I know what I would change--what do you see?

[TomE]

Like the unique artwork.  Very pretty.  The edges could be more finished.  Shaping the rounded corners on a drum or belt sander before edging, sharpening/stropping the edger to get a clean even bevel, a bit more burnishing work.  Thanks for posting.

[DJole]

I think the bottom design looks better because of the "fade" effect you used with the background tool. The top one has an abrupt edge, and it just doesn't look as clean and professional. 

[MarshalWill]

That's looking pretty good, there. The touch of color is nice. Your new stamps seem to do the trick for you. Keep at it, you're doing good.

You mentioned you're looking for new background tools. Try the fine, cross-hatched ones like the Tandy A-104, which I have used for many years. I don't like busy background tools because the patterns can overpower the design tooling. I've tried many different background tools and the A-104 is still my favorite. To get into tight places, I filed one smaller but it's still the same pattern. This compares some background patterns. On the left is the A-104 (and the A-104 I filed smaller).

This was done with an A-104.

 

[Sinbad395]

15 hours ago, Ddat said:

I love the morning glories!

 

Only thing that jumps out at me is that pebble backgrounder. I use that one a lot. If you rotate it back and forth at random, it looks more natural. In your background you can see the repeating pattern.

well  I tried to remember that... guess I was just getting carried away at that point   Thank for looking

1 hour ago, MarshalWill said:

That's looking pretty good, there. The touch of color is nice. Your new stamps seem to do the trick for you. Keep at it, you're doing good.

You mentioned you're looking for new background tools. Try the fine, cross-hatched ones like the Tandy A-104, which I have used for many years. I don't like busy background tools because the patterns can overpower the design tooling. I've tried many different background tools and the A-104 is still my favorite. To get into tight places, I filed one smaller but it's still the same pattern. This compares some background patterns. On the left is the A-104 (and the A-104 I filed smaller).

This was done with an A-104.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.  I will look into that one---not a huge investment there.

[Sinbad395]

14 hours ago, TomE said:

Like the unique artwork.  Very pretty.  The edges could be more finished.  Shaping the rounded corners on a drum or belt sander before edging, sharpening/stropping the edger to get a clean even bevel, a bit more burnishing work.  Thanks for posting.

I probably should have mentioned the wallet is only half done. I like to do my dyeing before assembly and edge finishing. I'll post a pic when I've got it completed--installing a black pigskin interiaor

[MarshalWill]

1 hour ago, Sinbad395 said:

Thanks for the suggestion.  I will look into that one---not a huge investment there.

The A-104 is a finer pattern than the newer A-104-2. You might find an original on ebay if one isn't available elsewhere.

[Sinbad395]

17 minutes ago, MarshalWill said:

The A-104 is a finer pattern than the newer A-104-2. You might find an original on ebay if one isn't available elsewhere.

thanks for the heads up on that

[fredk]

30 minutes ago, MarshalWill said:

The A-104 is a finer pattern than the newer A-104-2. You might find an original on ebay if one isn't available elsewhere.

try and get an older tool

The newer ones are very smooth and have heavy plating which reduces it further

[MarshalWill]

28 minutes ago, fredk said:

try and get an older tool

The newer ones are very smooth and have heavy plating which reduces it further

Good point about the newer ones. Thanks for bringing that up.