CitizenKate

I posted a photo demo here on this topic. Kate

I've seen a few people ask how to dye your projects so the tooled impressions are lighter than the un-tooled areas. Most projects are dyed/antiqued in such a way that the impressions are usually darker than the rest of the leather, but making it the other way around can also be very attractive, as most of you have noticed with the work of Sojourner Leather among others. I found a pretty easy way to do it, so I'm posting a quick little demo to show you at least one way to do it. To start with, I have a piece of scrap with some tooling on it. I'm putting a wash of pure yellow dye on it as a kind of under-coat of color that does penetrate into the depressions. You can use other light colors, such as light tan, or just leave it natural if you prefer. To apply the "top" coat of color, I often use a block of wood, MDF, or anything with a kind of a blocky shape that has a nice straight edge on at least one side. In this case, I found a piece of plexiglas I had laying around. (DO NOT use plexiglas with spirit-based dyes.) Then I take a soft cotton painters rag, or piece of old tee shirt, and wrap it snugly around the edge of the block I want to apply the dye with. Notice here how I am holding the block applicator over the project as I am drizzling dye on it? Well, that's a very good example of what NOT to do! (Just wasn't really watching what I was doing, but fortunately, the drop that fell went onto the newspaper. - whew!) Anyway, just lightly soak the rag with dye. You don't want it to be totally saturated, but there needs to be enough to give you solid color. This was not a particularly good piece of leather, so I really had to work to get some color into it. But the idea is to wipe the edge of your block evenly over the surface of the leather, applying dye to the high parts, and leaving the impressions more or less untouched. And here is the result. It looks a little grainy because of the poor quality of the leather, but this should give you a pretty good idea how the process works. Kate

Can you describe a little about the method you used to apply the antique? Also, what kind of antique did you use? Kate

I have a way of doing this without a machine. I'll post a photo demo sometime this evening. Kate

That is so cool! Really gives some substance to the idea of an "iron horse". Thanks for sharing your inspiration. Kate

Beautiful, Beez! That gave me the idea ... I wonder what a bike seat that was made like a horse saddle would look/work like? Kate

You still have 8-tracks!?! Even a working machine that will still play them??? Okay, now I have no doubt you can help preserve the 18th century. LOL Kate

I agree, lots of browns and tans... but I may have to throw in a little red or orange in places, too. Kate

What I ended up doing was getting a copy of QuickBooks Mfg edition. My raw materials are tracked as assets until sold as part of something I make, then they become an expense, exactly the way LadyJ describes. It took a little work to get it all set up, which included taking inventory for the first time - ugh! But now that I have all that done, I can just tell QB, "I just built X of item Y," and it automagically transfers the right amounts from raw materials to finished goods, two asset accounts. Then when I sell the item, I create an invoice, and QB automagically posts the sale and moves the amount spent on raw materials to the GOGS account. At any time, I can tell how much I've got invested in raw materials, and what kind of a profit margin I'm getting on what I've sold. That is some very valuable visibility into my business that really helps me determine what I need to do to become more profitable, and now that it's set up, I don't work very hard at it at all. I've also got QB set up to spit out a report every year with all the numbers I need to fill out a schedule C. You can tell it what line on schedule C each account must be added into. Kate

Thanks again for the nice comments, folks, and the suggestions. I should be able to post an update by this coming weekend. Kate

What's "airsoft"? Is that like paintball? Kate

WOW!!! Some really fantastic work, there. I hope you're keeping track of who did what in all these photos. You can count on being asked. I see Roz has a "boo-boo bin", too! LOL Now I don't feel so bad. Clay, those bear claw key fobs are too cool!!! Can't wait for more! Kate

Thanks, everyone, glad you like it. A Backgammon board does need to have some color, since the rules require that the points are colored alternating light/dark colors, similar to a Chess board - you all know playing Chess would be quite a challenge if it weren't for those alternating square colors! As for the ornaments, I'm still somewhat undecided what to do with them. I was considering coloring them in a matching color scheme with the points. I will be happy to consider any suggestions. Kate

Go to "My Controls" at the top of the page, then click on "Manage my Attachments" under Options down the left-hand side of the page. You'll see a list of all the attachments you've uploaded. Kate

One laptop I had started shutting down like that, and it was a thermal issue, but not the fan. What fixed it was to remove the processor and put fresh heat sink compound on it where it mounts to the heat sink. Kate

I really like your choices of colors and textures, Tom. Your scull really appears to pop out of the background. Kate

Finally got done with the tooling on this today, and thought I would post a shot of it before I start the coloring. It's a new design I'm working on for a smaller-sized Backgammon game board. It's 16"x16", and takes 3/4" checkers to play on. I don't usually make the game pieces, but I found some wooden furniture buttons at Hobby Lobby that are 3/4" in diameter, and will make perfect checkers for this size board. I'll post more as the project progresses... Kate

He looks sharp as a tack! I saw a mini-series about the ANZACs during the '80's, about the story of their formation during WWI. It starred Andrew Clarke, one of my favorite actors of that decade. Paul Hogan was also in that series. . There are also links on that page to more clips.Kate

Those all have a great, colorful look, J, and the workmanship is very clean and professional. Thanks for sharing. Kate

Good to see you, Peter! Very glad you could join us. Kate

Thanks, and you're quite welcome. It is very cheap and easy to make one of these things, and in any size you want. I think I only spent about $30 or so for everything. Cutting and fitting together pieces of PVC is like playing with Lincoln Logs (if anyone remembers those), pretty easy even for me.

Here are some photos of one I built recently, along with some details of how it was made... Kate

Thank-you for posting this, 'Roo - neat mask, and great info! Kate

The funniest earthquake story I remember (if there is anything humorous about earthquakes) happened when my mom was visiting my brother in San Diego, sometime during the late '70's. She was driving around town in her Toyota, waiting at a stoplight, when all of a sudden her car started shaking and rattling. She was very alarmed because she thought there was something wrong with her car. When she looked around at the other cars, and saw them shaking too, she happily rode out the quake knowing there was nothing wrong with her car. As I remember, it was a fairly powerful quake (big enough to make the news), which caused a fair amount of property damage. Incidently, the USGS has a web site that offers a lot of interesting statistics, including a map of earthquakes occurring within the last week. You can see California, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico just littered with little quakes, then there's that big one out in Illinois, along with a couple of fairly powerful aftershocks. You can see it here: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/. Kate

Yes, they do happen in the midwest, although it's not very common. We had one in Wichita, KS when I lived there, a very small one, though, just enough to make things sitting on shelves rattle. And Manhattan, where I live now, is sitting on a fault line and is rated as a medium earthquake risk by the Geological Survey. Kate