How To Make A Craftaid

[ClayB]

It wasnt this Clay, so if it was one of us, it must have been Mr. Miller.

[Cecil]

Indiana, you mean for the ink to transfer from the plastic to the leather?

Use transparency film(plastic). Trace on it and it will hold the scribe almost as well as craft aids. Instead of printing on paper, load your transparency film in the printer tray. You can print directly on the transparency film with your printer. Then trace with stylus onto leather.

Hope that makes more sense.

I pushed the wrong button. I ment this to be a reply to this topic. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=1047

[howardb]

I can't help with the thread, but your mention of the tools gets my engineering brain going. I think you just need the right thickness of plastic. It's going to have to be stiff, thin, and reasonably clear (though probably not a requirement...).

I havent' seen anything as heavy as the craft-aids in the stores (even the local education/art supply house). Try industrial plastic supply houses. You might even get them to send you some scraps/samples to figure out what you need.

Guessing: 0.5mm thick material, PVC or similar vinyl compound. It need to be flexible, but stay "bent" when deformed.

Method: trace your design onto this material. put the sheet on a rubber or soft vinyl (like for punching) base, or even some leather. Use a dull point (like a ball point pen) in the engraver (and it should be the kind that reciprocates like a jigsaw, not just the vibrating kind) and trace the design. The engraver would push the plastic down, deform it permanently and whammo - instant craftaid.

There are other sheet materials that would be stiff, yet soften under heat. for that one, you could carve the leather deep, heat the material and then simply trace with a stylus over the carving. Once cooled, you'd have a craftaid (whammo again!).

I have a plastic engineer at work. I will take in a craftaid and see if he can make any recommendations...

Brent

[barra]

What you can do is find a carving template you like. As an example go to ClayB's figure carving step by step post. Print off the picture and run it thru an office document laminator. When the picture has been laminated you can run it thru a sewing machine with fairly large needle but with no thread. This will leave lots of tiny little pushed out bits of plastic from the needle punching thru.

Lay the laminated pic onto leather and rub firmly with your fist. This will leave tiny little marks on the leather from the pushed out bits of plastic. You can then tidy up and play join the dots with a stylus or tickler, making any aesthetic eye pleasing changes as you see fit.

I also make lots of patterns this way.

Find pic you like

blow up to correct size with photocopier

laminate

no thread stitch

lay on leather

I then usually dust the template with a bit of shearling and talc. Bits of talc fall thru the holes. I then tidy up and re trace with the tickler or stylus and brush off the talc and give it a final clean off with a damp cloth to get rid of the last of the talc residue. On really large patterns eg a saddle fender I make up the pattern in segments and have reference marks to join up how ever many laminated sheets I had to use to get the final size. Laminator sheets run thru the laminator with nothing in them give you clear, firm plastic sheets you can make all sorts of patterns from.

Barra

[kimberangel]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am a teacher and just wanted to warn you to be careful using the overhead transparencies on all printers. The film has a tendency of heating and melting , ruining your printers. It is also thicker than paper and will jam constantly. Make sure the printer you use is transparency capable. Just my two cents of educational knowledge. Hope no one minds.

kimber

[krauter]

Once upon a time, Tandy would do custom craftaids it you sent them a carving with the lines and beveling marks cut. Don't know how it was done back then. Maybe a letter or two to them would clear the problem up.

[HollyNelson]

I want to do small, simple original forms for using as repeated patterns on edging and such, and just bought a tube of this: http://www.amazon.com/Pebeo-Porcelaine-China-Cloisonne-20-Milliliter/dp/B00266D8UK

I've gotten a couple of small pieces of glass, will be trying a woodcut phoenix pattern on the weekend.

[WyomingSlick]

Something that might work is to use one of the printer pens like this one on eBay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/High-quality-Authentic-3D-Stereoscopic-pen-printer-3D-Drawing-Printer-Pen-3D-Pen-/321525984921?pt=COMP_Printers&hash=item4adc712e99#ht_7952wt_1821

to make raised lines on a compatable sheet of clear plastic

[HollyNelson]

That looks pretty cool, might have a look at it.

My first attempt with the baked cloisonné paste above was pretty disappointing. Oh, it made a dandy image on glass and baked on nicely, but wouldn't imprint onto the leather. Just a few shallow dents here and there, even after being laid on the cased leather overnight with some canned goods pressing it down. Back to the drawing board...