Carving Horses

[yaklady]

It's cold and snowy, and there haven't been many orders, so I may as well play. None of these horses are colored yet. I may leave them uncolored for a while for teaching purposes. It's harder to see how the detail was done with color in the way. Maybe a yak with big teeth should be next!

[dirtclod]

Great job !!! I wish the play things i make looked that nice !!

[Tina]

Beautiful carving/tooling on the horses Kathy, I love'm

[King's X]

Wow! Kathy, absolutely stunning!

[TimKleffner]

Hi Kathy

Glad to see ya here. Nice work. Glad you posted the pics. I'm gonna try my hand at some figure carving classes, all my horse heads come out looking like a mongrel dog.

See ya in Sheridan.

Happy tooling

Tim

[Hilly]

Awesome job, Kathy! So realistic looking!

I've always been chicken to try my hand at figure carving, but I think I may just try it out very soon. May I ask where you got your patterns from? I really love the first 2 that you did...

Edited January 19, 2010 by Hilly

[yaklady]

A lot of people are afraid of figure carving, but to me it's a lot easier than geometric stamping. Animals move all the time, so if your knife slips, hey, the horse spooked! Tim, if you came to my class, I could teach you to do a mongrel horse. As far as the patterns go, I drew a couple of them, but mostly I just traced them from a book of photos. Being a leather artist doesn't necessarily mean that you have to draw all your own patterns, it just means you know how to bring that pattern to life on leather. You have to figure out what to cut and where to bevel and how to put hair on. The eyes are a problem for what seems like most people, but they really aren't that hard. I'm working on an article about doing eyes, and have lots of pictures that I'd like to share with you if you like. This morning, I'm off to get yak hay, so it will have to wait till later in the day.

I'm getting one of those big round bales. I love making it fly off the back of my truck!

Kathy

[Hilly]

Yes Kathy, I would be delighted if you'd show us your figure carving secrets! How about a tutorial to be pinned and a link on the main page?

[techniques]

Kathy,

your horses are just wonderful. I wish I would only half as good as you. The last three are my favourites. Can you tell me the size of the carving?

I haven’t done leather carving for nearly 10 years. I started now again, but the results are frustrating. I have to start from the beginning on. I would appreciate if you could make us a tutorial.

Gisela

[ClayB]

Hey Kathy,

You never sent me pictures of the last set of horses you carved, I like them even better than the ones you did send me! The detail in the eyes is awesome! You got the look down perfectly. You did a great job on the teeth too. I'll be looking forward to taking your horse carving class someplace this coming year.

[SOSHorses]

OMG those are beautiful!!!! i am speachless.

[yaklady]

Sorry Clay, I missed that little detail. Maybe that's because you owe me an email, or is it 10?!? ) The eyes and teeth are the fun part of the whole thing. I wouldn't think of having a class without you. If you like, I can work on your teeth in class. Is that your picture of tooling feathers on the home page?

Gisela, the carving is 11" X 14". It's an easy size to work with when it comes to detail. Small sizes need tiny tools, huge sizes need tools the size of serving spoons.

Hilly, I can come up with tutorials, but when it comes to pinning and linking, someone smarter than me will have to pitch in!

I beat my own record today with the round hay bale. It must have rolled 150 feet after it flew off the back of the truck! What fun! No, I didn't smash a yak!

Kathy

[Hilly]

I beat my own record today with the round hay bale. It must have rolled 150 feet after it flew off the back of the truck! What fun! No, I didn't smash a yak!

Kathy

Considering the temperment of a yak, I'm surprised the yak didn't smash the bale rolling across it's enclosure!

[ClayB]

Sorry Clay, I missed that little detail. Maybe that's because you owe me an email, or is it 10?!? ) The eyes and teeth are the fun part of the whole thing. I wouldn't think of having a class without you. If you like, I can work on your teeth in class. Is that your picture of tooling feathers on the home page?

Kathy

Sorry Kathy, this working every day is really cutting into my social life! They keep saying Colorado is supposed to be sending us a nasty storm, but it's been taking a long time to get here. Maybe you could ride along with it, then when I'm snowed in next week, you can teach me how to carve horse teeth. I think the biggest reason you want me in a class is cuz you owe me a whack on the top of the head.

I think the feathers on the home page are Jim Linnell's.

Ok, that'll have to do for the email I owe you, I've got to go to work and you need to carve some more cool horses!

[yaklady]

Considering the temperment of a yak, I'm surprised the yak didn't smash the bale rolling across it's enclosure!

The last bale I gave them, the bull didn't like where I put it. He shoved the thing over at least 12 feet, sideways, not rolling it. The bale weighed 1700 pounds! The bull isn't even full grown yet. I tried weighing him, but when I pick him up and stand on the scale, I can't see the numbers. Too much hair.

