GregGaub

Thanks, Tracy. That's the book I saw at Tandy with all the very beautiful, but very large and complex images. I only flipped through it, but I don't recall seeing any small/simple images that I could use. Do you have that book? If I missed something, please let me know and I'll go back to the store and take a closer look. Thanks, Oddball. Those are some really good ones. I didn't think of looking for stencils. Much appreciated, you guys! -Greg

Simple answer to a simple question: It doesn't hurt to ask. I don't think it's rude to ask at all. In fact, I'd say it's complimentary to ask for a pattern. It says that they admire the work and wish to replicate it. Where rudeness comes in, as pointed out previously, is when the asker implies that it's the designer's duty to give out the pattern. It's rude to tell the person to give you the pattern. It's rude to get the pattern and show no gratitude. It's NOT rude to ask for it. If the designer wants to keep it to him/herself, then they say no, and that's the end of it. If the asker does anything but accept that answer, then you've got a jerk on your hands. I'll give an example... a close friend of mine develops a wildly popular Palm OS app that is FREEware. He did it because he was passionate about software and the app was something he himself needed. He shared it with the community and they drank it in happily. At first, he accepted post cards as "payment" from anyone who felt so inclined, but even had to stop that because he had gotten enough to fill multiple boxes with post cards. Unfortunately, after a while, people began to feel entitled to his free work. Some people literally said that he OWED them/the community to add some feature or another, or to make a version that worked on whatever shiny new device they just started carrying. I'm sure you can guess what happened. He stopped developing the app. He stopped answering questions on the support forums for it. When people felt entitled and ungrateful is when he stopped giving. There's nothing wrong with asking for something. HOW you ask and what you do with the response is the important part.

Hey, all. I've been googling around but coming up short. I'm making Zippered Coin Wallets (Kit #44013-00, discontinued from Tandy) for my neices, who both love fairies. The finished item isn't much bigger than a business card wallet, so I'm looking for VERY simple/small designs to put on them. In fact, a 3D stamp would be perfect, if there was one (is there?). I can carve it myself, but all the fairy images/designs I've found are really beautiful but equally complex and large. A cel-shaded style would be cool, but I don't want to to Tinkerbell, rather a generic (and cooler than Tinkerbell ;-) fairy. I'm still looking, but would be overjoyed if someone has one or finds one before me. Thanks! -Greg

I'm no master craftsman, but I can share a tip or two on double-loop lacing. 1) Maintain the proper orientation of your needle. I do this by threading the lace through the hole, carefully pulling it through and avoiding knots, then I loop through the lace, again, carefully avoiding knots, leaving BOTH of these loose, such that I can literally put my finger through the loops. Then I park the needle in the NEXT hole, and carefully pull the two loops tight. Then I repeat. You have to watch the lace like a hawk to avoid twisting, especially if the holes are pre-punched or oversize for whatever reason. Of course, practice helps. 2) the easiest thing to make ugly is the final tie-in steps for a continuous lacing. Here, the trick is that you need to REMOVE SEVERAL holes worth of the start of your lacing so that the angles of your lace match up. Be careful with your tool as you pull the lace the last time so that you don't take too much of the loop you're going to use for the last step. If you allow it to get too small, you won't have an even looking transition from finish to start. Other than that, and following the excellent Tondy book by the Stohlman's, it's all about practice. once you get the basic double-loop, the two-tone is a hoot to do and looks awesome. -Greg

I couldn't resist commenting on that video. Yes, the craftsmanship is great, and the bags are worth a lot... just not $6,000 for their cheapest low-end bag. KA-RAZY! Like any other high priced status symbol, it's all about the name, not the product. At least in this case, there is *some* amount of virtue in the product, as opposed to some company charging the same amount for composite leather and machine sewing.

