Practice Sheridan tooling

[Chuck]

About six months ago I decided I wanted to build miniature saddles, twenty years ago I built regular but plain saddles. They were stout and rode very well, built mostly for family and friends. They lacked the look that I wanted. Now retired I want to learn to tool and I like the sheridan style carving so that is my goal. Please critique the practice Checkbook cover. Thanks Chuck

[Beaverslayer]

Very Very nice Chuck, I love the rope border.

Ken

[Chuck]

Very Very nice Chuck, I love the rope border.

Ken

Thanks Ken, I used a 959 TLF rope stamp and bordered it with a Barry King #1 concave checkered beveler. Works great. Chuck

[Hidemechanic]

Chuck, you gotta stop calling this practice. It's on going work,the real stuff.

If I can suggest something, as a matter of personal preference only, do a 'real' practice piece like on some srcap( not everything we do has to be usable, it's part of the education process). Do a couple leafs as you have in this patern.

Suggestion one, try leaving out the decorative cuts and leave just the veiners and compare it to the one with dec cuts. I think it helps things to not be quite so busy.

Second suggestion, do the same (practice piece with leaf) using a shader with vertical(or cross hatch or smooth) lines rather than horizontal. The reason(personal preference again) is, it seems like my eye feels a conflict with the flow of things in the leaf. Though the horiz. lines on your shader are going the same direction as the main vein of the leaf, it also seems that the direction of the taper left from the shader is going toward the main vein. Technically I said that backwards, a real leaf in nature the main vein is carrying nutrients to the leaf parts starting from the stem, then radiating out through the smaller veins as they turn outward yet moving toward the tip of the leaf.

We are always attempting to fine tune our designs so as to be pleasing to the eye, this is one of the ways I try to learn the 'language of design'(looking for flow).

I do like your design, makes me want to go make a wallet. I resently made a kidney belt with similar blossoms. I like the old south of the border style.

Keep up the "practice" you're doing great work. GHackett

P.S., I meant to say that I think your horiz. shader works for the blossoms.

[Chuck]

This is practice for me, my Goal is to build the finest miniature half scale saddles I can. A lot of what I am showing now is Sheridan style patterns that I have designed and drawn myself. I want to get the tooling correct first. I am also working out patterns for the various miniature trees that I have, both tooling and leather pieces. That said, I will I will try to clean up the knife cuts. I think I tend to follow the theory that if a little is good a lot is better, both with the knife cuts and the veiners. In the book Sheridan Style Carving by Bob Likewise he states that the vertical lined thumbprint is generally used in Sheridan tooling. However, when I look at the pictures in the book they seem to use the smooth, so I have tried both. I tend to agree with you, on the leaves it doesn't flow properly. I am working on the tooling pattern for the seat jockey and will post the pattern and the practice piece. I will try to use the sugestions that I have received from the people on the Leather Worker net. Thanks for all your comments. Chuck

[pete]

About six months ago I decided I wanted to build miniature saddles, twenty years ago I built regular but plain saddles. They were stout and rode very well, built mostly for family and friends. They lacked the look that I wanted. Now retired I want to learn to tool and I like the sheridan style carving so that is my goal. Please critique the practice Checkbook cover. Thanks Chuck

Chuck- nice work. You have a feel for drawing that I struggle with- I'm envious!

As far as the shaders... I would get a pear shader with very fine horizontal lines. I got one from Hidecrafter in their catalog under the SHERIDAN tools. Not expensive by Barry King et al prices but well worth it.

Hint!- do all of your pear shading on the leaf tips deeply and draw(walk) the shader down towards the center. THEN go back and make 1 wack with the lined shader at the tip. again- nice work!

ps- draw a pattern for me- I'de love to try it and post it.

pete

[pete]

does this hep to see?

[Chuck]

Chuck- nice work. You have a feel for drawing that I struggle with- I'm envious!

As far as the shaders... I would get a pear shader with very fine horizontal lines. I got one from Hidecrafter in their catalog under the SHERIDAN tools. Not expensive by Barry King et al prices but well worth it.

Hint!- do all of your pear shading on the leaf tips deeply and draw(walk) the shader down towards the center. THEN go back and make 1 wack with the lined shader at the tip. again- nice work!

ps- draw a pattern for me- I'de love to try it and post it.

pete

Pete, here is a couple of checkbook covers I roughed out a week or so ago. What I

do is trace these over and clean up the flow and convergence of the lines. Hope they are what you are looking for. Thanks for the comments, I have been getting some good advice. Thanks Chuck

[Hidemechanic]

Okay Chuck I get it now(practice), I guess I had to put things into perspective in terms of miniature. I presume you are buying smaller tools.

As for Sheridan Style, I've never been a fan for personal reasons, partly because it seemed to have become a fad(see it everywhare). In my opinion, Sheridan was developed for that reason, to put a new twist on an old or over used style of tooling. Yet Sheridan itself has now become a standard which years ago sent me on a quest to find something new or revive something old. Don't get me wrong, I sure do appreciate those who do it well. What I found though in the evelution of Sheridan is that some folks read or hear the story of Sharidan and hear rules or laws of Sheridan 'Theory'. That being said remember this is only my take on it, but as such I want to encourage those who espire to do Sheridan or any other style to remember that you get to impart your own pesonallity into the design and bring your own life to the work you do.