Someone mentioned hay bowling, I wonder if he was referring to this. Maybe next time I'll set up a target, besides the yaks!

[yaklady]

Sorry Kathy, this working every day is really cutting into my social life! They keep saying Colorado is supposed to be sending us a nasty storm, but it's been taking a long time to get here. Maybe you could ride along with it, then when I'm snowed in next week, you can teach me how to carve horse teeth. I think the biggest reason you want me in a class is cuz you owe me a whack on the top of the head.

I think the feathers on the home page are Jim Linnell's.

Ok, that'll have to do for the email I owe you, I've got to go to work and you need to carve some more cool horses!

You're just full of excuses, aren't you? (full of something, anyway!) I don't know how we're gonna send you a nasty storm when we don't have one ourselves. I'll just hop on a yak head your way. Yaks would like ND in the winter. Then you can have a yak whack! No tooling for me today, I have to go try to sell yaks!

[King's X]

I had to look at this again.....absolutely stunning!! I found my new desktop background photo.....sorry hidepounder.

[BradB]

WOW, those are awesome!! thank you for sharing!!

[yaklady]

Okay, here's how I do an eye with lashes. I have to retake the eye without lashes. I used the wrong camera for that one.

Note: Use smooth-faced tools only! Never checker your eyes!

Start out by cutting the eye, but do not cut the lashes! Make sure you cut on the pattern lines, or even to the outside if the pattern is small. One major mistake is making the eye too small.

Using a figure beveller, like F895 (the size depends on the size of your eye), push in the corners of the eye. Note the angle of the tool, pointed sharply away from the eye.

Bevel to the inside of the cut line, being careful not to flatten the eye. A steep beveller may prove to be useful here. If you don't have one, tip your beveller onto it's toe. You can use the figure beveller or a regular beveller, whatever works best for you.

Note: Lightweight leather will result in a flat eyeball. 8 ounce or heavier is more fun to tool on.

Lightly bevel under the lashes.

With a pointy beveller, F902, define the ends of the lashes. The more points, the better.

Cut the lashes with your swivel knife, from the ends inward.

Define the lashes with a fine point stylus.

Round out the eyeball with a spoon. The better the spoon you have, the better the results. I use Peter Main's modeling spoon exclusively. It's expensive, but worth every penny. Use the tip of the spoon to define the tear ducts in the corners of the eye.

I use the spoon only for most of my eye work. Here I formed the eyelids, working from underneath both on the lower and upper lids.

Use a wide, flat pear shader (smooth, of course!) to push in by the front and back corners of the eye.

Once again, the spoon takes over. Note the folds of the upper lid and the "bags" under the eye. A figure beveller can be used to deepen these lines where desired.

Last note: Dry leather is difficult to form with a modeling spoon. If you find yourself pushing down and not making a dent, dampen the eye again. Not too much!

[Hilly]

Thanks for the great tutorial, Kathy! You made it look so easy. I've always admired the mule picture you did, and your horses are just fantastic.

I'm going to try a little figure carving this weekend. Maybe I'll share a photo if it doesn't turn out looking like a 2yr old did it. Stay tuned, or...... maybe not!

Edited January 21, 2010 by Hilly

[techniques]

Kathy,

thank you so much for the great tutorial. I will try this in the next days and if it works I will show the results here.

Gisela

[yaklady]

Sorry for the slow reply, Gisela. I look forward to seeing what you do. I'm looking forward to yours, too, Hilly!

[TimKleffner]

Kathy

As I get into figure carving, you suggested Peter Main's spoon? Where can I get one and how much? What brand tools do you use for your figure work?

When does your class start in Sheridan?

Happy tooling

Tim

[yaklady]

Kathy

As I get into figure carving, you suggested Peter Main's spoon? Where can I get one and how much? What brand tools do you use for your figure work?

When does your class start in Sheridan?

Happy tooling

Tim

Hi Tim,

The only place I know to get that modeler is right from the source, from Peter. You can contact him through his website. They were $35 last I knew, over a year ago. Maybe they haven't gone up.

I use an assortment of tools. My Craftools are old ones, which work much better than the new ones. For most things, I use them. Bob's matting tools are by far superior to any others I've used and I don't use anything else for matting. I use some of his bevellers as well. When you get into scenery, he has a lot of helpful tools for that. One invaluable tool is Craftool F910, modified. Grind off the sides to make it a sharp, pointy beveller, and it works great for doing hair. That's what I used to do the wild boar under the patterns heading. The new F902's need to be ground down as well to make them work right. They're too fat and round.

My Sheridan class will be on Friday, all day. We will do a horse head in the morning and color it in the afternoon. At least that's the plan!

Hope to see you there!

Kathy

[jbird]

Kathy

Outstanding OUTstanding OUTSTanding OUTSTANding OUTSTANDING

thanks

Josh