If you're (anyone) gonna toss out numbers, at LEAST pull out the calc and do the math. 700 billion (700,000,000,000) divided by only 120 million (120,000,000) comes to just a little over 5 thousand per household/family-unit/whatever. There are a lot of pundits, chain e-mails and crap out there spouting numbers like "a million per household" or even "450,000 per adult" and crap. It's wishful thinking and the math is several decimal places OFF. I realize that's neither here no there as far as the debate on the bailout goes. I just want people to stop seeing big numbers and assuming they are accurate without checking the math. It only takes a few seconds to run calc on the computer you're using now and check the math. In fact, a recent census says there are over 300 million people living in this country. Even if only half were adults, that's still more than the 120 million used in my calcs. More likely, it's closer to 200 million or more, which brings that divided number down even further. As for my opinion, I tend to agree that those banks need to figure things out, not have the taxpayers bail them out. If anything, it should be the other way around. They all made huge profits on sub-prime mortgages. They can take the loss as well. I have no sympathy for the banks that took that risk and lost. I also have little sympathy for people who bought homes they couldn't afford by getting sub-prime variable rate loans, but at least they were only trying to provide a home for their family. If anyone should get bailed out, it should be those who are about to lose their homes, not the ones who are trying to take it from them.

I sure do! I'm happy to see that your current guy has taken good care of it and made it so much better. I hate seeing sites go into disrepair due to poor webmastering, especially when I started them... I won't name names. ;-) I'm glad to see you doing well. Still love your cases.

Tasha beat me to my own answer. ;-) These aren't going to be the kind with sticks. My wife's hair is also long and thick, and she could never wear those kind, even though I made her a couple really nice ones years ago. No, these will all have french clips, I call them spring clips, glued to the back. That type is much more versatile, from short to long hair styles and all different thicknesses. But for sure, when I do one that is to have a stick, I make sure that the design accommodates the holes. As for that design in the middle, it's not mine. It's actually a logo... For Heelys. Heelys... the shoes with the removable wheel in the heel. Me and my boys love riding them, but that barrette is likely going to be sold or given to friends of mine online who also ride Heelys. In any case, it is a cool logo, even not knowing (or better not knowing ;-) where it's from. Thanks! -Greg

Hello, everyone. I haven't done much leatherwork in several years. I've been getting a mild itch recently, but it wasn't enough to scratch. Then, my church decided to have a Celtic Faire, and my wife suggested maybe I could get a table and make some stuff. Purely a "toe in the water" type thing, and to give me something to do when the kids are at school. Well, I've begun warming back up with some stamping and simple tooling. I'd put this in Critique My Work, but I can see so many flaws in all this stuff that it would be a waste of everyone's time. Instead, I'm putting it here to hopefully get some encouraging words to keep going with this. The photo below is all stuff I've done in the last week or so. Mostly ovals which will become hair barrettes/clips, and a wallet back. They all have finish on them, so the camera flash makes the wallet back look a lot lighter in color than it really is. It's just Super Shened and then hiliter-ed, so it's color is more or less natural. Anyway... here you go:

That design is fantastic! Is that art-deco of some kind? Did you draw it yourself? On a constructive crit. note, I'm thinking smaller steps with the beveler would prevent the eye from wandering to the bevel marks, and make the beveling more even, resulting in more "pop" for the design.

I wish I could. I need to update my site, but unfortunately, I didn't remember to take more photos in progress, and have yet to get photos from the installed piece. I'll ask the recipient again to try to get me some pics, but I'm not holding my breath.

Hello, all. I'm glad to have been shown the way to this site. It seems like a great alternative to this 'other' site I used to be a part of. ;-) I haven't done leather in a long time, but I'm getting that itchy feeling again. I have no idea what I'll be making when I next take swivel knife to leather, but you can see my old stuff here: http://www.ggaub.com/flux/index.html Thanks! -Greg

I first thought of a bone dragon, so my suggestion would be "Black Bone Dragon." You could translate that into your favorite old language for added coolness. -Greg

I live in Auburn, Washington (state), which is about half-way between Tacoma and Seattle. Been here for almost 12 years now.