Swan

[ClayB]

Crystal showed me a pattern by Lora Irish that she wants to try carving sometime and asked if I had any tips on how to carve it. Well, I decided to give the pattern a try and see if I could do it. I didn't really know what I was going to do when I started so I didn't take pictures as I went, so I'll probably have to do another for a lesson.

[BearMan]

Very Nice Clay,,, as always! I love the swan pattern. Tooling is very well done. I like the way you paid attention to each & every feather.

Ed

[Tina]

I simply love your eye for details Clay...The feathers, delicate:-)

Seeing this one make me think of the buffalo, you absolutly have your own style and I can see the work that has gone in to this one, Beautiful:-)

[Casey Jordan]

Excellent! You nailed the feathers just perfect!

[ClayB]

Thanks all 3 of you, I'm a fan of all of your work, so your comments mean a lot to me!

[leatheroo]

hey clay, great piece....the feathers are great...love the design

[Crystal]

Clay, I knew you would do something fabulous with that pattern. I just don't think I realized how high you would be setting the bar! When you get a tutorial together I promise to do my best when I give it a try. I hope others give it a try, too!

Thanks for taking the time to give this a whirl!

Crystal

[jbird]

amazing thanks Clay

Josh

[rcsaddles]

Very nice. Thank you for sharing with us. It inspires me to want carving more.

Joe

[ClayB]

Thanks Caroline, Crystal, and Josh. Glad you like it. It's kind of fun to do stuff sometimes that I would never have picked myself. When I started this, I decided to cut the leather big enough to make it into a photo album if it turned out. Yesterday I started on the back. I used parts of another pattern by Lora. I really wanted to create the velvety fuzzy look of the cat tail. Couldn't figure out how to do that with a tool of any kind and then thought it's a lot like really tiny hair. So, the multi blade hair knife! Jab the tips of the blade into the leather and pull up. Repeat this about 100,000,000 times, in several different directions. Looks kind of neat! Then for the part where the thing explodes and seeds go flying out. I tried beveling in texture, the hair knife again, then Stacy said how about leather putty? Well, neat idea, but it has to be fluffy, not smooth. So I decided to just put some rubber cement on the spot with a paint brush, and then sprinkle on some leather dust. It gave it a fluffy look, just what I was hoping for. I added a couple layers to get it higher than the rest of the cat tail. I am not sure how well it will hold up, or what it will look like after sealer and paint, but it's looking kind of neat so far.

Thanks Joe. If I inspire you ( or anyone) to carve more, then it's a good day!!