Bevelling Order On A Celtic Knot

[Ladykahu]

Hi all

This is my first post, I am just starting out with leather work, but have been a textile artist for many years.

I want to do a celtic pattern on a case I am making, but am having trouble with the beveling order.

I have done quite a bit of searching but can't seem to find any prior posts on tooling order specifically for celtic work.

Do I bevel the inner ribbon cross overs, tool the inner background amongst the knot, then bevel the outside edge of the knot? or?

I have tried several practice pieces but don't seem to get them to look right. The underneath ribbons seem to vanish into the outside beveling no matter what I do.

Hoping someone who has it mastered can point me in the right direction, or at least at a thread that has already answered it!

Thanks

Natalie

[BillB]

Natalie,

I have found that doing the foreground items first always works best. So on a celtic knot it would be the cords that go over the top. SInce they are always changing from one intersection to the next, I start with all the intersections rather than trying to follow one cord all the way around. Once I have done all the intersection, the runs are easy.

BillB

[AaronR]

Something important to remember about carving & tooling interlocking lines is carving depth and tooling force. However deep you're cutting the leather where one ribbon intersects and crosses another needs to be more shallow than where the ribbon edge cut meets the background. This helps build levels into your carving and makes it take more work to beat the ribbon down into the background level.

When beveling I treat the full knotwork as one unit. I begin inside and start tooling all the lines lightly where the ribbons cross over each other. There should be enough definition at this point to see that one strand "passes over" another but not so much that the underlying ribbon is flattened. Once that's done I go back and start beveling the background down with more gusto (a backgrounding tool could be used here to similar effect). Lastly I go around the outside of the unit and use a modeling tool to round any harder, linguini-like edges where one line intersects another.

[benlilly1]

Excellent comments on the technique AaronR!

[Logans Leather]

This doesn't apply to the order, but one thing I almost always do on interlace is to use a lined beveler for all of the over-unders. It adds an illusion of greater depth without tooling too deep and the lines contribute a sense of direction to the "ribbon". I will them usually bevel the outer edge with a fine checkered beveler, as it gives an illusion of even greater depth to the background.

[JourneyLeather]

Can someone post a pic of a bevelled Celtic Knot done the 'correct' way?

Thanks,

[Spinner]

Can someone post a pic of a bevelled Celtic Knot done the 'correct' way?

Thanks,

Here's a simple trinity knot I did late last year, hope the pic helps.

Chris