Schno

I agree, good job getting paid for the things you enjoy! I have to admit that I'm a bit envious, especially if you're digging through British and Celtic history. That's a bit of a passion of mine. Welcome to the board!

LOL... I'm still recovering! Thanks, guys! This is my fifteenth time turning twenty-two and I still enjoy it I can't wait for my real birthday present (from me to myself)... six days until Burning Man!! I've been doing a lot of work in preparation. And thanks to Anne and the guys in the Leathercraft Guild, I have a very cool leather stone to embed into one of my pieces. I have one project to complete before we leave on Saturday. I'm going to be working like a madman for the next four days.

I am struck speechless every time I see something you've crafted. Thank you so much for showing us what can be achieved 'outside the box'. Your work is truly inspirational!

More fresh ideas and outstanding quality! I love the way you've gone about researching the design for her. Leather is such a perfect medium for this kind of personalized creative expression. Well done!

Yes, I am an ubergeek. The SCA, in fact, was my gateway drug to leatherworking.

Nice work! I'd love to see a few full pics of the bike!

That is going to be beautiful. Color me impressed! I'm going to be starting on my own soon. I think I'm finally getting over the apprehension.

Nicely done. I'm curious about how the piping is done. Is that something you just have to use a machine to accomplish or can it be done with hand stitching?

For all the benefit that has come from the collection of brilliant artists and craftsmen that frequent this place, it is well worth the donation to keep it going! I love the idea of a wiki. That would be a fantastic resource! Many thanks for all of the hard work and diligence that you guys have put into LWN. It is definitely appreciated!

Bravo! I particularly like the way you used the bevel lines on the blades of the axes.

Really cool stuff, Spider! (Especially your ride... really excellent job with that!) It was great meeting you!

Exactly, Ray! I think that's why he decided to go with a flask in this case. He was quite proud of his wordsmithing. Well, step one is never use the leather that comes with the flask kit. It is much too short for the job. I don't know why they can't squeeze another quarter inch out of that pattern. Anyway, I always cut my own. For glue I'm using Leather Weld. It seems to do the job well enough. I haven't been able to see how it does over time, but I suspect once it's stuck, it's stuck for good. It certainly wasn't easy to pry the leather off after the leak.

Here's a bit of what I've been working on last week. This is a flask for a British friend of mine. He calls his brother 'Nipper', and the flask is a present for him. He wanted to stay really simple with the design. This one is my personal flask. I wanted to stick with the Divinci-esque theme of my logo, so I extended it to the back panels using a stencil cutter. I learned a very valuable lesson with this one: verify the structural integrity of Tandy flasks! The day I finished it (the first time), I filled it with some Johnnie Walker and was much dismayed to watch it start seeping out underneath my newly tooled leather! It was painful having to cut those stitches and peel back all of that glue! Fortunately my local Tandy store is run by a decent fellow and he replaced the flask no charge. All's well that ends well...

Great idea for geometrics and well executed!

Gorgeous! And kudos on maintaining the symmetry. It's one thing to get it off the transfer, it's another to keep it all intact throughout the carving and tooling!

Thanks for the input, guys. I ended up doing a bit of both suggestions with pricing my latest journal cover. It's a matter of balancing what I would consider paying if I wasn't aware of the work involved vs knowing how much work is involved. Then I took that figure and tried it out with a customer. He accepted right away... (which tells me that I should actually go a little higher next time!) Anyway, I'm working on that piece now. It's far more simple than the one here. I'll post pics when I've finished. The inside is lined with pigskin suede. Over that, I've used bag stiffener material from Tandy to make flaps that are covered with chrome tanned leather. It's designed to fit a 'Red and Black' journal, which you can pick up from your local office supply store for six bucks. The one I'm working on now will fit a legal pad.

Wow, Anne! Really nice work. It's one thing to be a craftsman... it's another to be an artist and a craftsman! Will it be painted, or au natural?

Right on, very nice work! It's great to see different influences in this craft. You've definitely come to the right place to find a solid leather community. This board is a font of knowledge and wisdom gained from years of experience. I just started a few months ago, so I've been absorbing as much as I can from these guys. I'm not terribly far from you. I'm located in the Valley, and I'm always interested in meeting other leathersmiths. Besides that, I suspect that we might have some other common interests. Anyway, drop me a line if you're so inclined.

Well, one thing I can say about Pro-Carve is that it's slippery stuff! I made the mistake of spraying a piece with Pro-Carve over a marble floor. (My leather shop is in my dining room, unfortunately... no room in the garage). Anyway, I very nearly broke my neck walking across that bit of the floor in my socks. The fellow that runs the local Tandy shop also reported that his students' tools will slip out of place more with the Pro-Carve. As for water casing, I'm in the 'spray-bottle on the go' camp.

Great work. The horse is cool... but honestly, I have to say that I prefer the second pattern. There looks like there's a story to it. That's good stuff!

I've found that contact paper (the kind of thing you line the inside of kitchen drawers with) is a good backing for tooling. It's cheap and comes in rolls big enough for just about any project. You can pick it up at Home Depot and the like.

That's perfect, Tom! And a lot simpler than the technique I was using to get a similar effect. This looked pretty good until I tried to seal it. Then the wet sealer ended up streaking the colors a bit. Very frustrating.

Thanks guys! The encouragement is appreciated! As I always say, "who couldn't use a Celtic yak?" Quite right, Tom! I've already had three orders in response to this piece. I'm having a rough time determining fair price though. It takes a good bit of leather, plus lining, plus time and effort. But, at the end of the day, it's a book cover. I don't know. Pricing is a tough one for me. Thoughts?

Here's a sporran pattern I used for my first go at one. The pattern is from the May-June '93 Leather Crafter's Journal. I did a bit of non-traditional carving on it, to match my friend's tattoos. But the pattern itself is traditional enough. I joined the front and back with a 2 3/4" strip of garment leather and lined the whole thing in pigskin suede.

Nah, you're okay. You've got to try a lot harder than that to get kicked out. The lanyard is that little loop on the end of the handle. Whenever I use my horsehair flogger, I loop the lanyard around my index finger. I've found that it can be used to good effect that way! By the way, you should contact Johanna here to get access to the adult section. In the interest of audience by volition, they keep these kinds of projects in that area. Anyway, welcome to Leatherworker.net! This place is full of some incredible people with great advice and perspective!