Sheilajeanne

Bump!

Boxboard is good, too. I save my empty Cheerio and cracker boxes!

I have a question for those of you who do notebooks and padfolios. When you are carving and/or stamping the front cover of the project, do you have to wet the WHOLE THING (including the back cover) to prevent water stains? Or can you get away with just wetting the front? This sort of project is on my to-do list, so enquiring minds want to know! I'd like to do both a notebook sized and a full sized (8 1/2 x 11) padfolio.

Did that ever clean up nice! My only lucky find like that had nothing to do with leather or sewing. I scored one of the most desirable Coleman lanterns while walking my dog on trash night. It was sitting in the top of a can, and I decided to take it home with me. Canadian C.P.R. kerosene lantern - they are worth quite a few bucks on E-bay!! :D

You actually put dye on the outside of the bottle ON PURPOSE?? Most of MY bottles have so much dye on the outside already that I struggle to read the labels! I have seriously considered labelling the caps to make sure I am getting the colour of dye I want! (Hard to tell between the different shades of brown.) One of my major beefs is how leaky the caps seem to be, no matter HOW tight you screw 'em down! I am constantly wiping the caps and bottles after i take dye out of them, and even then, the darn things seem to LEAK! Just wondering what other people used to get dye out of the bottles. Pouring rarely works - you almost always get some spilliage. I managed to get a bunch of 1 ml. syringes from my vet, and they work great! The are good for multiple uses, too, if you clean them carefully. A box of 100 cost me $20. Oh, and I (almost) NEVER EVER EVER put a swab or brush directly into a bottle of dye. Leaving one open on your work surface is asking for trouble!! I always put it into a secondary (and MUCH smaller) container and use that as my source when dyeing something. I MIGHT risk it if it's a quick one-stroke touchup on on an edge or something, but that's it! Have heard too many stories of projects, clothing, etc, totally ruined by bottles being knocked over!

I searched for that tool, and couldn't find it. Is it a sunburst stamp? The only Craftool stamps that had numbers close to 307 were sunbursts.

Very nice! You've really captured a sense of movement! What tool did you use for the border? Have never seen a design like that before! Another question: is that all the one piece of leather? If so, you've really captured an excellent 3-D effect with your carving and border!

Oh dear. You're in trouble now!

Good one, Yeti!

Did that include the cost of the fur? (Can't tell just what kind of critter it's from.) Made me immediately think of Eddard Stark from Game of Thrones! And was the 900 Euros your cost, or what you charged the your customer?

Awesome! It amazes me the expense and effort some people will go to for historical re-enactments and LARP! I am sure they paid a pretty penny for your gorgeous chest piece!

For all of you who have ever had trouble with your machine...

Congratulations, Johanna! My mom was 34 years in the Canadian military, first with the CWAC, then joined a regular (reserve) unit when they allowed women to do so. She went on to become the first female officer in its history. You might say I'm just a little bit proud of her...

Former nurse here - the worst time for a patient to need something is change of shift. The outgoing staff are busy charting everything they did on their shift, and can't wait to bugger off and go home, and the incoming staff are taking report in the lounge, and you could be swinging from the rafters or dancing in the hallway, and they'd never know it! But they SHOULD try to keep noise to a minimum, and be considerate of patients while they are doing all this. Can't blame you for being P.O.'ed!

It's not too difficult to find porcupines dead on the side of the road where I live. I carry a pair of pliers in my car just in case. The first one I found died during the winter up at the military base where I walk my dogs. I managed to get him just as he was thawing out, and before he started to decay. You can buy the quills on the net, but why do that when you can get them for free?

What I really want to know is how safe is it to heat the dye? I'm thinking it's something I should probably do outdoors, as the fumes aren't going to be the safest thing to breathe in! Instructions say it MUST be kept below the boiling point or you will ruin the quills.

[likes Mike's post...]

Have any of you ever worked with quills? They suggest you heat the dye to help the quills absorb it. Of course, I have LOTS of leather dye, but since it's mostly alcohol based, I am not sure if heating it is a good idea! What are your thoughts? I COULD just use regular fabric dye, but it doesn't make sense to buy more dye when I already have so much leather dye!

Like I was saying: http://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/81968-how-to-draw-floral-designs/?tab=comments#comment-550243 Where else could you get this sort of help, and so quickly, too?

Lobo, you mean you've retired from leather work? Because, for most of us, retiring means we have MORE time to devote to leatherwork! I see new people coming on here all the time. It's still a great place to learn!

Wet leather stretches, and it's very common for this to happen when it's being tooled, especially if the piece is on the thin side. The only way to get around it is to fasten it to a non-stretchy backing piece with either rubber cement (which can be peeled off after) or tape.

Okay, I've got it figured out now. The top two sheets are for a wallet with pockets on each side. The bottom two sheets is for the longer wallet you show above, with pockets on only one side! I didn't realized they were two separate wallets, so I was REALLY confused!

I am still trying to figure out how to do pockets. Is the bottom of the pocket attached to anything?

Fun story I thought I'd share: Last year, I gave away a beautiful hand-crocheted Queen-sized bedspread my late mother had made, to a family member, because I couldn't bear to sell it to a stranger who was offering me $20 bucks for it. What really made me mad was the person who wanted it knew how to crochet, so she KNEW exactly how much work something like that took! (We really need a decent 'burning mad' smiley for this board. The one I used above doesn't BEGIN to express my feelings!! 20 bucks wouldn't even have covered the cost of materials...)

What do you mean about your one regret being the metal rings and brass button? Did you want the whole purse to be made out of leather? As far as appearance goes, they look fine! Also, lots of videos out there to help you neaten up your stitching. That and the angles (as said above) are the two things that would help improve the appearance. http://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/44874-basic-saddle-stitch-tutorial-by-nigel-armitage/?page=4&tab=comments#comment-549454