I Think I Can... I Think I Can...

[pearlheartgtr]

Hey all!

I'd gotten tired of carving the same floral coasters over and over again. Some better, some worse (trying out different approaches) and looking at some to say, "Some poor bovine gave its life only for me to..."

Anyhoo, I decided to take a stab at something I am more familiar with, tattoo flash. This is an Ed Hardy design I had lying around and since it fit the scrap I had, I figured, why not?

I know it could use some work, that's apparant, but one of the things I was really missing was color. If I had a set of colors...

Well, I guess it's time to let me know what you think?

Here are pics of the carving and the finished (ahem!) product (?).

[TimKleffner]

Pearl

Looking at your piece I would say you might try beveling with less wetness. Your beveling is real choppy along with your back grounding. either you have your leather too wet or you've got a a real flanky piece of leather. on a scrap piece of leather , practice your beveling so your lines become smooth. same piece of leather , work on your back ground tool to get it smooth also.

Happy tooling

Tim

[pearlheartgtr]

Thanks Tim!

I've been working on the casing. I'm guessing that's where my problem is arising with the "burn marks" when I am bevelling here and there.

The backgrounding thing, well, I think you might be referring to the places around the skull that aren't textured. I have a background tool (a small one which you can see with the dots) but the other backgrounding I did with a pear shader and the end of one of the tools to try to stamp down some effects. When the piece was done with just the backgrounder, I felt it needed a bit more contrast so I hit it with the pear shader. I've got a nice fed tax check coming my way so I'm going to invest in a few more tools in the meantime.

A question I have is about "lifter tools." I've been all over the Tandy site and haven't found them. Are they just curved awls?

Thanks again!

[TomSwede]

Hi there and welcome to the skullcrew!!!

As far as casing goes..in my experience you don't get the "burn marks" if the leather is too wet. Too wet leather also has kinda mushy feel to it when you stamp, you can feel that the stamp/beveler bounces back up a bit after you strike it and also notice that the impression is not deep enough.

The burn marks are often referred to as burnishing and you should get them when you tool. To me they like reciept that the casing is right.

For backgrounding I like the leather to be very dry so that you don't move tha massa of the leather around when you stamp it. I allways bevel any and all edges before backgrounding to get maximum effect.

You're on your way with your carving so kust keep practise. I'd suggest a few different backgrounders with similar "dot" pattern but different sizes and shapes so that you can work them into small corners and such.

Keep it up!!!

Tom

[terrymac]

Thanks Tim!

I've been working on the casing. I'm guessing that's where my problem is arising with the "burn marks" when I am bevelling here and there.

The backgrounding thing, well, I think you might be referring to the places around the skull that aren't textured. I have a background tool (a small one which you can see with the dots) but the other backgrounding I did with a pear shader and the end of one of the tools to try to stamp down some effects. When the piece was done with just the backgrounder, I felt it needed a bit more contrast so I hit it with the pear shader. I've got a nice fed tax check coming my way so I'm going to invest in a few more tools in the meantime.

A question I have is about "lifter tools." I've been all over the Tandy site and haven't found them. Are they just curved awls?

Thanks again!

I don't believe Tandy makes any lifters. The two I use I got from Barry King. They are used in the scalloped areas of a pattern and actually penetrate the leather causing a "lifting effect" on the surrounding area.

[jana]

The choppy look you are getting from the beveler comes from tllting the tool away from yourself. Try to keep it flat with a slight tilt in the cut line you are beveling, then practice, practice, practice!!!!

[JLSleather]

The Pro-Petal, or "lifter", is shown pretty well here. Expensive screwdriver (?). Idea is if you put the flat side down on the leather and push into the bevel, you "lift" the leather above the tool, undercutting it much like an eroded river bank.

The beveling - any beveling - is kept smooth by overlapping the tool and keeping the blows consistent. Bigger beveler, the more you can "step over" between blows. To keep it smooth with any given beveler (or shader, for that matter) you need to step over less than the width of the tool. If you're beveling looks "choppy", you can fix this by stepping over less or by striking more quickly (e.g.; 2 hits in the same space).

One note. When I looked at your figure, the first thing noticeable is that the "front" tooth protrudes in front of all the others. This is a "law" of beveling ... the portion beveled will appear to be behind. If that's what you intended for your design, suuu-weeet. If you wanted a partition or distiinction between the teeth but didn't want them to appear "behind", bevel BOTH sides of the line ...

Hard to tell from the photo, but I'm inclined to agree with Tim ... it looks like it was pretty wet. Your leather should return to it's original color before you tool it -- so the moisture is underneath.

[pearlheartgtr]

Thanks everyone!

The beveller I used was a very thin one. The one I normally use is the standard one that comes with the kits. I usually get a pretty smooth bevel with the larger one, I was trying this one out for the first time.

JLSleather, I actually was trying to make the tooth stand out up front. I was trying the add more depth to the piece.

TomSwede, I am planning on picking up a few different backgrounders (along with other tools) soon when I get my tax return.

Here's a picture of the orignal flash it was taken from: