Straight from my casket garden

[TomSwede]

This is a quickie I threw together so I had something to look at if I'd miss my shop to much when I'm in Scotland next week but I'm sure all the good whisky will cure that too.The lining got a tad to narrow so the edges were fraying up when lacing but it holds together and I also made some errors with the triple loop braid but it doesn't show much to an untrained eye. I might tear this one apart when home and perhaps use as wallet. Need a practice piece and I love the look about it alltough I usually prefer to be a loyal servant of my Norse gods and godesses and keep things vikingstyle or heavy metal, off course. I might have been Egyptian in passed lives, who knows?Sealed it after tooling and then antiqued but no sealer afterwards since I like the look it has now. Will be interesting to see how the antiquing holds up after a while.

Creds to Freak for sharing this excellent pattern. It worked like a charm but has a spell on it... I also forgot to tape the back and got a sore neck from lacing...woohooo...creepy

Please feel free to critize, I know there's some issues since I just rushed through every step on this one.

Tom

Edited May 15, 2008 by TomSwede

[jammon]

Very nice work!

[Dagr]

That's very cool Tom! And look at it this way, it might not be metal, or Norse, but, ....... you did manage to put a skull on it, so it's all good! LOL

[leatheroo]

nice work tom, i like the design and the color, you shouldnt have mentioned the lacing error, now we are all going to look for it!!

[sodapop]

i think it looks cool as hell tom!!...how did you get the effect in the flat surface areas where it looks to have some texture and the antique is left behind in certain spots?? not sure if i'm explaining my question very well ...it gives it a groovy overall effect

thanks

darryl

[TomSwede]

Thank you all. I most often mention my errors to you guys.

For this one i tried a new method. I took a circular cut piece from one of those childrens playmats of some semihard foam, sometimes used in motorcycle seats shown here. It's about 3" in diameter and just wrapped my damp cloth around it. The saddle tan was dried to solid state and I just started rubbing the pad around (watch out for wrinkles in the cloth) soft at first and as the cloth got more dirty I rubbed it harder. Never cleaned out the cloth, just rubbed it around until I was happy with it.

The sealer had only dried for about one hour so it's possible more than normal passed through. I should mention that the leather was not very good quality and pretty wrinkled to begin with so there's alot if cavitys for the antiqueoil to sink into where the pad woudn't reach.

Tom

[freak]

Nice, very nice !!! How could i not just love it.

Are you a lefty tom ?

[Tina]

Ok, so I'm a sucker for the norse stuff but...This one Rocks Tom:-)

[Beaverslayer]

Tom, I'm with you on the Egyptian past life thing, coulda sworn I knew how to build pyramids a few years back...LOL

I love the Egyptian motif, looks real good.

On the inner liner, what I would do, is take a strip of pigskin suede about 3/4" wide, apply glue to the underside of the strip, fold it over itself in half, press and roll. This will give you a 3/8" wide strip that you would glue to the edge of the liner, and it will keep the nylon liner from fraying when you punch holes and pull lace through them. Be sure to p glue the strip down with the folded edge on the exposed side of the lace.

Hope you understand what I mean

Ken

[Apholsters]

Awsome Possum Tom

Chris

[Roger]

cool piece tom!

i like it just the way it is. nice little details in the tooling

[TomSwede]

Thank you all!

I'm not a leftie but placed the notepad like this to have some more support to my right hand when writing with it in my lap.

Good idea with the lining Ken! Think I've got it. Just didn't have ant time to work more with it it. probably redo it later.

Well, I'm off to Scotland now! See you all next week!!

Tom

[indypbear]

Tom,

That looks good. You beat me to the punch on the coffin notebook. The stamp looks good also. you'll get the hang of aligning it with practice. I think Brother Freak is really observant. You are a southpaw (lefty). That was the first thing I noticed

I've been working on the shop putting new lighting, doors, two windows. Maybe soon I'll settle down to working in it regularly. Gotta make that Toro 3000 pay for itself. Have a good trip to Scotland.

