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ONLINE LEATHER CARVING CLASS ANNOUNCEMENT REMINDER! Part one of the facial feature series - Eyes with Michael Dale The eyes are the window to the soul. This is true in any art medium, and throughout history, eyes have helped artists capture the breadth of human emotion. Join Mike in this multi-part study on carving faces. Part one will explore how to carve realistic looking eyes. Mike will discuss artwork selection, realistic vs. cartoon eyes, carving techniques, tool selection, common mistakes and answer any questions you might have. This class is $25.00 and will be at least an hour long. As always, there will be a recording available if you cannot attend. Please register for Facial Features-Part One: Eyes on Thursday, August 17, 2017 9:00 PM - 10:00 PM CDT at: https://attendee.gototraining.com/r/3511349041589877250 After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the training.

Hi guys I'm after some advice on ways to improve my belt making and was wondering if anybody had any suggestions on things I could try? One of the tricky bits is that I like to have the entire belt dyed. I really dislike it when only the surface is died so when you punch holes or look at the back of the belt its a different colour. Also I like to stitch the entire perimeter of the belt, to me that's what turns a functional strap into a belt. These make it hard as I end up dying the belt at the end so I can easier see my stitch marks and as I don't want the awl to cause any veg tan to show through. Its also hard trying to figure out what to stitch where so it all flows together with the perimeter stitching. I know I could use rivets to keep the buckle & keeper in place and this is fine on 'biker' style belts but for 'dress' belts I think stitching is the best option. This is my current order of steps: Cut tip end Measure Cut buckle end Chamfer edges Groove stitches Mark Stitches Wet form buckle end Awl buckle end Dye buckle end Oil + seal buckle end suede side Stitch buckle end Awl and stitch rest of belt Dye whole belt Oil whole belt Burnish belt Seal belt Buff belt I have a wing divider and stitching chisels on their way to me to try instead of grooving and using and overstitch wheel. I was also wondering if anyone had any templates for the buckle and tip ends? I have a friend who's going to help me draw up some cad images for these and get them laser cut so I can have some good reusable templates but some starting images for spacing ideas would be good. Eventually I want to build a collection of images/templates for all different combinations of English point, rounded, 5 holes, 7 holes, round holes, oval hole, buckle stitched, buckle riveted etc etc. I know the stitching isn't fantastic but here is the most recent one I finished and the one which has really prompted me to want to improve.