Patterns for carving or stamping

[Frodo]

I found a color by numbers site on my phone.  And noticed a lot of the patterns would make some really nice leather patterns

the site name is Zen Color. I think posting the link would be considered spam so you will have to look it up by name

here is one of the patterns

 

Edited May 7 by Frodo

[Frodo]

[chuck123wapati]

cool site indeed. Where ya been?

[Frodo]

Took a break from internet for awhile rebuilt a truck then blew it up !!!🤬

[PastorBob]

Pretty cool stuff.  Welcome back!  Sorry to hear about blowing up truck after rebuild.

[fredk]

We have here 'adult' coloring books. 'Adult' as in grown-up, not as in the naughty sense. They are meant to help with mental health and well being.

They have some cool deigns in them which I've thought would do well on leather. And there are some coloring books meant for children which have great designs. An example; I have a childrens coloring book with the pages of the Book of Kells as color-in artwork

edit; I went looking for my 'Book of Kells' coloring book and remembered I'd given it away  

Edited May 7 by fredk

[Frodo]

3 hours ago, fredk said:

We have here 'adult' coloring books. 'Adult' as in grown-up, not as in the naughty sense. They are meant to help with mental health and well being.

They have some cool deigns in them which I've thought would do well on leather. And there are some coloring books meant for children which have great designs. An example; I have a childrens coloring book with the pages of the Book of Kells as color-in artwork

edit; I went looking for my 'Book of Kells' coloring book and remembered I'd given it away  

Hundreds on the Shelf at Walmart if you are looking for the paper type

if you are talking about digital  I have not looked so I have not seen anY

Do you want me to pick up some from Walmart for you?

the postage should not be expensive , because they would be considered educational  

[fredk]

Very kind of you to offer but we have lots and lots in our versions of Wally World, called ASDA and Tesco

[billybopp]

21 hours ago, Frodo said:

Took a break from internet for awhile rebuilt a truck then blew it up !!!🤬

When they say "Never do anything that you can't undo" ... I don't think this is what was intended!

Seriously tho, that sux.   But welcome back, and thanks for the suggestion!

Over the years, I've picked up a number of "coloring books" to use as tooling patterns.  If the size isn't quite what I'm looking for, I've got a scanner/printer/copier that I can use to scan and re-size to fit the space needed.  For somebody like me that can barely manage a line with a ruler and pencil, these things are just great!!

[SUP]

@Frodo, sorry about your truck. How did that happen?

Those books all have such charming and cheerful designs. There are books with undersea and mountain sceneries as well, which are beautiful. 

The mandalas are very complicated though, the first one you have shown here @Frodo. 

 

[Frodo]

1 hour ago, SUP said:

@Frodo, sorry about your truck. How did that happen?

Those books all have such charming and cheerful designs. There are books with undersea and mountain sceneries as well, which are beautiful. 

The mandalas are very complicated though, the first one you have shown here @Frodo. 

 

The E-clip on the oil line to the radiator  was either left off , or not installed correctly.  Motor lost oil and I flew into a rage I am still mad, will most likely be mad for at least a year maybe longer

 

[SUP]

I feel for you!

Maybe you could direct that anger into some more of your quirky designs that are always so beautiful. Hammering punches into a few thick pieces of leather is always so therapeutic!  I know that your belt bag is one that I always want to make but never seem to have the appropriate belts for it. Still collecting though.

[fredk]

Warning; diversion; my Caddy suffered a fire when a 'mechanic' didn't torque tighten the bolts on the gear box sump. The sump opened a bit and sprayed hot oil onto the catalytic converter which then ignited, and then the flames burnt out the main wiring. We got the fire out before it spread further. But it took me 6 years to fully rebuild the car as Caddy parts were hard to get here

[chuck123wapati]

11 minutes ago, Frodo said:

The E-clip on the oil line to the radiator  was either left off , or not installed correctly.  Motor lost oil and I flew into a rage I am still mad, will most likely be mad for at least a year maybe longer

 

external oil coolers and thier hoses suck for just that reason. I constantly worry about the one on my burb. 

[Frodo]

On 5/8/2025 at 9:45 AM, SUP said:

I feel for you!

