New Bag-Work In Progress

[AndyL1]

Hey All,

It feels like forever since I've posted something. Just had a baby a couple of months ago so I have been torn away from my leather bench. Anyway, back into it again slowly so i thought I'd share a work in progress of a day trippin' messenger bag. Tall enough to hold a couple of wine bottles so maybe for a nice little picnic? This one has sort of a celtic dragon theme going with the tooling and the pocket buttons.

Still need to sew the thing together, add the closure, make the shoulder strap and some stitch detailing on the pocket flaps (which I forgot to do before I put them on, got too into it I guess and overlooked the details)

Hope you all enjoy it!

Cheers,

Andy

[TheTrooper]

Hi Andy,

that is a very nice bag. I love those celtic patterns compared with this antique look!!

Hope this question is not to arrant, but do you have a pattern for the whole bag which you could provide ?!?

Have a nice weekend.

Cheers,

Marcel

Edited May 15, 2009 by adamant-leather

[DreadPirateRedbeard]

Exceptionally nice bag. That is the kind of skill I hope to someday achieve. I too am interested in a pattern/tutorial. But more than that I want to know what tool and/or technique is used to do that background? I think that looks awesome adn want to use it for the Motorhead backpatch I'm doing for my jacket. Again, VERY nice work and thanks for any info!

[TheTrooper]

The tool for the background might be the E294 from Craftool or something similar, but maybe I am wrong ?!?

Take a look here:

Tandy UK Search Form

Cheers,

Marcel

[leatheroo]

this is so nice, love the design and the tooling is tops!

[AndyL1]

The tool for the background might be the E294 from Craftool or something similar, but maybe I am wrong ?!?

Take a look here:

Tandy UK Search Form

Cheers,

Marcel

Thanks guys! Hope to finish this thing up in the next week, I will post complete photos of it then too. Yes Marcel, that is the tool I used for the background. I also have the smaller tear drop shaped one to get into my bevel areas and smaller parts of the knots. This pattern was a bit tough in the small details–the tool was too big to fit in there. So I used a pointy part of a modeling tool to replicate the texture in some parts. Don't worry Dread, you'll get there too! This is only my third bag and maybe my 6th time tooling something. I don't have a pattern. I just sketch out the final product in my notebook and figure out the size and pieces in my head. I take the bag apart mentally and mark out my pieces on the leather.

Cheers,

Andy

[CitizenKate]

Nice, Andy! What are you using for the antique?

Kate

[AndyL1]

Nice, Andy! What are you using for the antique?

Kate

Thanks Kate! My process is a quick wipe of Tandy's black antique with a simple kitchen sponge, this gets into all the scratches and nooks and crannys. Wipe that off with a damp rag, let it dry up a bit. Then a good rub in with Tandy's Mahogony All-In-One. Wipe off excess. Then I come back with the sponge again but with just a little black dye in it. It's sort of a dry-sponge technique with the black. I pat around the edges of the bag and kind of into the middle areas just to add a little mottling effect. The sponge has just a bit of dye in it. I build up the black slowly and randomly.

Cheers,

Andy

[CitizenKate]

I like the distressed effect you got from that.

Kate

[Excell]

Andy,

Woah. I'm in awe. I love the closures for the side pockets. The coloring is great, too.

When you tooled the front, did you bevel all the areas around the fine celtic lines before backgrounding? (Even into the backgrounded spaces?) It appears that the background lines are very clean - even in the tight spaces. Some of that really narrow lining work is killer to get right!