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Hello, hale and well-met, my crafty new friends! I'm Bear from Bear and the Raven Antiques and Collectibles. We're currently firmly ensconced in the wet part of Oregon (known to some as the proto-state of Cascadia) I'm getting back into leatherworking after a longish hiatus - about four and a half years. My focus back then was mainly masquerade-style masks, though I made a number of other things including gaiters and bracers, books, part of a hat and satchels. Nothing terribly exciting, but I loved it. Life crashed and burned, my leatherworking tools all moved out and now I'm rediscovering why I loved making this stuff in the first place. I picked up my first-ever pack of stamping/tooling tools a few weeks ago and have been trying to get a feel for making them work. It's... well, I'm not very good right now and though I'm a wee bit embarassed to share, I'd love some feedback. First off, this is the stuff I used to do: The Witch King Goblinus Felis This little gem has no name yet, but is the first mask I've started since October 2009 (work in progress, this is just after shaping): I decided for tooling purposes, I was going to so something fun and cheeky. So, I scraped the Internet for a bunch of vintage pinup tattoo flash and went for it. The face of the girl on the left is rather horrid, but seriously, this is like the third thing I've tooled, ever. I'm not an artist of any stripe so the fact that it came out even this well is cause for celebration This would be the second thing I've ever tooled... it needs work, my lines are very hesitant and not very smooth. Anyone got recommendations on how to get a smoother, better flow?

Here is the lastest creation. Initially started out wanting to make this a post bound portfolio then changed my mind half way through and ended up with a three ring binder style. This was one of those projects I just kept adding more too every time I picked it up.

Hello all, strangers and old friends who was once used to see ma around! Computer takes too much time and trying to keep the jobs coming in so I am not very often in here. Endless hours of mail consultations about work and PR makes me wanna be off the puter as much as possible and try to also produce what I preach, lol ;-) I work mostly with tattoos theese days, living leather art ;-) Heres som stuff that came out this year Best regards Tom in Sweden