Embossing Taken To The Extreme!

[ClayB]

I spent the last couple weeks in Billings, MT with Jan Schoonover. He graciously agreed to show me how he created the grizzly bear picture that took best of show at the very first World Leather Debut in Sheridan Wy a few years ago. He shared with me a lot of the techniques that he has developed over the years for extreme embossing that he doesn't teach in his normal classes. It was an amazing two weeks and I was thrilled with how my bear turned out (Jan seemed to be too) If any of you are interested in this type of carving and are ever going to be in the Billings area, you should give Jan a call. He said that he'd like to do more one on one classes where he can devote all his time to teaching one person. He's also teaching a couple different classes in Sheridan in May, and one in Pittsburgh in June.

Here's some pictures of my bear.

[gtwister09]

Clay,

WOW! What a great two weeks and it appears as though it has paid off nicely...

Regards,

Ben

[JLSleather]

Wow. Fella kaint say that aint raised ... only way it gets more embossed is you leave the hide on the cow and hit him with bevelers

Nice color, too!

[joet]

I spent the last couple weeks in Billings, MT with Jan Schoonover. He graciously agreed to show me how he created the grizzly bear picture that took best of show at the very first World Leather Debut in Sheridan Wy a few years ago. He shared with me a lot of the techniques that he has developed over the years for extreme embossing that he doesn't teach in his normal classes. It was an amazing two weeks and I was thrilled with how my bear turned out (Jan seemed to be too) If any of you are interested in this type of carving and are ever going to be in the Billings area, you should give Jan a call. He said that he'd like to do more one on one classes where he can devote all his time to teaching one person. He's also teaching a couple different classes in Sheridan in May, and one in Pittsburgh in June.

Beautiful job Clay. I've been following your work on it on your blog and at first I wasn't sure I would like it, but after you colored it, not only did I like it, but I loved it. Will you be entering it in IFOLG this year?

[CitizenKate]

Wow, that just doesn't even seem possible. Looks like you took it to a new level, my friend! WOW!

Kate

[leatheroo]

Oh Clay, you must be so happy with the outcome...the coloring turned out so good, i would have be so scared to color this and ruin it....love it!!

[MADMAX22]

WOW dude.

[Tina]

To another level for sure...Beautiful work Clay:-)

This is my favo up tp date and I have to comment on the eyes...Soo good, you really captured the "bear look" in them and they have loads of life in them

[whinewine]

UN-Freakin-believable, Clay! Beautiful! I love it!!!

russ

[TroyS]

That's incredible! Absolutely incredible!

[ClayB]

Thanks everyone for the nice comments. Painting this was pretty scary, but Jan made it fairly easy. There were several things about painting that finally "clicked" for me. I'm hoping to get started on another one of these bears in the near future to reinforce what I learned. It'll be nice to be able to take my time on the next one and concentrate on each step. What we did in this class condensed what Jan usually does in 2-3 months into 2 weeks. We really pushed things to get done in that amount of time. I've also got a list of things to do differently on the next one. Usually when I get a project like this finished, a lot of things make sense that didn't really when I was doing them. One thing Jan said about these bears is that most women don't like the mouth open very far. He said he's lost several sales because they don't want something that scary looking hanging on their wall. I felt like if I was going to put that much detail in the mouth, I wanted people to be able to see it. The cool thing is that you can still open or close the mouth slightly if you want to.

My son Jake found a saying today that I think I'm going to use for the title of my bear picture. "You can run, but you'll just die tired!"

[yaklady]

As real as those bears look, I can understand why ladies are afraid of them! I must admit, I like a bear with a friendly look on his face. Clay, your bear looks pretty friendly to me. I look forward to meeting him in person.

One thing I have always had trouble with in extreme embossing is getting hair on the putty that looks like hair. It looks to me that you have that done very well. I don't know why you're always complaining about the way you paint. Everything you've done is done very well. You just keep getting better and better!

Kathy

Can I put a fish in his mouth? Or a piece of pizza?

[ClayB]

Thanks Kathy!

The reason you think I paint okay is cuz you don't get to see the stuff that doesn't turn out

As for hairing on leather dust, Jan says it makes a big difference what kind of rubber cement you use when making putty. He has a few cans of the old Tandy rubber cement left from years ago and that's the only stuff he uses for the putty mix that goes on the front of a project. I've also found that it makes a difference when you try to cut hair on putty. Too wet, it drags the putty around. Too dry, it's hard to cut. But if you are really careful, you can cut and lift hair with a SHARP scalepl blade. Blades dont stay sharp very long when cutting into the rubber cement either. Another thing I found out in this class is there is a BIG difference in the rubber cement Barge makes for Tandy and the rubber cement they make with the Barge label on the can. The Barge labeled Barge still works like rubber cement. One other thing I learned in the class is you have to be really careful with hair cut on putty as when you put the Drakes X-1 on it as a sealer, the hair can roll up and look like little balls instead of hair. Someday when we get together, I show you how to cut hair on putty. If I can do it, I know you can too.

It's funny what you said about putting something in the bears mouth. Alice told Jan he should stick one of his embossed trout in his bear's mouth. I think that might look really neat. Or you could just stick a booger in his nose for Freak to play with

[iwannabeacowboy]

It's almost hard to believe that it's made out of leather. Saying you did a great job is an understatement. Wow, only wishing I had the Patience to do something like this. 1st prize for sure.

charlie