reddevil76 Report post Posted February 11, 2012 Ok, over the last month, I got myself a couple of Barry King mauls, a couple of swivel knives, and a number of stamping tools.. except my flower centre came from Tandy (big regret) Anyway, I've been practising on small 4"X4" scrap pieces of Hermann Oak till today, I had a full free day where I could case, trace, and do a complete attempt in one sitting. I know I'd probably just need more practise. But areas where I am doing wrong, I hope some folks here can point out, so I don't keep practising the wrong thing and correct anything that needs correcting early in my carving journey. One thing that scares me is decorative cuts. I wasn't sure at all where and what to cut and made a mess of it. Anyway, leather of choice was a piece of drum dyed veg tan procured locally (Can't afford to waste Hermann Oak leather practising). This drum dyed veg tan burnishes well and is always a good candidate for stamping. But when carving, it behaved like a b*tch. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
benlilly1 Report post Posted February 12, 2012 Looks fantastic to me! Great job! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bob Blea Report post Posted February 14, 2012 Hello, I think you're doing a good job with your decorative cuts. They look like they flow smoothly out from the leaves and follow the flow of the pattern. I think your work looks really good. The only thing I notice is that you shaded the leaves that point out of the pattern but not the ones that flow into the flowers. Just my opinion but I think it would look better if those leaves were shaded too. Maybe that's the style you are looking for (which is fine.) Also, you often see the stems of the flowers decorated differently so they stand out from the leaves in the pattern. Often this is done with a veiner and decorative cuts that simulate small leaves, like at the base of a rose. Hope that makes sense. Also, often you see people put a single seeder mark in the pod the flower opens from, though I'm not sure what part of the flower that represents Very nice work! Bob Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
reddevil76 Report post Posted February 15, 2012 Hi Bob, thanks for pointing out the leaves shading portion. Actually it is not a deliberate style decision. I actually shaded the outer leaves and gave up halfway! Reason being that I could not figure out how to walk the thumbprint in the leaves without leaving choppy marks. On a couple, I went back and tried to redo it and end up making a mess, so I gave up halfway. At that point, I felt I couldn't risk messing up this further, and gave up doing the veiner and camo too. Not sure if the reason why I couldn't walk it is because my thumbprint is horizontally lined. I have since ordered smooth curved thumbprints from Barry and am gonna give this another shot. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