John aka Indy

[TomSwede]

Thank you John!

Bye

Tom

[leathernut]

that came out real.cool!!!.gonna have to make me one..also thanks for the link...cool site..

[Myriam]

Wow, neat looking pad, Tom! Love it, love the design, as well as the old finish you gave it. Great job!

And now I know what to do if I want an old looking piece like this, I'll just wrinkle the leather while humid to get all those depressions and ridges. Cool!

[Spider]

Wow Tom,

This turned out cool. I usually use a lighter to get rid of freying edges. I will have to make one too but maybe as a wallet. I can see a few of these turning up soon because they are soooooo cool looking. Good work brotha.

[TomSwede]

Oh thank you Spider. Missed your reply because of the Scotland trip and hard to catch up with all things at home and such. Got plenty of labourful hours ahead now.

Smart tip with the lighter. This one was so fun to do and the motifs were a blastful of fun to carve and tool.

Tom

[Annied]

Nice work, but I wish I'd seen this post sooner, especially before your trip to Scotland. Do you know about Hewits, the bookbinding supplier just outside Edinburgh? They sell off what they call "low value skins", skins with small holes or other flaws in them. You can pick up some great stuff at a fraction of the normal price.

[TomSwede]

Thank you Annie!

I haven't heard of Hewits and know nothing bout bookbinding but I sure want to look into it someday.

We landed in Prestwick and from there it was af fast as possible journey to the the paradise island, Isle of Islay.

We had a 15 min break in Inveraray at that's about all mainland sightseeing we had. I rushed to the wc and than back to the bus, got my camera just in time to hear the busdriver call us in, sigh.

The journey home was the same tour, without stops.

It's a great country!

Next time Annie!!

Tom

Edited June 23, 2008 by TomSwede

[Annied]

Thank you Annie!

I haven't heard of Hewits and know nothing bout bookbinding but I sure want to look into it someday.

We landed in Prestwick and from there it was af fast as possible journey to the the paradise island, Isle of Islay.

We had a 15 min break in Inveraray at that's about all mainland sightseeing we had. I rushed to the wc and than back to the bus, got my camera just in time to hear the busdriver call us in, sigh.

The journey home was the same tour, without stops.

It's a great country!

Next time Annie!!

Tom

Although you may not be a bookbinder as such, you're still making covers for books, so you're at least part way there! Bookbinding leather is usually quite thin (comparitively speaking), better quality and has been specially treated. It moulds very well and also takes tooling. Hewits sell a lot of small leather working tools too. If you're ever staying in the Edinburgh area on a future visit, it's just a bus ride from the city centre. They have a website HERE, which will give you an idea of their range, but they don't show the low value skins on it though as you really have to sort through them to find what you want.

I've never been to the Isle of Islay, I know the south of Scotland reasonably well as I don't live too far from it, the furthest north I've ever been is Inverness.

[TomSwede]

Although you may not be a bookbinder as such, you're still making covers for books, so you're at least part way there! Bookbinding leather is usually quite thin (comparitively speaking), better quality and has been specially treated. It moulds very well and also takes tooling. Hewits sell a lot of small leather working tools too. If you're ever staying in the Edinburgh area on a future visit, it's just a bus ride from the city centre. They have a website HERE, which will give you an idea of their range, but they don't show the low value skins on it though as you really have to sort through them to find what you want.

I've never been to the Isle of Islay, I know the south of Scotland reasonably well as I don't live too far from it, the furthest north I've ever been is Inverness.

It's been my intention to ask my supplier here if they keep any of the bookbinders equipment but it's not listed in the webshop but they might be able to at least point me to some directions here in Sweden.

I can see lots of use with the thin bookbinding leathers, other than books I mean.

I've slowly started today to upload some photos to Google earth but it's not a high priority I'd say.

Good to have you here with your experience. That 200 year old book is so impressive. Must have been quite a feeling to get that job!

Tom