Ironically, Don King and some of the other Sheridan gurus also at times departed from the 'rule' of Sheridan at times in their Sheridan work. This lead me to see that Sheridan 'Theory' is like music theory, there are basics to start from but much can be left open to each persons inturpretation. I do want to say that I came to this opinion from years of frustration of trying to break out of 'cookie cutter' carving if you know what I mean.

Chuck, I like what you have done with your inturpretation of Sheridan and I too envy your ability to draw your own designs, sinse I don't spend enough time drawing I still struggle with finding and developing designs I like. So keep 'practicing' and do keep sharing.

Thanks, GHackett

[Chuck]

I guess my desire to learn Sheridan tooling is based in part on a personal goal as much as a love for the type of tooling. I do like the Sheridan style but I do think it can be to busy. I do think that If I can learn to do Sheridan in miniature I should be able to learn about any style and hopefully develope a style of my own. As a matter of fact, what other distinct styles are there. Does anyone know of a good book that has information on the different styles of tooling that have been identified over the years. I am talking mainly about Saddle tooling styles. I have lots of books on saddles and the history of the western saddle but there is very little infomation on tooling in the books. Any info that you can point me to I would be greatfull. Chuck

[Chuck]

Chuck- nice work. You have a feel for drawing that I struggle with- I'm envious!

As far as the shaders... I would get a pear shader with very fine horizontal lines. I got one from Hidecrafter in their catalog under the SHERIDAN tools. Not expensive by Barry King et al prices but well worth it.

Hint!- do all of your pear shading on the leaf tips deeply and draw(walk) the shader down towards the center. THEN go back and make 1 wack with the lined shader at the tip. again- nice work!

ps- draw a pattern for me- I'de love to try it and post it.

pete

Pete, I found the original of the one that I tooled and will put that up too.

Chuck

[Hidemechanic]

I want to express that I was not discouraging anyone from Sheridan, but rather reminding that at some point we want to break out of the box and interject our own personallity into the work we do.(you are doing Chuck) I still copy other people's work(reluctantly admitting but we all do at some point, that's how we learn) and don't like it but justify to myself that I am taking something form others that I have a hard time doing and I arrange it to suit my need. It's a pride thing. Busyness is a pet peave with me too.

To answer at your question about tooling styles for saddles, I think Bruce and others talked on this in the saddle or pattern threads. In short there are Califonia style which is abit 'looser' than Sheridan , then Porter which morphed into southwestern(Arizona), the flowers overlap the vines more. I started going back to these old styles done on the earlier saddles to see if I could adjust them to a more usefull patern. In a way that's what Sheidan came out of. The early saddles had large florals to cover large areas to expedite the finished product.

My search has led me to some old south of the border designs.

I like what Jeramia Watt has done with different flowers he has developed as well as Rick Bean, Troy West.(vine work veriasions too)there are newer carvers too. I've been out of the loop lately with the saddle guys. Hope that helps. GH

[Chuck]

I want to express that I was not discouraging anyone from Sheridan, but rather reminding that at some point we want to break out of the box and interject our own personallity into the work we do.(you are doing Chuck) I still copy other people's work(reluctantly admitting but we all do at some point, that's how we learn) and don't like it but justify to myself that I am taking something form others that I have a hard time doing and I arrange it to suit my need. It's a pride thing. Busyness is a pet peave with me too.

To answer at your question about tooling styles for saddles, I think Bruce and others talked on this in the saddle or pattern threads. In short there are Califonia style which is abit 'looser' than Sheridan , then Porter which morphed into southwestern(Arizona), the flowers overlap the vines more. I started going back to these old styles done on the earlier saddles to see if I could adjust them to a more usefull patern. In a way that's what Sheidan came out of. The early saddles had large florals to cover large areas to expedite the finished product.

My search has led me to some old south of the border designs.

I like what Jeramia Watt has done with different flowers he has developed as well as Rick Bean, Troy West.(vine work veriasions too)there are newer carvers too. I've been out of the loop lately with the saddle guys. Hope that helps. GH

I am sure I will develope a style of my own over time, I know I did with wood carving(western caricature carving). I have collected books and a computer full of research on individual custom saddle makers tooling, and I am trying to learn as much as possible from that. I have a friend in town who is a Veach and he and his family has helped me collect some of the older styles, that I think were as you say more to fill space than an artistic approach. I still think as you say we all start out using someone elses ideas and patterns and develope our own. I do believe the more individual styles you study the better you can do in creating your own style. Right now I want to learn to be a good tooler, and I think that means trial and error and input from people who have been there. Thanks to the people of the leather worker net. Thanks Chuck

[Hidemechanic]

Tool tool tool, that's the way to do it. I'd suggest trying to make your 'practice work something that can be sold, if you have to pay for the materials you may as well get paid for it. Then use the left overs for more practice.

You sound like me, pouring over the work of those I admire. I have had to close my saddle shop and go back to real work, with the intention of starting up again but doing things totally different when I do. In the mean time I still spend hours looking at the work that others are doing our have done. Some from over 100 years ago to now. Just keep putting that stuff into mental storage. I still make notes and draw basic disigns for ideas. I try to tool when I can, but what I need to spend most time with is drawing, not copying.

Anyway, I see where this helps us learn when less is more and when intricate imbellishment is warrented.

And let's all have fun!

Haha GH