pic of an elephant

[Dan Hammons]

Hi all,

Here is a pic of an elephant that I've finished tooling.I will post another one when I get some color on and finished.

[CitizenKate]

Can't wait to see it finished, the carving looks great. Is this going to get framed, or will it become part of something functional?

Kate

[Dan Hammons]

I am going to make a wall hanging out of it . Not for sure just how yet but I've got a couple ideas bouncing around in here and I'll come up with something.

[Roger]

very nice!! almost a shame to color it

[Dan Hammons]

Your not the first to say that . Maybe I should put it to a vote! But I wil be useing spirit dyes and It will be more of hints of color rather than painted .

Edited April 15, 2007 by Dan Hammons

[Johanna]

Beeze, I had the same first thought, "Shame to color it and hide the detail."

Dan- maybe Neat Lac the elephant, rub some Leather Balm in and buff until your elbow aches, and then let the sun do some magic? Just an idea.

If it were mine to finish, after the sun did its thing, I would make the edges look burned and put it in a wrapped wire square like that leaping deer I posted- so that the frame doesn't detract from the elephant, or the shape get lost.

You do great work, Dan, and thanks for sharing.

Johanna

ps Dan, gotcha on the top of my list- you didn't miss anything.

[Johanna]

Okay, I made a poll...

Johanna

[ClayB]

I voted "other" on the poll because I think that Dan's picture can look good with any of those options. It looks really nice as natural leather. If you go to his website, he has a picture of a couple elk in some aspen/birch trees, where the color is really nice. So he has the ability to make it look great in color too. Spirit dye or acrylic or a combination would be a personal choice. Whenever I do a carving that I am happy with, as Dan should be with this one, the decision to color it is difficult because there is always the chance of messing it up. I think that adding color to a pictorial carving can really add to it if it is done well. If it was me, I'd take the chance and try to color it. I'd use acrylic because that's what I have more experience.Then when I messed up, I'd carve another one and leave it natural

[Regis]

Your not the first to say that . Maybe I should put it to a vote! But I wil be useing spirit dyes and It will be more of hints of color rather than painted .

I like that phrase "hints of color". That tells me that I will immediately recognize the scene is "in" leather.

I also like the way you captured his "sudden" glance to his right as though he was startled.

Regis

[David Genadek]

Wow

You guys make acrylics sound like a nasty thing. I admit if used wrong they can sure turn a piece to plastic but when used right you can do lot. I've attached a picture that my leahter Ma ma Carol Gehrman did. I see a lot of detail in this. Carol is really good with the acrylics and she makes a really good pecan pie too. One of the problems with the spirit dyes is the fade over time. Bob Brown used food dyes.

[Don101]

i voted other as ive only lightly touched this type of thing i dye with oil dye either light tan to brown or black, natural also looks good with a bit of oil, from what ive seen from pictures that have been coloured they can and the ones on here look fantastique, i am a oil painter lanscapes and portraits but on leather its another ballgame, at least with the canvas i can paint over it, really at the end of the day i woild say if you can do it and want to risk it go ahead because if you can pull it of it would be a stomper of a picture, but hey dont listen to me i dont know what im talking about LOL. Don