Maybe you could direct that anger into some more of your quirky designs that are always so beautiful. Hammering punches into a few thick pieces of leather is always so therapeutic!  I know that your belt bag is one that I always want to make but never seem to have the appropriate belts for it. Still collecting though.

Seek out a thrift store.  I pick up belts for $1.00/$2.00 each

they make great straps for bags 

[SUP]

13 hours ago, Frodo said:

Seek out a thrift store.  I pick up belts for $1.00/$2.00 each

they make great straps for bags

I'll do that! Thank you for the tip.

[billybopp]

On 5/8/2025 at 10:46 AM, fredk said:

Warning; diversion; my Caddy suffered a fire when a 'mechanic' didn't torque tighten the bolts on the gear box sump. The sump opened a bit and sprayed hot oil onto the catalytic converter which then ignited, and then the flames burnt out the main wiring. We got the fire out before it spread further. But it took me 6 years to fully rebuild the car as Caddy parts were hard to get here

One of the reasons I've always preferred to do as much of the maintenance on my cars as I could manage is that professional mechanics have nearly killed me twice. 

  Once was a 1976 Ford Fiesta (a BLAST of a little car to drive!).  I was in college and didn't have time to replace rear brake shoes, so took it to Ford - I even warned them that the adjusters were finicky on that car and had to be manually adjusted pretty tight.  They didn't listen.  On the drive home from the dealership, a semi pulled out in front of me on a two lane road, and the brake pedal went to the floor.  Fortunately, I managed to slow by downshifting, and there was just enough berm for me to get over on.   But my hands were shaking when I got home.

The other was a 1968 Buick LeSabre that needed some steering work.  Not something that my dad nor I had ever done and didn't have the specialized tools for, so we took it to the dealership.  We could have bought the tools and a repair book for what they charged, but didn't really want a single purpose tool lying around, and didn't know for sure how to do the job. We pulled out to go home, and steering worked one direction but not the other.  Took it right back by circling the block.  They forgot to tighten something or other.

Lessons learned.

[Sheilajeanne]

If someone wants to try some designs that are different from Sheridan carving, this book is available online: Le Cuir: Compositions Decorative, par Jehan Raymond.

It's quite old, and the designs have an Art Nouveau flavour: https://archive.org/details/LeCuirCompositionsDecoratives/raymond-j-cuir-1908-BK001200-LowRes/

Couple of examples:

https://archive.org/details/LeCuirCompositionsDecoratives/raymond-j-cuir-1908-BK001200-LowRes/page/n15/mode/2up

https://archive.org/details/LeCuirCompositionsDecoratives/raymond-j-cuir-1908-BK001200-LowRes/page/n6/mode/1up

If you have a problem understanding the French, there are lots of free translation apps online. This is the one I use most frequently: https://www.bing.com/translator

Or just PM me - I'm pretty fluent. Have been using Duolingo to improve my High School French!

Edit: just found a document with a translation of the book's index! When you see a list that includes pen blotters, you know the book's OLD!! 

Index for Le Cuir

Card holders

 Picture Frames

Billfolds

 Cigarette and match boxes

 Pocket Sewing kit holders

 Blotters and pads

 Cigarette and cigar boxes

 Binders

 Belts, buttons and paper knives

 Calendars and notebooks

 Pen blotters and pocket mirrors

Edited May 10 by Sheilajeanne

[SUP]

Those are lovely and just what I was looking for. Thank you @Sheilajeanne 🙂 I have drawn a couple of flower designs and was wondering how to incorporate them into leatherwork. These designs provide the guidance that I need.  

[Sheilajeanne]

You're welcome! Glad to be of help. What I like about these designs is most of them are so simple, so easy to copy and carve. At the same time, they are very pretty and elegant.

Edit: I missed an item in the index, probably because it's so antiquated no one is ever going to use it: Rouleaux a Musique translates as Music Rolls. This was what was played on the very early phonographs, before the transition to recording disks. It was a wax roll, with the tune engraved on it by a needle. Later rolls were made of celluloid, which was much more durable. Music rolls were also used in player pianos.

Yeah, definitely not many of those around any more!   

Edited May 10 by Sheilajeanne

[SUP]

Yes. Simple and beautiful. So much more difficult to achieve though! It is so nice to find ready made patterns. 

I had heard of music rolls but had no idea what they were. Thank you for enlightening me. 😃