Schno

Thanks for the feedback, guys! The intention for the owl inset was that it was a different 'scene' from the background gears. In retrospect, I should have left the gears out of it. It wouldn't have hurt to have some clean space in there, as so much of the project is very busy anyway. For the record (and in my defense), my engineering expertise lies in telephony software, which these days requires no knowledge of how gears should work! Michelle: Thanks! The background was done with a standard Tandy fine backgrounding tool (A 104-2).

Ooops! Re-post! My girlfriend is a fan of steampunk and owls... thus:

It's been a while since I posted to LW.net. Here's something that came off my bench recently. My license plate has read WTCHKNG for years. This was nabbed from Tolkien's work. The Witch King of Angmar was the leader of the Nazgul, or Black Riders. When the time came to make a bib for my tank, it didn't take long to figure out what I wanted. The Eye of Sauron was an easy choice. Thanks to Three Mutts Customs on the tips for construction!

Tom, you are a rock and roll leather god!

I would have pinned the ribbon on it as well! Fantastic work!

Greetings, all! It's been a while! On the strength of the Tokien Sketchbook Cover that I did for my friendly neighborhood designer earlier this year, I was recommended to a playwright who narrates parts of a musical piece that he wrote called 'Astra'. He reads from a script taped in a huge 60's era cookbook. This cover was created for that book and paid handsomely Cheers!

Gorgeous work, Kate! Thanks for stepping through the process with us. I have a question... What do you use to mask off the squares while air-brushing? How do you get something to adhere without marring the grain side finish?

Beautiful coloring on that! How did you achieve that effect?

Wow, props from Tina! That's like getting 'hey, nice shot' from Micheal Jordan Thank you, everyone, for the kind words! The spine was done with Eco-flo Canyon Tan, then dry-dyed with Bison Brown. The front and back were done with Fiebing's Tan Leather Stain. The area around the tree was done in the same manner as the spine, but with heavier dry-dye applications.

Great work! I love the coloring and the design. Those long, sweeping finger cuts were a very nice touch! Archery is what got me started in leatherworking. I learned to shoot from someone who had an ankle quiver, and I had to have one of those things, so I made one. These days I do a lot more leather than archery, of course.

Tom, Red and Black called, and they both want you to be their spokesperson. They say, "nobody knows us like Tom knows us". They're right.

Thanks, guys! The encouragement is much appreciated I'm very pleased to pass on the stencil cutter trick. With the wealth of tips and ideas that I've been able to garner from the amazing community here, I'm honored to be able to give something back! I had some trouble with the leather stretching as I tooled the front side, so I've learned that my contact paper tactic doesn't quite cut it. I'm going to try the plexiglas/contact cement gig. There are few things as frustrating as things not quite lining up after you've done all the work on them!

Thanks Dan I found a lovely little thing called a stencil cutter (which is really just a wood burner with a set of very fine tips). You can pick them up at art stores for ten or fifteen dollars. All I do is transfer the letters to the leather with tracing film and a stylus, then go over the impressions with the fine point of the stencil cutter. It goes through the leather like butter after it's had time to warm up. As you can see, it allows for very fine detail.