spacedog

Amazing tooling and dying. Very nice skills. Wow.

I think you are doing really good work on the sun flowers. Since you want critiques I think you are working with one of the more difficult background tools. They don’t look bad, but that tool works better when you don’t have a lot of space to fill. If you have a big space to fill, you might want to either change to a bigger tool, or just fill it with another flower. Here is an example, not my work, of that specific tool used in small areas. They manage to make the small circles, or dimples, look part of the pattern. I do like what you’ve got and encourage you to keep at it.

Excellent! Very nicely done.

It looks excellent. Bravo.

That looks great. I really like the face you did.

Thanks. I am waiting for the pro resist to full dry before I can continue, so I am cutting out the backing/lining.

Thanks. I wasn’t sure the different dye colours would go together, but I am liking it so far. I made an Iron Maiden themed guitar strap for my brother-in-law a few years back and wanted to make something for myself this time. I worked on the paint a bit more, including the sunset, but still need to do a bit more before I use the resist and then antique it. Here is a picture of both ends so far.

This is the first stage of dyeing this guitar strap. If you look closer you can see the mistakes, but overall I am fairly happy with it. I will be applying acrylic paint to fix some of the problem areas, followed by pro resist and antique gel, but there is a sunset at one end I want to practice. I haven’t tried doing one before, and it is probably obvious I don’t have an air brush. I want to give it a shot with dye, but if it doesn’t go well I will just have to use paint. It has been fun to make so far, but I still have to work out the lining and sewing.

Thanks everyone. I have just started to apply some dye and will update this in a few days.

Those are pretty cool.

I enjoyed the movie “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” and wanted to make myself a guitar strap with some of the images from the title character’s story. I decided rather than try to carve Tim Blake Nelson‘s face, I would draw him as a skeleton since carving faces is much harder. It still has a ways to go and is just a work in progress right now.

Excellent! The breastplate looks great.

I made a corset a while back. I don't recall the weights exactly. I think the front panels were maybe 4-5 oz. but I had folded the edges over and then overlapped them. I know the back panels were thicker because I wanted to ensure the eyelets wouldn't tear out when lacing up the back. I think they were maybe 7-8 oz. and over lapped too. Here is a link to that project. Painted corset

These are just as impressive as the rest, Mike, but that maple leaf is outstanding. Very nicely done.

Here are a couple pictures of the the tail end I cut off. It didn't have the mottled, camo look on the outside of the coil, but the inside/flesh side did, where it was touching the next coil.

Thank you. Thanks. Thanks. My wife suggested the fall colors. Thanks. Thank you. Well, I basically coiled the belt and put it into a sandwich sized Tupperware with dark brown dye in it. The dye didn't cover the belt so I added water and then snapped the lid on it. I think I left it there over night and took it out in the morning to dry on some news paper. I was pretty disappointed at the time since I thought I had wasted the leather and Tupperware was toast too. I think where the coils were touching each other it didn't let the dye in, resulting in the patchwork appearance, but I am not really sure. I also didn't pay attention to the amount of water to dye ratio. Possibly 50:50? Thanks. The belt was finished in time for my wife's birthday and she I quite happy with it.

Eventually I coated it with some pro resist before using the antique dye to go in the cuts, without staining the paint and leather. All in all, it worked out surprisingly well.

Normally I would get the tools out and bevel and shape the leather, but with the different shades behind it the efforts would be lost. Instead I got out the hobby paints and gave it some color to try and make it stand out.

Awhile back I tried dyeing a belt by coiling it up and submerging it in dye. I am just a hobbyist and don't have big containers of dye so I added water to increase the volume enough to cover the belt. The effect was fairly mottled and I was disappointed with it, but my wife told me to hold on to it since she thought it was interesting and kind of looked like camo. So this week I pulled it out and carved a pattern from an Al Stohlman book I own on it.

Wow. Very nice work.

Excellent tooling. Well done Rocksnake.

Excellent work FredK. Those turned out great.

That looks real good. Nice work.

LOL! I haven't seen anyone tool a dog's backside on leather before. Is that piece going to be rolled up so it looks like he's on the front and back? Your mandala is very good. I like it a lot, but the corgi is too funny. It wins.

Dude, that is an amazing level of skill, painting and embossing. Wow!