Leerwerker

If you want to hear what my first language sounds like, you can listen to an Afrikaans radio station from South Africa at http://www.antfarm.co.za/clients/rsg/rsg_22.asx JOhan

I was able to put in a good seven hours today and get 98% of the dying done on this project - I will just check Monday when the dye has completely dried to see if there are more places to touch up. Then it is a finish and mounting and framing. None of these have been decided on - what finish? mounted on what? how framed? Suggestions would be welcome ...! JOhan

For Anne Newkold - Happy Birthday!!!

If I come accross a topic I really want to bookmark or come back to later, is there a way to "bookmark" it? JOhan

Hi everyone, I have a request for a four strand roundbraid that has a "concho" every ten inches - but I think the person had the terminology wrong, becauese the description sounded more like a big bead that is incorporated or slid over the braid. Has anyone done that before or can you point me to a tutorial in this regard ...? Thanks! JOhan

When I bought the supplies for the demo on gold leaf, the guy at the Art store showed me some Interference pigment colors. I bought the gold one and it can turn any paint or dye into a color with a gold shimmer to it. But, a very nice discovery was bronze! I used Eco-Flo Java brown and mixed in a bit of the Interference Gold Pigment. I used it on a piece of leather and it looked like a gold shimmering brown. Then I decided to seal it and sprayd one piece with Fiebings Sheen and the other with Neatlac. Sheen just sealed it, but the Neatlac turned it into the most striking bronze, shimmer and all.... The photo here just does not do it any justice. I painted the Liquid Leaf over the star afterwards and sealed it with the gold leaf sealer.

Hi everybody, Last month our guild asked about gold on leather and here is some of what I could show them: These two letters are carved very normally. The top one was painted with LiquidLeaf, from Michaels, an art chain. The bottom one was done in real gold leaf, thin sheets on gold applied over an adhesive (called "size"). Both were sealed with a special sealer that is made for sealing gold leaf. After they were sealed I applied antique stain to "cover up" the beveling around the letters.

Ian, It is about 22" wide (±46cm) - see the quarter I put on the project when I started ...

I started applying dye to the anatomy study - all the tooling is done! I redid the coloring on the test piece first, because in the first color sceme the body appeared too yellow. The new test piece looked much better and I could get started. It took an hour to do the two legs, but I will have to revisit them now that the dye is dry and I can see its true hues. I think I am over tha half way mark! JOhan

Contact Roy Fisher at Unit 2 Crofton Oak N. Portway Close Round Spinney Industrial Estate Northampton, UK NN3 8RD Phone: 01604 647910 Fax: 01604 647951 Toll Free(UK Only): 0800-085-6765 Email: northampton@tandyleatherfactory.com and ask him for item number 3229-00 - that is the rotary hand sewing punch - it makes the tiniest holes very neat and clean. JOhan

This thing of keeping leather cased at all cost is grossly overstated, I think. When I do a big project I always wet the whole piece of leather I am working on to prevent water stains. I wet the leather, give the water time to penetrate well, top it up now and again with a sponge as the surface dries out and too much moisture is wicked out of the leather. Then when I stop for the day, the leather simply dries out and returns to the state that it left the tannery in: DRY! This repeated wet and dry cycle cannot take any oils out of the leather - the water does not leach anything out of the leather - it evaporates from the leather and leaves everything non-water behind in the leather. When you are finally done, you have to put the oils and fats back into the leather in any case and I am sure the leather does not know whether it has been wet once or twice or five times since it left the tannery. It is that replacing of the fats and oils of the leather that I feel is far more important in the process. Just my humble opinion and a few big projects worth of experience ....

