azrider

Thanks for the ideas! I have some fuel hose in the garage I could use, but might try something with the leather mache too. Are the dips hard to get?

Last weekend I picked up some used modeling tools. I cleaned up the ends with a dremel, but the rubber grip is so bad on one of them it disentigrated when I tried to clean it. I can't think of anyway to put a solid piece of leather over them that won't leave me with a seam that would interfere with spining it in my hand when I use it. Is there some type of braid that could be done over a tool about the width of a pencil? Ideally I would want it to be a single layer so as not to be too thick to use comforatably.

The first thing I ever tried to lace is the seat on my bike. I have over 2000 miles on it now, and quite a few other leather projects under my belt. I can see some issues when I look at my seat, and a few other leather people can, but all I get are compliments from other riders and shops. Tandy has a book for like $7 on lacing. I practiced on two pieces of scrap for about five minutes, and then started doing my seat, so it really is pretty fast to pick up. If you have the talent to do that tooling, you should be able to do the lacing too.

Esantro, that is a really nice bag. I spent some time checking out your website, and all of your bags are very nicely done. It also is a great example of something being very funtional, but nice to look at when its done. The simple lines, clean edges, solid construction,and stitching all combine to make an nice piece. Do you consider your bags artistic, or simply funtional?

It would have taken me 4-5 hours to figure out the pattern! Nicely done.

Not sure about ostrich, but there is an Emu Farm that goes to my local farmer's market. I have to ask them to bring it, but they sell leg and body leather. The leg leather has some really awesome texture to it.

Thanks for the kind words, and everyone's suggestions that made this come together nicely. This is going to be a gift from an aquarium society to a member who has organized a national convention for other aquarium hobbyists.

This took way longer to plan out than I thought it would, but I think it came out well. A few more pictures... Did I mention this belt is 54 inches long?

I like that! Is there a form under the cover, or is that wetformed from veg-tan?

Two years ago I did a ride with a good friend of mine, it was a four day camping trip on our bikes. (I was still living in Arizona at the time.) Old Rt. 66 is still there between Kingman and Oatman its a two lane road that has cliffs on parts of it, and is so curvy that 18 wheelers can't make the switchbacks. The country is black volcanic rock, cactus, palo verde, mesquite, and creasote. The road forces you to slow down, but you only get little glimpses of the desert, because it also demands your complete attention. We did the ride in February and it was cold for a desert rat. We pulled over at an old gas station that is being restored, and then later just on the side of the road. (There was a 50 foot drop about 3 feet behind me in this picture.) Sometimes you look at a piece of countryside, and just say wow. This was one of those times for me. (When I transfered to Kansas to take over a department with my company, they wanted a picture of thier new boss. The second picture is the one I sent them.)

At least I can find things on this version of the website. It's a step forward.

Thanks for putting this together! I am working on a belt I will be doing with this method. Question, what did you use over the dyes to seal the bracer and belt?

That looks awesome! Do you use an airbrush for finishing?

I tried to use super sheen as a resist on a project a few weeks ago, and it didn't work out well for me either. I used an entire bottle of deglazer and was able to strip 98% of it off and save the piece. If you could strip it, you might be able to dye it a darker brown or black like Bree said.

All I can say is wow. Nice work.

When I got back in, I got the basics kit from Tandy and "a few little things" to make a belt. My visits to any leather store were regularly over $100 each. One thing I did that helped was to put an ad on Craigslist under the "wanted" catagory for leather tools. I paid like $50 plus shipping for a couple of basic sets of tools and what ever other goodies they happened to have. (Just as a warning, that first belt ended up being about $250 after I got the tools I "needed." I am so glad I did it though.)

Wow! Your mauls are really nice looking. Almost would hate to use them as tools. (But the ones I got from you sure work great!) Look forward to hearing how this works out for long term for you.

Amen brother! I have visited a few other countries, and while there are some issues here, there is no other place I would rather live. Last night I watched most of my town assemble in the parks downtown and watch bands, eat, and watch the fireworks display. No one was talking about our counry being disliked by other countries, a ression, or anything else. It was a bunch of people celebrating just being a part of this country. I was sure glad to be there.

Thanks everyone for your comments. Esantoro- There is something absoulutly artistic about an all alumimum v8 block being CNC machined. Its fun to watch. I think for me, part of why I like leatherwork so much is that I can't draw, I can't paint, and I am tone deaf. So for me, I can do somthing I see as completely mechanical. The results are getting nicer to look at though. I have always been a big fan of "form follows funtion" design. When I build things with wood, they might not look like fine furnature, but I have a 100 gallon fish tank (about 1000 pounds) sitting on a table right now with no fear that it won't hold. With leatherwork, the tools have been less expencive than metal or wood working tools. (They are certainly catching up though.) The practice and learning curve seems to be shorter too. The amazing part is, I have had people look at my leather work and call me artistic. Thats why I was curious about how other people viewed what they do.

At least I know I am not the only one! I guess my follow up question would be what makes you either artistic or mechanical?

So I was having a discussion with my wife, and made an interesting observation. Am kind of curious as to what other people think. As far as leather working goes, I don’t see myself as artistic. To me the process is very mechanical. In order to get this result, you do these three things in this order. That is actually part of what got me interested in leatherwork. I don’t have to be real artistic. Just like working on a car or a bike, you use tool x to do job x. When I want to a new project, I will start with what I want, and go backwards to figure out what steps I need to take. Occasionally, I will experiment with different uses of tools, and different steps, but its all still a very mechanical process. Now I know there are some artists on this site, and the things they put together are a lot more than just following certain steps. So I am curious, do you consider yourself artistic or mechanical?

Yes, there is an Apistogramma cacatuoides on there. Grin, my main hope for this belt was that fish people would be able to recognize the species. Thanks Marrok!

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I am trying to stay away from saltwater stuff, as these are all freshwater fish. (Any other cichlid geeks on here?)I like the idea of a coral reef belt though. Hmm... As far as a hook and line, I have threatened people with serious injury for wanting to bring them near my fish tanks, so will stay away from that as well. I will add some rock piles with the bubbles between the fish, but not so much that it takes away from the fish. More pictures to come!

I am doing a belt from an aquarium society for the thank you to the person who has organized a national convention. I planned the belt out with fish that could be recognized as a specific species by aquarium hobbyists. Anyways, I ended up with six fish on a 54 inch belt. I did a border on it as well. My wife thinks it needs something between the fish. I am not sure. The last picture is some rocks I could do to add more carving. Any suggestions welcome.

So I read the article, comments, and thread while sitting in my cubicle at work thinking about what I actually want to MAKE. (There's not really enough work to keep me busy, but I can't raise a fuss about it beacasue it's contract work, and we might lose the contract.) I am very grateful to be employeed right now but hate the fact that at the end of the day I can't point at anything and say "I did that." I have a History degree, and have been happiest in high paced phyiscal jobs with no relation to my degree. I have been at a desk for about seven years now, and question my choice of careers. That was a really good article.