bentley

Not boring at all. Sounds like fun and giving back to our community is a great thing. I have judged several 4H crafts fairs in the leather category, which part of judging involves praising their acomplishments and helping them with areas that they need improvement with. Those kids just loved any and all help they could get and really enjoyed looking at projects I brought for them to see, they were full of questions about how I did certain cuts, tooling or lacing, etc. What a joy working with children, I often would work with the Boy Scouts. Mark

I feel your pain, spent the first hour at home cleaning the worms and leaves out of the pool, pumping the water level down a couple inches and cleaning filters/baskets. I couldn't beleive that the wind was so strong we had blowing mud instead of a dust storm. Try starting that dyeing project again tonight. Mark

I met both Kate and Johanna today for the first time in chat, that was great. I think we are all spoiled by the fantastic work that has been done putting this site together, thank you is not enough to express our gratitude for all your combined efforts. THANK YOU! Mark

Not sure what to say except WOW, that is a beautiful dragon, thanks for sharing. Mark

Nice looking project, great attention to detail. Mark

Welcome to the site, this is a great place to learn from some of the experts. The Tandy store in Tempe also has a small gathering of people every wednesday afternoon and evening, we just bring projects in to work on and help each other with ideas and techniques, newbies are always welcome, the more the merrier. Mark

Welcome, I am from Mesa, AZ. I have found this site to be very friendly and a lot of help. Just add another post and attach a photo when your ready to show us your stuff or want help. Mark

You are very brave to take on such a large project for the first time doing leather work. Your lacing looks good, the cuts and stamping are good for your first project. I think you may need to pay close attention to the dampness of your leather when working, it is a balance of not so wet that the leather sprays water out when stamped and not so dry that you can not make an impression with the stamp, try dampening your leather with a sponge and wait until the color starts to change back to the way it was before you wet it, it should feel cool and damp, now keep that moisture content constant, as it starts to dry out dampen again and wait, this will help give smoother cuts and deeper stamp impressions. Practice, practice and more practice.

Welcome and nice work, I am from Mesa, AZ.

I guess it is also called a petal lifter, http://www.hidecrafter.com/hci/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=1577&category_id=124&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=35 Thanks to everyone for the kind words, I will try to post items more often. Happy Holidays to all. Mark

Thank you Storm, I used a pro petal to lift each scale of the cones.

Amazing work, thank you for sharing.