Hey, thanks so much - that was just the advice I needed! I put it on YouTube now and it seems to work real well. Picassa webalbums had no way to do it the way I want, but I am also going to test Google Video.... Well, the first three videos are on the blog! JOhan

Hi there guys, I am starting to put some videos out there of the plug making of the anatomy study. I have done the first snippet and kept the final clip to 2MB. I would appreciate very much if you would go and have a look to see about the quality of the picture and so on. It looks fine on my computer, but I need to make sure most of you can see it as well ... It is the first posting on my blog at http://www.leatherlearn.com/ JOhan

The deertan cowhide from Tandy - seen it proven. It is tough, but it has give. Seen a farrier kicked five yards away and thought the apron would be ripped for sure. just slightly marked. He swears by that apron ...

Here are two different patterns .... Pinwheelcoin.pdf Pinwheelcoin2.pdf Pinwheelcoin.pdf Pinwheelcoin2.pdf

.... in an 8 strand round braid? The only nice pattern I found by accident was a chevron pattern that you get when you have two strands of each color going round left and two of each color going round right. They alternate, one dark, one light ..... Are there other nice variations with two color braiding in eight and six strands? JOhan

Hedge, I use Dr Jackson's Hide Rejuvenator on all my Kangaroo braiding - it does not have the white co-agulated fat you find in Dr J's Conditioner. It is the closest I can get to using DFubbin, here in the USA. JOhan

I am wondering what happened to Ava (Ostrander) Gannon? I think that was her newer last name?!? Does anybody know her? She used to belong to our South African Guild fifteen years ago and I would like to make contact with her again ... JOhan

I wonder if you did it the same as we experimented with at the guild I belonged to in South Africa: We looked for a very old piece of wood with lots of character. One of the most popular was pieces of sleeper (the crossbeams of wood under railway tracks - they were being replced with steel and concrete and the old hardwood ones were very popular for furnature and stuff). The wood was neber very flat, so we would wrap the damp leather around the wood and rub it hard with a "blunt instrument" to impress the woodgrain on the leather.

Does the following sound unreasonable: (high or low) A set of 160 Doodle Pages - .50c each Craftaids (mostly discontinued ones) - $2 each MIWL and Leather Craftsman magazines - $3 each Taiwan made Ivan tools - no similarity to any tools available today - $3 each Craftools USA that resembles miniature versions of the 3D stamps Tandy now sells - $5 each Craftools - still the ones that were hand finished - $4 each Craftools - the ones that are currently being sold - $2 each Would you be willing to pay this a) if you had to take the whole batch and it would total up to a few hundred dollars or if you could pic through for those you want only? JOhan

Duke, That project of Tandy's went so well, that they are well in to producing tools now on new masters. JOhan

I have been asked to assist an old gentleman with his deceased wife's tools. He is selling them, but has no idea whatsoever of their value. I would really appreciate as much input as I can about the value of the following: A set of 160 Doodle Pages Craftaids (mostly discontinued ones) MIWL and Leather Craftsman magazines Taiwan made Ivan tools - no similarity to any tools available today Craftools USA that resembles miniature versions of the 3D stamps Tandy now sells Craftools - still the ones that were hand finished Craftools - the ones that are currently being sold All the tools have been very well looked after - the person who will be buying them, is getting the find of the year. I just hope I can help the seller to get a fair price and the buyer not to pay too much. Thanks! JOhan

This could be one of the tools used by shoe makers to cut a slit in the side of the leather into which to bury stitching.

This is a piece of history I think should not be lost, but I have not won the state lottery yet, so all I can do is advertise the fact that this machine is available and should be preserved.... It is a Turner Korrect Measuring Machine, 6' wide Patented in 1886, cast iron with a 120V motor. Bernard Bickels from Intermountain Tanning Co in Buffalo, WY needs to get rid of his. He can be contacted at 215 Flatiron Dr, Buffalo, WY 82834, Tel 307-684-0739.

This is a piece of history I think should not be lost, but I have not won the state lottery yet, so all I can do is advertise the fact that this machine is available and should be preserved.... It is a Turner Korrect Measuring Machine, 6' wide Patented in 1886, cast iron with a 120V motor. Bernard Bickels from Intermountain Tanning Co in Buffalo, WY needs to get rid of his. He can be contacted at 215 Flatiron Dr, Buffalo, WY 82834, Tel 307-684-0739.