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Tina is still my favorite leather artist... not worker... artist. Your vision and execution is inspiring. Thank you!

Hey, nice color on that! Well done!

The trick is to use an old, expendable t-shirt and a roll of duct tape. Just trick your intended armor recipient into donning said t-shirt, then wrap the whole business from top to bottom in duct tape. This will ensure that the pattern will fit the intended wearer. Once that's done, just take a sharpie and a measuring tape to figure out where you want to make your cuts. Then, carefully cut along the side seam of the duct taped t-shirt to remove it. Finally, cut along your sharpied lines and voila! You have your pattern. If you intend to boil the leather (as in cuir bouilli), make certain that you allow for shrinkage of the leather due to that process when you're applying the pattern to the leather. I found that I was okay with adding about two inches all the way around for that. Good luck! Let us see how it turns out!

Wow, Tom! Those are some great shots. Although, any pastime that includes sitting in camping chairs in the middle of a blizzard I have to reject on grounds of insanity. For my part, I'm in the middle of The Valley in Los Angeles. (Like, totally fer sure.) It's a sprawl of strip malls and corner carnicerias, massage parlors and newstands, Foster's Tasty Freeze and all night bowling alleys, the 101 and the 405 and the 170 and the 118 and 210 all buzzing and roaring and swoooooooshing as cars go by twenty-four seven on their way to God knows where to do God knows what with God knows who, burger stands and fried chicken and taco bells and bbq and pizza and beer and 7-11 on every corner (sometimes twice), and overpriced gas stations and body shops and EZ money discount auto trade in - family owned and operated since 1974, airports and carports and bustops and helipads, strip clubs and doughnut shops where cop cars stand an all night vigil, parks and recreation, miniature golf and ski-ball arcades, bums, pimps, gangstas, cops, and me. And a Tandy Leather on Sherman Oaks by Sepulveda, just a mile or so away. It ain't heaven, but I like it well enough.

Amazing as always. I love love love the coloring on this. It's the first time I've ever seen floral look... well... floral!

I love the tooling you did on this, and the coloring as well. Very nice piece, Jana!

Her name is Marriah and I was keen to work in a 'wind' reference. We're both Tolkien fans, so I did a bit of research into the elven language and found the translation for 'My Love' and 'My Wind', then carved that in elven script on a belt for her. I didn't want to go black on black, but I also didn't want to get too contrasty, so I went with midnight blue on black. This way it doesn't limit what she can wear with it so much. So, here's the pics I was able to get of it. I find that it's terribly difficult to actually get a good belt picture. Any tips on this from the photogs out there?

Great coloring and I love the tribal cuts! Well done as always, Tom.

Another vote for Brenda! I just received my stamp from her this week and I'm very pleased with it.

Hey guys, I'm looking for closures like the ones on this corset. Any ideas? I'm unfortunately in a bit of a rush on this one. I only have next week to get it finished! Thanks!!

Hey there, Loki. I would suggest doing a google image search for "tattoo celtic armband". That's how I found the pattern I used for my belt. There's a lot of good stuff out there.

It's great to see how many people are benefiting from Scott's expertise. He's a fairly stellar individual, and I'm very glad to count him as a friend. We call him 'Google' for the wealth of non-trivial knowledge that he manages keep stored in his head. He's one of those people that, upon discovering some pursuit, devours ever bit of technical minutiae he can find on the subject and thereby quickly becomes an expert in the field. Me, I just make it up as I go Anyway, there's my endorsement. If you need any more convincing, just go back and read through the posts on this thread. Well deserved kudos!

That came out great! I bet your fingers were numb after all that backgrounding. I always get that in my fingertips when I'm pounding out large areas like that.

Uh oh, does this mean Tom's going to be the centerfold? (Well done, my friend! And well deserved! Can't wait to read it!)

The thought and creativity that goes goes into each aspect of your work is obvious throughout ever detail. Well done again, Kevin!

