carr52

I want to make a wedding album for my step daughter and I need some ideas. I'm gonna buy the album at the craft store and then cover it. I want to carve the cover of course. Just need a starting point. Tom

I agree Brent. I have very few things I like well enough to hang on my wall and this is one of them. I will cherish it always. Thanks again Kate. Tom

I'm not really sure what to say. Kate chose a theme that fits my State, South Carolina. The "Carolina Wren" which is our state bird and our State flower "The Yellow Jasmine". It seemed like a sin to take a picture of it with my cheap camera it is so beautiful. The pictures don't even come close to the true beauty of it. I'm at a loss for words. All I can say is thank you Kate. I will always look at it and think that someday I might reach that skill level. It is a work of art. Tom

I just used a wool dauber. Or a sheep on a stick as I like to call em. Tom

I decided to play around with some dyes and see what color I could get. I dont think I cleaned the leather good enough but I like the color. It's 1 part Fiebings tan to 3 parts thinner. I think I'll try another project and use 1 part dye to 4 parts thinner. I want it just a little lighter. I'm using it on projects because no matter how it looks on a scrap piece it always seems to look different on the real thing. Tom

Just one of the things I've been working on. I guess I just have to face the facts, when it comes to the finger cuts I suck. But I'm not one to give up so I'll keep trying. Tom

Ok, I see it now. This photo thing as really helped me a lot. Thank you. Tom

I'm rather partial to mine. I like it just the way it is. Tom

I know there is always room for improvement so here is the my second attempt. Had to put my TC there to cover up a bad spot, or try to. Thank you for all the help guys. Tom

OK, heres the first half of it. Let me have it. Just cant seem to get the flow of the finger cuts. All things in time I guess. Tom

I still didn't get that part at the bottom quite right.

Well I started another one. As you can see I didn't pick out the best looking piece of leather but it'll do. OH yeah, it's heavier. The first one was about 4 oz. and this one is around 5-6 oz. Tom

Heres how the handle goes on. The two thongs on this one arnt long enough to make a wrist loop. Tom

I have made them out of the same nylon used to braid the whip. One is made of masons twine, one piece twisted into itself. The falls are just the end of the braiding process. I braided two of the strands back up and into the whip then used the others to make the fall. The handles are made of 1/2" PVC If you cant get the type with the coupling preformed onto it then you can just glue one on. The whip goes into the end with the coupling on it and the two thongs attached to the loop on the end of the whip is pulled through the holes near the end and tied off or used as a wrist loop. Oh yeah, the white one is a cedar one I'm working on. Just drilled a hole in the end of it. Tom

This is great. I already feel like I'm getting my head on straight about a lot of things. I'm going to try that same pattern again and I'd be willing to bet it will come out nicer looking because of you guys. Thank you for all the help. I want and need the critiques from all of you if I'm going to improve. Tom

I will try that. And just so you know, your 2 cents is worth a lot to me. Thank you. Tom

Welcome to the forum. That is beautiful. It is also the exact color I've been trying to achieve but with no luck. How did you get to that point. Would love to know. Tom

Here it is with a little camoflauge added to the petals and the beveling cleaned up a little more. I think I better quit while I'm ahead. Tom

OOPS, I knew there was something missing. Thank you. Tom Your right Tina I did miss a bunch of spots that need to be cleaned up with the modeling spoon. I did some of them but as you can see I missed some. Tom

Thank you Denise, I'll try and figure out how to compress them. Tom

I took a few pics with a lower setting. It seems to work ok now that I'm using a tri pod. But I still need a new camera. This one doesn't have a flash. It the kind of camera that you would take camping and if it fell in the lake you wouldn't cry over the loss. Tom

Do I need to set my camera on a lower pixel setting or is there a way to do this without lowering the pixel setting. I have a fairly cheap camera and I end up with low quality pictures if I set it too low. Tom

Last but not least. By using the photos I caught that the bevel lines needed to be cleaned up so I used a modeling spoon to do that. If I had looked closer or paid more attention I would have seen it without the photos. But I didn't. Tom

And more.

Heres some more photos. I need to figure out how to get more of them in one post. Maybe set the camera a little lower. Tom