tashabear

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Yay! Mo' Vikings, mo' betta! Welcome!

Those are gorgeous!

What was it like? I've never heard of Oakey cake, but I'm willing to do some searches. I love baking.

Are you cutting a stitching groove before you punch your holes?

I've not had any problems with it on painted leather, but as others have said, it makes a great resist, so I wouldn't use it on anything that wasn't already dyed.

No, it was fine. Definitely a learning experience. I try to do new techniques on scraps (not in this case, but it wasn't a big piece). At least now I know what NOT to do.

Ooh. Using it to apply dye is an interesting idea, too. I'd just want to be sure to really rinse the sponge well; regular sponges that you hold in your hand seem to have soap in them from the get-go and I turned blue dye green by inadvertently using a soapy sponge.

Nice job!

It's called the Rubbermaid Paint Buddy, and it gets pretty decent reviews on Amazon.

Maybe for something small. My house is wicked dry, though, and I think that with an envelope moistener it would take so long to wet a larger piece that one end would be dry before I got to the other end! I wouldn't have thought of using the dishwashing wand because I refuse to use them in my kitchen. I like to feel my dishes as I wash them, to be sure I've gotten everything off. Great alternate use, though! I'll have to grab one when I finally get dug out of here.

That's even better that what I thought of while reading your post: an envelope moistener. I may just try your idea, Kate -- it even has the added bonus of being spillproof!

Pretty! Did you use Angelus for the silver paint? I've got gold all squared away, but silver is giving me fits.

That's lovely, inside and out. Did your wife do the embroidery by hand? It's gorgeous.

Cool. What keeps them from bouncing off?

My very first carving project involved fleurs that were less than 1/4" long... 24 of them. (The thingy in my avatar is an escarbuncle. The ends of the arms are tipped in fleurs, and I carved three of them. They're approximately 1.75 - 2" in diameter.) I'm surprised I ever wanted to carve again. Next time I do that design, though, I won't use a beveler to push down the cut edges, I'll use a modeling tool. You can use matting tools to press down the background, or you can use backgrounders, if you want a texture to give it a bit of dimension. I like the E294 series matting tools that Tandy sells, though I want to get a pebbler at some point, too.

Get a piece of 4x4, slice off a wedge lengthwise with a tilted table saw blade, and then chock the piece under the drill press with the wedge you cut off and drill holes in the sliced off face. Does that make sense?

It's a system of writing used by the Norse and Anglo-Saxons prior to adopting the Roman alphabet. Tandy used to sell a stamp set of the Elder Futhark, but they discontinued it in favor of the Hebrew alphabet, which apparently sells much better. I'm a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, and do a lot of Viking stuff, so I've wanted the rune stamp set for a while. I paid through the nose to get this set shipped from Denmark, and because the guy I bought them from (or his shipping department) didn't use their brains, I now have half the pieces I'm supposed to have.

There's only one set; I don't have a choice between elder or younger. These happen to be elder, so yeah, I'm out. I'm irritated beyond belief, because this was so easily avoidable. Thanks.

Working on something that complex at a size that small will drive you insane. You can always toss the helmet and mantling (the floofy stuff around the shield) and just do the shield. That's the important part, anyway. Tandy sells a fleur de lis stamp, but obviously that won't make them raised. When I carve heraldry, I print out the design, cover both sides with packing tape, and then put it on the cased leather and trace it with a stylus. I cut most of the lines, except for ones I want to contour instead of tool. Where are you? I don't see it in your info under your name.

My mom is diabetic, and her blood testing strips come in containers very much like film canisters, but with better seals. She's going to save them for me from now on. I'm going to ask her for old meds bottles, as well -- goodness knows they get enough scripts.

I ordered a rune stamp set from Denmark. It sat in the post office for over a month and it just got here today. The outer box was open, the inner box had fallen open, and most of the parts had fallen out. I only have 13 runes in my hand, and I think there should be 24. I'm going to open a claim, but I want to be sure I only have half a set here. I'm so bitterly disappointed in this entire experience I can barely speak of it. What kind of moron doesn't tape the inner box shut before they pack it? We won't even go into the serious lack of communication...

http://www.sodhoppers.com/html/goop.html I wouldn't buy period shoes made out of suede. My shoes are for wearing, not for tripping around Faire dressed like a princess, and get mucky and muddy. Suede would just get ruined.

http://www.hatshapers.com/ These hat forms are designed for felt hats, so I don't know how they'd hold up to the stresses of stretching leather over them. They're not terribly expensive, though.

Sure there are -- be specific, and generally people will pipe up.