Thanks, Tina! Of course, the problem is that when I 'go crazy' it doesn't end up looking quite so elegant! But, in time, I'll get the hang of it

I have found some very cool and talented friends, but unfortunately to date, no one has shown up to fill the blacksmith position. The Southern California Renaissance Faire is coming up, though, so I'm hoping to find a lead there. Ultimately, I'd like to find a good, solid resource for historic reanactment fittings from buckles to conchos.

I finally dusted off the swivel knife and got back to work, and I'm very happy to be back amongst my fellow leather fiends! Is it just me, or does life seems to lose a little luster when you're not creating something? Since I began pounding leather last year, my favorite belt wore out and I just could not bear to go out and buy another one because, "that would be silly. I'll just make one". Well, after three months of losing weight and constantly pulling my pants up to escape utter embarrassment, I pounded out my first belt project... The letters here are anglo-saxon runes called 'futhark'. They spell out the first line of the Tolkien poem that is my credo: "The road goes ever on and on". The studs separate the words, thus the seemingly random spacing. Here's my favorite bit from that poem... The road goes ever on and on Down from the door where it began Now far ahead the road has gone And I must follow if I can Pursuing it with eager feet Until it joins some larger way Where many paths and errands meet And whither then, I cannot say I haven't yet found a buckle that I really like for it. I'd like to find something with a medieval motif to it, perhaps with knotwork to go with the belt. I've seen some online, but none of them have really hit the mark. If anyone knows of a good resource for those kinds of fittings, I'd be most appreciative!

An absolute must if you like beautiful voices singing Celtic music:Loreena McKennitt. Believe me, you will not be disappointed!

That effect was the entire reason I went out and bought an airbrush. I tried the dry-dying technique, but it never seemed to come out as smooth as it does with an airbrush. Not to mention that my dying time was cut exponentially. Still, I don't use it much. I do most of my coloring and finishing by hand, but for some things you just have to use the right tool. And as always, thanks for the kind words, all!

Your frog is awesome! My girl loves frogs, so I'm sure some amphibian carving is in my future. How do you like the stitching awl? I've never tried it.

Thanks, Greybeard! I'm trying to keep things cleaner these days. The people on this site continually raise the bar on quality. I really appreciate that, because it changes what I'll accept coming off my bench. I've still got a long way to go, but each piece teaches me something new. Thanks, Tim! I wanted to do something different, and I hadn't seen anyone do a stained glass motif on leather. (It has, undoubtedly, been done... I just haven't seen it yet ). I'll probably do some more of this kind of thing. The red stain seems to have worked well.

This is my first Christmas as a leatherworker, so I decided to do a bunch of leather gifts this year. Fortunately, my family is fairly small. As always, please forgive the horrible photography. The lighting has made the whites look very yellow in these pictures. I point and click and hope... This is a Tandy roper wallet kit. I had wanted to lace the edges, but the holes weren't symmetrical. Lesson learned! This was a wallet that I did with my own pattern. It was also my first attempt at lacing. The corners are a bit rough, I know. The wallet is for my niece who goes by 'Kat'... This is a sporran for my brother. He's very proud of his Irish roots. My mom has taken up archery this year, so I made her an ankle quiver with her SCA crest on it. My son's stepdad is a musician, so I worked a bit of that into a wallet. I'm working on a belt for my son. It's not quite finished yet, so I'm headed back into the workshop tonight! I'm really looking forward to Christmas morning this year. I've always enjoyed watching people open their gifts around the tree. But this time, it's not something I bought at Macy's. There's no scratched off price tag. There's no gift receipt. It's something that I've made for someone I love. Merry Christmas, indeed! Thank you guys so much for inspiration and guidance!

I love the way you've used the bar grounder. Fantastic work!!

Beautiful work, David! I like how the lacing accents the work. Not overdone, just enough. I do have a question about these types of seats, though. Being a rider myself and knowing how sore you can get on a long ride on a padded seat, I can't imagine how it feels after sitting on one of these things for hours. Are they more comfortable than they look?