CitizenKate

I've never heard a ukulele played with such sensitivity and passion... That was beautiful. I really love getting to see and hear performances by people that are great talents, but are still under the radar screens of the music studios. Kate

It's an imprinting machine sold by Tandy. (See the product info here.) It appears it's just designed to be used with larger stamps. Maybe someone else has adopted it for other uses.... Kate

Thanks for sharing that Smothers Bros vid... they were masters of the folk genre parody. Kate

That's a great video, despite the limitations with the camera, his art is unique. I would love to see LW publishing stuff like that. Kate

That is like a kilt on steriods... Ha! Very hunky! Kate

Oh right, Tommy James... here's one for you Jordan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m9d4IyCmIs Kate

I found it. It's hilarious!!! Kate

Here's a couple of mine: This one is really amazing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlVRdAU2-R0 And this one's for all you teenie-boppers from the 60's & 70's: Kate

Tight and even - nice! Kate

I also use clear packing tape after having used rubber cement with poster board and contact paper... It's just so easy to put on, it comes off the leather cleanly, leaving the flesh side with a nice consistent nap. If you need more firmness, you can add additional layers of tape, and criss-cross them. I have, however, noticed some differences between different types of packing tape. When I use the really cheap kind, the adhesive sometimes will not come off the leather, and there are places that have gooey spots where the adhesive was left behind. The kind I think works perfectly is the "long-life" packing tape, from 3M or just about any store brand from Staples, Office Depot, or OfficeMax. I think it has a better quality adhesive in it, that doesn't come apart when the tape is removed. The really cheap kind is what I use to ship stuff with. Kate

Very nice piece, Marcel. I would have never guessed this was someone's first project. It has a very clean and finished appearance to it. Kate

Hey Bill, are those made with double-splits? Kate

Don't worry, we've still got the old posts, and plan to restore them. It's just going to take some time. Meanwhile, you heard the man. Kate

Paul, I've tried the water-based dyes from Tandy, and they work well for me. I haven't tried Feibings yet, but I do plan to. For adhesives, just about any type of white glue has very low toxicity. There is also a latex-based contact cement I use, called DAP Weldwood non-flammable contact cement, which has very low fumes. Not sure what would make a good substitute for rubber cement, but maybe someone else has some info on that. Kate

I know a lot of you will be wondering if/when our old posts will be recovered. As Johanna mentioned on the front page, we will be able to recover almost all of the old posts, attachments, and polls. I am working on a script that will go through the old posts, re-establish their links to topics, forums, and attachments, and place them into a special forum we have set up to process them. Then all the forum moderators will move them back to their appropriate topics. It's going to take a little time to make all this happen, but I am very encouraged that we were able to salvage all our valuable text and image content that we have accumulated over the last year. Thanks so much for all the kind words we received during this very anxious time. We have a lot of great things planned for the coming year, so stay tuned! Kate

Both Fiebings and Tandy have water-based dyes, finishes and adhesives that might meet your needs. Kate

That is going to be one cozy little yorky! Kate

I've had gimp installed on my pc for a few months now, but haven't used it much, because of all the time I spend fussing around with an unfamiliar interface trying to do things that have become second nature to me in Illustrator. But I do think Gimp is one of the most promising programs to come from the open source world. Does this plugin convert the lines to paths? If so, I'll have to take a look at it. Kate

Hi chocolate... What type of leather are you sewing? If you're sewing soft, light leather, like garment or upholstery leather, you can sew that with a regular sewing machine outfitted with a walking foot and some leather needles. If you're sewing anything heavier than about 4 oz., you should consult the heavy-duty sewing experts on the forum (of which I am not one - - but they are here). There are a few people here who work with fur... hopefully they will see your post and respond. If not, feel free to bump your question to keep it current until you get a good answer. Kate

That is very nice work, Travis. Very clean and professional, and you really did a great job of bringing out the texture of the sharkskin. Hope you keep posting! Kate

This can also be done in Photoshop, using the "Find Outline" filter. Illustrator also has a very nice feature that creates line art from imported images, and converts them to editable paths. These programs are available for Macs, but alas, they are not free. Kate

The fine lines are probably where the stain or antique got more than one stroke of the sponge or brush with the finish. Those acrylic finishes are tricky to apply over water-based stains without picking up some of the stain. I haven't tried the mink oil, but I have recently tested neutral shoe polish on the new water-based stains and antiques, and it creates a very nice finish without disturbing the antique or stain at all. Tan-Kote doesn't disturb the antique as easily as the acrylic finishes, but it will if you work it long enough. I've gotten some pretty nice results from it, as well. Kate

That put a smile on my face... Are you going to post some of her work? Kate

I'll give it a try. You're right, it might be different on a piece of leather. Kate

Peter, I've got a bottle of Evening Blue that I've had open since July, and it seems to have held up pretty well... here's a picture of some that I dabbed onto a white paper towel. However, I was talking to the folks at the Oklahoma City Tandy store, and they informed me that they have pulled all the blue and purple Eco-Flo dyes from their shelves due to this issue of "shelf life". They say that Tandy is working on improving the formula for those two colors and should have the new formula out within the next month or so. I did notice, when I tested these dyes for color-fastness last summer, that the blue did not stand up to much exposure to direct sunlight, but all the other colors I tested held up amazingly well. In fact, they're still sitting in the window sill (I guess I just forgot about them), and the red and yellow are still quite vibrant. Kate