Sheilajeanne

No words for how awesome that is! Did you use a photo as a reference?

She says Fiebing's Pro tan dye. I imagine she meant saddle tan.

Sad, sad day...I just found out the man who gave me my start in this wonderful hobby has passed away. He worked at the Tandy store in Barrie, Ontario, and was the one who taught their classes. He was an older man, and in a lot of pain due to arthritis in his hips. He walked with a cane, and obviously had trouble moving around, but still came to work faithfully and still taught the classes. He was very generous with his help and advice to newbies. Whenever you asked the staff a difficult question, they'd often say, "That's a Bill question...you'll have to ask him!" He will be greatly missed.

We dissected sharks in uni. I don't remember the skin as being very thick. Their main defense is their keeled scales which makes their skin rough enough to be used as sandpaper!

Wow, nice work!

Very nice! What did you use for resist

kiwican, DG2, she says in her blog that the leaves are printed on the leather. Her other work is traditional leather carving - you can see some tool marks here and there if you look at it closely.

I'm surprised to hear someone complaining about Barry King, but you're darn tootin' right about no one hesitating to badmouth Tandy!! Sauce for the goose, and all that...

Very nice! How is the lining attached at the top of the bag? I can't see any stitching. Did you just turn the edge and glue it? And what fabric did you use? I like the way you use pink as an accent colour, especially the contrasting pink edges...acrylic edge paint, right?

Agreed, battlemunky!

I like the idea of a woodcarving tool. I think a half-round gouge would last longer than a cheap punch that was ground down. And from the looks of it, you are going to be using it an awful lot if you are going to do those chaps! Definitely the pinking shears would be faster if the leather weight isn't too heavy!

She does boots and shoes, too! http://blog.sina.com.cn/kayired Regardless of how it's done, she obviously has talent! Some closeup views of her work: look at those lovely smooth edges, and even stitching! Do you think they are hand-stitched or machine stitched? http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_557e05900101jt8v.html Second edit: I can see tooling marks around the border of some of the figures on the key wallets. Not the leaves, though. I am thinking those must be printed/silk screened directly on the leather. Third edit: as you get near the bottom of that page, you can see how she has taken traditional Sheridan design elements (scrolls, leaves, seeds) and added her own touches to them! I am VERY impressed with her work! When I opened the page, it asked if I wanted to translate it from Chinese, so I hit the 'translate' button. That means I can now read the comment section at the very bottom where she says she uses French veg tanned leather. She also says the leaves are printed on the leather. (The translation is pretty poor, but you can get the gist of most of it.) On exploring her site some more, I find out (no surprise!) she is an artist, and she has ONLY been doing leather carving for about 8 months!! She also carves wood (see the pea pods, balls, squirrel figure and acorns) and makes decorative wooden boxes. What a talent! Think I'll just slink back into my Neanderthal cave...

?? I don't understand what you did. Did you rip out all the stitches from that side of the wallet, then resew? Hand stitch it, so you used the same holes as before? Alpha, I thought the same thing, and was wondering why a scratch could be such a big deal!

Way to go, Turves! Did you cut them so the horizontal parts of the T's are offset from each other? Keep up the good work! Silly me! Of course, I meant VERTICAL, not horizontal!

Wise words, AB! That would be really cool for us to exchange a piece of our work...now, I need to get off the computer and GET BUSY!! The main thing holding me back in my leather work is procrastination, especially now that I am retired!

Yes, the usual way to deal with the edges of nylon binding (or any type of binding) is to sew them into the end of your seam. If the binding is leather, it has to be skived very thin at the end to reduce the bulk . Also, when going around curves, slits need to be cut in the binding to keep it from bunching up. This means the binding needs to be glued as well as stitched, to prevent raveling.

The nylon webbing is ugly, unevenly sewn and has a rough, raveling piece at the end. I took 2 years of Home Ec. in junior High. That edge binding would get a failing grade from my Home Ec. teacher! A nice, burnished edge on leatherwork is professional and pleasing to look at. Jeez, have you NO desire to improve your work? Guess not...

NV, just wanted to say I appreciate the constructive criticism you tried to give this guy in your post above, even if HE doesn't!

Rustic, the video you posted shows how rough edges can be fixed by sanding and burnishing. Sure, it takes time, but it's not a difficult skill to learn. I don't understand why you don't adopt some of the techniques shown in this (and other) videos, or described by the more experienced leatherworkers here! Hiding rough, uneven edges with roughly sewn on braid is NOT the way to go!

Sheila, Yes, this is the book I mentioned. Magnificent book! So, uh...hint, hint...if anyone wants to try doing this, the book is on sale right now! I've used Stohlman's Figure Carving Finesse books with excellent results, and am definitely going to download this book, too! And re. artistic talent, I just want to say this. I am e-friends with someone who could make her living as a professional artist. Her main craft is writing books, though. She does enter her paintings in art shows at conventions such as DragonCon, WorldCon, etc. and has won major awards, including best in show. Over the years, she has seen many artists with skills and ability superior to hers fall by the wayside and disappear. The key, she said, is to KEEP ON TRYING! Don't give up! As she says in her tips for aspiring artists: I used to do sketches of my favourite movie, TV and rock stars when I was in my teens, and some of them turned out pretty well, though it took me hours to get them right. She once posted one of HER first sketches from her teen years. (She didn't leave it up for long, as she was ashamed of it.) Heck, MY stuff, even my not-so-good stuff was WAY better! It was a great encouragement to me to keep on trying. I didn't really enjoy the sketching once I got older, but the leather carving is different, as I am doing something that is both useful and has artistic value. There. That's my sermon for the day!

Way to go, Turves! Did you cut them so the horizontal parts of the T's are offset from each other? Keep up the good work!

Here's some of his work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgIKA36rIPc It speaks for itself.

Gosh, I learn SO much from this site! And as was said in the above link by MarkCdub: Thank you all so much. I know the same questions are asked repeatedly, and I appreciate y'alls patience and willingness to help without being condescending ie. "Use the search function!".

AB Handmade, I saw this book on special on Tandy's download site. Is that one of the books you use as a reference? I know you mentioned Stohlman's figure carving books as one of your inspirations! https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/product/1124/the-art-of-embossing-leather-by-al-and-ann-stohlman

Yeah, I was wondering why they didn't just use a proper leather mallet?