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Finished this tote, it was a fun project, got to try new techniques, like the round handles and sewing from inside the bag which proved easier than expected. There are some things I would do differently, but I am very pleased with the result(and so is the owner) Made from 2 mm veg tan, painted with Angelus acrylic for the motif and Roc dye for the base coat. 0.65 thread at 4 mm spacing. Hope you like it, but critique is welcome and encoureged!

Hello forum, It has been a bit, and I wanted to display something I finished recently. This is a valet tray I tooled a traditional Hawaiian design on it; a good friend of mine drew the design for me. It's not perfect, but it was a definite learning curve. It is surprisingly hard to translate a complete 2D drawing, into something with a 3D feel. Lemme know what you guys think, critiques, changes, etc. I'll take them all. --JW

Hi! I just finished a new belt. Its ornaments came from central europe (Ac. 700-1000) The hunnis, magyar, warriors and nobles (woman and men too) wore belts, like this. (with more additional ornaments) I hope you like it. I hope soon i can start the helmet project.

So in my back yard I have a huge old Mulberry tree, which drops a metric ton of berries that stain everything, up to and including my chickens. (pretty easy to tell when they've been eating them, beaks are all purple stained on the edges and backs have splotches where berries bounce off of them) Should have taken a before pic, but as you can see the scrap of veg tan I used had plenty of surface flaws which turned out to make it look pretty neat. I just cut the strap and the 5 strands, took it outside and started squishing berries (with gloved hands, learned not to pick up the berries if I didn't want to get stained a while ago) and rubbing the juice onto the leather. It ended up making a nice dusty rose color with darker flecks where the flaws in the leather caught more of the juice. After letting it mostly dry, I burnished the edges with a scrap of canvas and that made a really nice burgandy, pretty much the same color as the darker spots on the leather. Then I rubbed beeswax over it and braided it up, I'll have to see how the stain lasts long term but for now it's sealed in pretty well, just rubbed it on some white paper and not a bit of color came off. I'm thinking next I'll try juicing a bunch of the berries and reducing it on the stove to get a more concentrated liquid. Looking online it says add salt to berries to use as a mordant (something to make the dye "stick") but I worry about how that will act with the leather. Maybe I'll do a few batches... Anyone else try doing it the old-old school way? I know some people have made vinegaroon (which I'd also like to try). and for that matter, try out some of the colors/plants shown on this page: http://pioneerthinking.com/crafts/natural-dyes