TomBanwell

Kate, that's a gorgeous design. I love it!

Very nice work, Tom. Good to one of your pieces posted here!

Normally you stain before you do the stitching. Otherwise you run the risk of not getting the stain into the recesses of the seams.

Very creepy looking! I like it. Wonderful nostrils.

This topic shows two different vacuum forming set-ups. Check out post #17, as that can be applied to gun holsters. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=2253

Here is my latest mask. I bought a side of 2/3 oz veggie cow for the vacuum experiments, but find it is really too thin for most masks. So for this one I stitched two layers together, and took advantage of that by contrasting the colors a bit between the two. The model, by the way, is a life casting of my mother made circa 1935! (not her actual hair--ha ha!)

Hi Joe, Welcome to the forum. Nice looking bracelet there. I'll go look at your website now. You'll find this is a nice group of people.

S-T Leather has the best price I've found. www.stleather.com IF you buy quarts they don't charge the $20 flammable fee.

I envy you, Tina. Pip did a fantastic job on that mask!

Ha ha! That's a good one!

More thoughts on paint versus dyes: I have never painted leather with acrylic paints, so I may be mistaken about this, but my assumption is that the acrylic sits on the surface of the leather, and diminishes it's capacity to absorb water. Dyes, on the other hand, are absorbed into the veggie tanned, and do not inhibit water absorption. I airbrush the dye through a stencil with the leather flat on a table, after cutting it out and before shaping it. Can you do that with acrylics? I learned airbrushing many years ago spraying acrylic paints. What a pain. The acrylics dry so quickly that the airbrush needed constant cleaning and I had to work fast so that it kept spraying. Once I switched to solvent based paints I discovered how much easier they were to airbrush due to the slower drying time. The dyes I use are made by Special-T http://www.specialtycoatingschem.com/ They are the PSTF dyes, and come in many colors. You can buy just the primaries and mix them. I would like to hear others weigh in on this topic. Thanks,

Roo, it's straight aniline dye. I use it in my business to color resin. It is very thin, and the solvent is mineral spirits. Makes cleaning the airbrush really easy. I spray it in front of a fan blowing outside so I don't breath it.

I just received my PIF from Clay M and it is exquisite! Clay, you are indeed a master at Sheridan carving. Wow! I am so happy! It is so different than the type of leatherworking that I do, and I treasure it because of that. Thank you! Here it is:

Thank you, all of you. I'm blushing! I love the airbrush, and when used in conjuction with stencils can add a whole new dimension to leatherworking.

I joined the forum two months ago as a helmet maker, and now, by golly, I'm turning into a maskmaker! Heh heh! I guess I've been deeply influenced by what others are doing. Here is my latest mask, a lizard. Not really wearable, due in part to the fact that lizard eyes are on opposite sides of their heads! At any rate, I'm trying lots of new things and enjoying it. I am quite pleased with the skin, which I airbrushed through a stencil using first green and then violet dye. I love the camouflage look it has. The tongue and crest are both made of a series of what Bruce Grant calls "trick twists". I drafted the pattern from a lizard head I'd sculpted a couple years ago. The mask is made of 5/6 oz veggie cow, except the crest which is 2/3 oz.

Linda, very nice work. I like your bat design, with the space around the mouth. It has a very good overall shape. I've been designing a bat mask myself where the wings wrap around the eyes. Keep up the good work!

Spider, I love it! Beautfiful and scary all at the same time.

sponsor. Thanks for taking the ribbing so well.

Hey Ken, I went to your site to look at the Google ads. One question though. Uhhh, what's a "sponcer"? Heh heh, sorry, but I got a laugh out of it!

Thanks, Ken. Your tutorials are excellent with all the details. I love the sharing of techniques on this forum. Wonderful!

I do love your work! Looks like a lot of fun.

It's a thick piece of plastic. Maybe nylon? Or Delrin?

Hi Shorts, I'm not familiar with using 40 shore A durometer rubber for a holster mold, but I do use that silicone rubber all the time in my business. If it's silicone you're looking for you can contact Silicones Inc and find your nearest distrubutor http://www.silicones-inc.com/

Dogs with masks. That is just too funny! Thank you for your kind offer of brown thread, but I will acquire it locally soon enough I'm sure. It's just testing my patience! We have many, many lizards running around here where I live in Rough & Ready (really, that's where I live!). It would be a challenge to make a mask that small, let alone getting one to wear it! If you have any pictures of mask-wearing dogs I'd love to see them. Thanks again,