ABHandmade

@alpha2 Sorry for the off topic, but could not resist - your Sadie is a real beauty! And my 2 cents on the topic. Perhaps it could be leather hairpins.

Very realistic! Looks great.

Thank you, Jeff! Thanks, @DJole! Here, in addition to the obvious tools (swivel knife, hair blade, stamps F896, F895, B200, B935, F910, F902), several exotic ones were used. Mainly for wool and eye work. Sometime a neighbor came to visit us. She is a dentist and, seeing my stand with stamps, said jokingly, "Yes, it's just a dentist's office!". Thinking how best to work for embossing wool, I remembered this case and drove into the medical equipment store. It turned out that some of the tools were perfect for working "as is" and some I slightly modified. The undoubted advantages of these tools are the material (high-quality stainless steel) and a very small price (each cost me $ 2-3). Below - photo of those that I used in this work.

Thank you for your compliment, @benlilly1!

When carving the portrait of my German Shepherd Gerda, I took a series of photos of the stages of work and collect them in the form of a short video. Hope this might be interesting to someone. PS. Criticism and advice will be accepted by me with gratitude. And I will be happy to answer questions if some moments of the creation process cause interest.

Nice horse! Carving and coloring are gorgeous!

A little bit about how the portrait was made. First, a leather insert was made (4 stacked layers of leather 8 oz) in the form of a relief of the face. I use a swivel knife and scalpels. After that, the portrait outline is applied to the cased main piece of leather 4 oz thick. The use of a swivel knife at this stage is minimal. To align the leather insert with the contour on the main piece of leather when gluing, 3 thin pins are used, which are used to make 3 punctures in the leather and the leather insert at the same points. After that, the pins are inserted from the back side of the insert, glue is applied on both parts, the main piece of leather is "strung" on the pins and both pieces are connected along them, as along the guides. With the help of figure beveler and a large modeling spoon, the leather is settled on the insert (bas-relief). Next comes the work of figure bevelers and modeling spoons of different shapes for the forming of parts. In some places (eyes, nostrils, a line between the lips), incisions are made with a swivel knife. But in general, the swivel knife is used to a minimum. I use such figure bevelers - F896, F895, F891, F890. In the details of clothing used checkered beveler, background stamp, figure beveler, modeling spoon. Hair processing is a separate stage. At first, large details of a curl are formed with figure bevellers and modeling spoons. Next, I use a swivel knife with my own maded blade, which has a blunted (rounded) working part, that is, the knife does not cut through, but pushes a mark on the leather. Despite the fact that many are categorically against the use of the hair blade, I use it. But to get more naturalness, the knife is conducted with a change in the force of pressing and tilting to the right-to the left. The tips of the hair are formed using the 910 and 902 stamps, as well as small undercuts by swivel knife. If this is of interest, I can try to briefly describe the process of coloring.

It seems to me that the problem is not so much the performance of the server / software as in a somewhat confusing route. For example, from Ukraine, "tracert" shows this route with an excessive number of nodes: Трассировка маршрута к leatherworker.net [142.4.4.102] с максимальным числом прыжков 30: 1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 2 6 ms 3 ms 3 ms xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 3 3 ms 3 ms 3 ms xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 4 3 ms 3 ms 3 ms v1040.luna-sw.kv.wnet.ua [128.0.175.222] 5 4 ms 4 ms 3 ms te0-7-0-32.890.rcr21.kbp01.atlas.cogentco.com [149.6.190.225] 6 22 ms 23 ms 23 ms be2679.ccr21.bts01.atlas.cogentco.com [130.117.48.93] 7 27 ms 27 ms 27 ms be3044.ccr21.prg01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.59.97] 8 35 ms 35 ms 36 ms be3027.ccr41.ham01.atlas.cogentco.com [130.117.1.205] 9 44 ms 45 ms 44 ms be2815.ccr41.ams03.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.38.205] 10 127 ms 127 ms 126 ms be2182.ccr21.lpl01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.77.246] 11 125 ms 128 ms 151 ms be3042.ccr21.ymq01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.44.162] 12 126 ms 126 ms 126 ms be2088.ccr21.alb02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.43.18] 13 128 ms 127 ms 128 ms be2915.ccr41.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.40.62] 14 127 ms 127 ms 127 ms be3495.ccr31.jfk10.atlas.cogentco.com [66.28.4.182] 15 121 ms 121 ms 120 ms qwest.iad01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.10.26] 16 176 ms 176 ms 177 ms 207.88.13.34.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.13.34] 17 192 ms 191 ms 193 ms 207.88.12.211.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.12.211] 18 189 ms 189 ms 190 ms 207.88.12.217.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.12.217] 19 177 ms 179 ms 179 ms 207.88.12.212.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.12.212] 20 180 ms 180 ms 180 ms 207.88.12.165.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.12.165] 21 182 ms 184 ms 181 ms 207.88.12.188.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.12.188] 22 189 ms 190 ms 190 ms 207.88.12.191.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.12.191] 23 180 ms 180 ms 180 ms 216.156.16.25.ptr.us.xo.net [216.156.16.25] 24 201 ms 202 ms 201 ms 216.51.74.158 25 196 ms 197 ms 200 ms eth3-33-2.prvspn001.net.unifiedlayer.com [162.144.240.147] 26 199 ms 200 ms 200 ms po97.prv-leaf3a.net.unifiedlayer.com [162.144.240.43] 27 195 ms 195 ms 195 ms 142-4-4-102.unifiedlayer.com [142.4.4.102] It is clearly seen that more than 3 seconds are spent on internal jumps within 2 domains.

Very nice and clean work. Stitching on my opinion is perfect! Edges also look great.

Thanks, Brian! In this case, the line between courage and rashness is very thin But all is well that ends well. The portrait was favorably approved by Yana.

Thanks, @datdraku! This work was the rare case when I never heard “you need to spend less time with your leather” -------------------------------- @kgg, thank you for compliment! This, it seems, was the main incentive for me to invest maximum effort in getting a result

@VYO, @battlemunky, @Smartee, @Scoutmom103 Thank you for appreciating my work! @JLSleather Thank you! Yes, the gloss of the eyes is provided with a super-gloss polyurethane varnish. And it is partially applied on the lips. The rest is covered with matte polyurethane varnish. @Northmount Tthank you, Tom! Many of you have tremendous talents in other equally important areas. And it is wonderful that there is an opportunity to communicate and learn something from each other.

Finally I finished coloring. Used acrylic paints and spirit dyes.

Very impressive work. Carving looks great and very detailed. The only thing that cuts the eye a little is the fleecy edge of the lacing. But this is a question for the material, but not for the master. Once again - your work is admirable!

I suspect that many of these tools will survive more than a dozen of modern ones. But in general, guys, I sometimes envy in a good way that, next to many of you, there are (or were ) people who can not only tell, but also visually show the secrets of mastery.

Thank you, @Smartee! We have a long weekend (3 days) in Ukraine from tomorrow and I expect to finish work on these days. I really hope so

Yes, in vain I started it. But nowhere to retreat . Thanks a lot, @battlemunky! Thank you, @Rbarleatherworks!

Great basketweave! Amazingly clear impressions!

Thank you, @bikermutt07! Tom, thanks for your comment! I expect to finish the coloring before the Orthodox Christmas. I hope I have time.