getting started

[CleverPony]

Hey All,

I'm brand new to the forums and to leatherworking - I fell in love with it while watching the saddlemaker of a ranch I wrangled on over the summer in Alberta, Canada. I ride, and eventually I'd love to get into custom bridlework and saddlemaking for myself and others.

Above is my first attempt at leatherworking - Santa brought me Tandy's Deluxe somethingorother kit, and this is their cell phone case. I didn't like the pattern they offered for it, so I took one from one of their spur-strap pattern freebies.

I am having a difficult time with a number of things; 1) CARVING! It's so HARD! My cuts just look like slices, they don't have any of the attractiveness that I see in other work - it seems to me that maybe they aren't open enough? I'm not sure, and 2) I'm having a difficult time with backgrounders, you can see especially around the acorns. Is it just a pressure consistency problem, or is there more?

Any and all replies are encouraged, I look forward to learning from the minds and experiences of the members of this great forum!

[Beaverslayer]

Welcome to the forum CleverPony, glad to have you here.

Don't be to hard on yourself, for a very first time ever for doing leatherwork, you did a great job.

The leather that is supplied with the Tandy somethingorother kit, is not of the best quality. You will surely get the gist of all the things that you need to know, as more people have a look, and explain better than I can.

What ranch did you rangle on here in Alberta? and do you still live here in Alberta?

Ken

[Regis]

CleverPony,

Welcome to the forum. Your 1st ever project is much better than mine was. Looking forward to seeing you gain skill and experience.

[ClayB]

Cleverpony,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing pics right off the bat. A couple of us have posted lessons on how we carve oak leaves here on the forum and if you check them out, you may get some ideas. They aren't exactly the same style as you have tried, but the techniques will work for yours too. You can see the lessons here

http://www.leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=1948

and here

http://www.leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=2123

We are also in the process of having an oak leaf carving contest (sort of) that really isn't a competition, but more of a way to get as many people as possible to post pictures of the styles of leaves they like to carve. You may be able to get a lot of ideas from those once the contest is over and all the pictures are posted here. You are welcome to enter the contest with your project if you wish.

If after checking out the tutorials here on the forum you still have questions, fire away and we will try and help you out.

Clay

[CleverPony]

Thanks for the quick responses everyone.

Beaverslayer - I worked at the Black Cat, outside of Hinton, AB. Their saddlemaker is a woman named Kathy who is based out of her home near Edmonton. I loved Alberta, but I can't afford to live there! I'm an Ontario girl born and raised, who just needs to escape to the mountains once in awhile.

Regis - thanks for the welcome!

Clay - I had read rumblings of tutorials and an oak leaf contest, thanks for the links and info!

[Don101]

Hi CP welcome to the forum were glad you found us, for a first time its great, i dred to think back to my first atempt at carving oh boy it was bad, Don