Kindle safe! Also, someone else made a cover and had a unique way to attach the Ipad or whatever it was.. by twisting the leather retaining strap, but I could not for the life of me find the post showing how that was done. If someone remembers where that was, kindly send me the link! Many thanks! YinTx

In addition to getting the blank dialog box, I also get a truly horrendous SKREEACHHH sound coming from my speakers when I am in a topic and someone updates it. Is there a way to change this to a more pleasant "Bing" or "you have a wonderful new message" sound vs. the shred my speakers sound when there is a new post? Thanks! YinTx

Yes, I've seen the magnet closures and wondered if there was a shield there, or if they were just too weak to affect things... but lack of information puts me in the same boat as Brianm77... not worth the cost to find out! YinTx

Really nice, intricate work. Well done, and glad to see you back making things and sharing them with us! YinTx

Thank you for that. The fire was over a year ago, we have since recovered. I suspected those irons were no longer being manufactured. I have kept my eye out for used irons available as well, and hope to buy when I see one available. You may more likely find them in your area than I in mine! YinTx

z648047960007_5c60ffc28f3b187066b9861109b26338.jpg.138141c5345097d08145cf870c599217.jpg I had a set like this (your tools marked EMS 1002), I lost mine in a house fire. Where did you get yours, are they still available? YinTx

The first set you show a photo of is quite nice, resembles the Kyoshin Elle stitching irons that have been discontinued here. Best of luck to you, I hope you are able to find the irons you are looking for. Ebay has been best to find old leather tools, but you don't know the quality until it is in your hands! YinTx

My take on your pattern. Clever, but I will say not easy. This thing was a bugger for me to try to keep things lined up nicely. Might turn out to be the only one I make. YinTx

Rickroid, Craig, BattleMonkey: Thank you very much. Electrathon: This may set on the shelf for a while to find the right buyer.. I will try to get over $200 for the purse, we'll see what happens. Of course, not a solid 6 weeks of labor.. a lot of dye this and wait.. edge coat that and wait.. glue this and wait... I tried to get a few better photos, the pictures do not do the blue leather with white edging contrast any justice. YinTx

TinkerTailor: That looks really slick! Does the plastic piece stay in place then, just surrounded by the leather which holds it down? Really nice carving too. Wedgetail: I looked at the magnets, this is a cool solution too because you can take to phone out easily and pop it right back in easily if you desire. I always worry about magnets and credit cards: is it an unfounded fear? Sorry it took me a while to get back to this one! and thanks for the suggestions also! YinTx

The old ones are not easy to find. If you already have all of those in the photos, you likely have more than most of us. Abbey England has some new versions made in the same style, but not Dixon branded. I believe made by some of the original Dixon employees. Occasionally one will pop up in Ebay, but they go for a premium. YinTx

Richard, Thanks for the info. I've tried the following, it is in final drying: Dye, neatsfoot, saddle lac, Angelus acrylic antique. It is holding nicely, wondering if I need to put another layer of saddle lac on top of the acrylic antique? I had two pieces, one has it one does not. Both seem ok so far, but not 100% dry yet on the last saddle lac coating. I tried putting water on the antique by itself, nothing came off, seems pretty set. I have another test run going using 2 very heavy coats of Angelus High Gloss acrylic finisher. I'll put the Angelus acrylic antique over that, then more acrylic finisher and see how that works out. I must say these are all super shiny finishes, not my favorite look for leather - makes it look like plastic instead of leather. I much prefer the Aussie look but that does nothing for resist! I do appreciate your suggestions, as I don't have the luxury of apprenticeship, and have to glean what I can from whatever sources I can. As many of us these days are, I am self taught, and as such have to go through the trial phases to relearn/discover what others may have figured out 100 years ago. The plethora of misinformation and products available makes this process even more painful. Not to mention expensive. I have tried to acquire books etc. to assist, but even those are lacking what you would learn in an operating shop. It seems everyday I see someone doing something that might appear mundane to them and I wonder why the $$%@$ didn't I think of that before, because it would have saved me so much time and frustration! Folks like Gmace and RockyAussie and yourself sharing videos and photos of work in progress etc is infinitely useful, in spite of the negative backlash others may give for "all those YouTube Videos" out there. I even took some negative responses just for posting a really short video showing me stitching for someone that had requested it. The requestor was happy, others seemed perturbed that there would be a video made by someone other than Nigel or Ian showing hand stitching. Anyhow, off of the soap box, and many thanks. YinTx

I bought one of those thread zap tools. Absolutely worthless. Tip heated up once and that was the end of it. Never worked again. Don't know if it was a lemon or standard issue, but for me, a waste of $$. Had such high hopes for it too. YinTx

Some odd thing on my end? Screen capture just FYI. YinTx

Wondering if the search function issues are mine alone or if it is global. When searching a term like "leather" I get 108,000+ responses. Search for "Others" or "Others May" or "a" and I get 0 responses found. YinTx

Indeed, I have some and they are really pretty nice. I'd get more if I thought I could use more! At the price, these are definitely worth it. YinTx

It does appear to be pulled a bit tight. Give it a tap with a hammer to flatten it out and the wrinkles may go away. Stitching looks really good tho! Many struggle to get the back to have a nice slant like that. YinTx

Haha you could be right Richard. I'm feeling a bit of an idiot here, because I could swear I saw an instructional from one of our respected experienced leatherworkers talking about putting resolene on as a final finish to seal in the antique paste, even after using Saddle Lac. It seemed odd to me at the moment to mix the two products, but I watched it twice to be sure, and that's what it said, so I did it. It even mentioned that the resolene would pull up some of the antique, but not to worry! Now for the life of me I can't find the reference I used so I could put it here, so I'm going to go with - I didn't hear right, and that is not what they said to do. So if I am using Saddle Lac as the resist, then antique paste, should I be spraying Saddle Lac on top of the resist, or using something else like Tan Kote, which is resin based? I have a learning piece all tooled screwed up, antiqued and ready for a final finish, so I'm prepped to experiment with suggestions! Thanks for your help, YinTx

I just had this happen to me, on leather that was not dyed, and had dried for several days after stamping. I sprayed on a very light coating, let it dry for a couple of days, put on some Fiebeng's antique, wiped it off, let it dry for a few days, put resolene over the top to seal it. Two days later, I came back to them so I could burnish edges, and it just peeled off in really thin sheets as I was working the edges. Really disappointing. Add it to the list of items that fail miserably as a resist: Resolene, Tan Kote, Bag Kote, Saddle Lac, Angelus Acrylic finish, Eco Flow Matte Finish, etc. And I really had my hopes up as it actually worked as a resist to the antique, allowing it to fill in low spots and tool marks, but wiping fairly well off of high spots and smooth areas. If I can't find anything that works, I'm going to have to throw all of my antiques into the garbage bin along with all of my stamping and carving tools. YinTx