Practice Sheridan tooling

[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