Monthly Challenge For July

[Clay]

Here in the US, July is a patriotic time of the year. We celebrate our heritage with fireworks and barbecue. We think of special images like the Bald Eagle, the Statue Of Liberty, and Mt. Rushmore. So for this months challenge I challenge you to tool in leather that which celebrates the heritage of your home land. LW has members from all over the globe and it will be great to see all of the wonderfull and patriotic items our members can show.

As an added incentive to take the challenge, one member who posts a piece for the challenge will be randomly drawn to win an Al Stohlman Brand Round Knife donated by the Rapid City Tandy Leather Factory Store.

Good Luck I am looking forward to this challenge

ClayM.

[elktracks]

Clay,

Here's one done a while back that will be the project everyone does ine the August workshop scheduled in Ft. Worth.

Jim

[ClayB]

Hey Bert,

Great idea for a challenge. I am looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with for this one too. And just so everyone knows, I saw some eagles that Clay carved while I was visiting his store last week and he cant get away with saying he isn't good at figure carving anymore. They were really well done.

[leatheroo]

There was no technical challenge with this piece but i wanted to do a simple representation of our aboriginal art. Our native people are a very ancient race with lots of symbols.

The hundreds of dots represent the desert

The thick straight line is a track

The thick wavey line is a river

In the left hand corner, the four lines with little dots are rain

The three wavey lines near the middle are snake tracks

Three curved lines at bottom left represent mountains

The symbols at the top and bottom that look like legs with feet pointing up and kangaroo tracks

On the right side, the symbols that look like arrows are emu tracks

The three circles with four lines coming off each side represents a journey with resting place.

Aboriginal art often depicts stories or places.

Hope you like my little landscape.

caroline from australia

[ferret]

With over 2 thousand years of history it's not easy picking something, but there are 2 significant dates that most English people can remember. I haven't tried portrait carving yet, so the 1966 England team is a non starter and I've already done the research for the other one.

Taken from the last section of the bayeux tapestry, depicting King Harold's last stand against the norman invaders at the battle of Hastings 1066.

[Denise]

Neat contributions from both of you! I can see a lot of learning happening in this thread even without the leather aspect. Thanks for posting your work and the explanations!

[Clay]

Wow, we are off to a great start on this challenge. These are examples of exactly what I was hoping to see. Leatheroo and ferret great job!!!

Thanks!!!!!

ClayM.

[carr52]

Hope I got the theme right. I am from South Carolina,USA. HOOAH!!! This is a small pocket journal I made to use when I go metal detecting. I dont like to hunt all over looking for the place I found something interesting so I just log anything important in my book. Our State flag has a white Crescent and a white Palmetto tree on a blue background. I didn't want to hide the natural look of the leather so I chose to use blue thread to represent the background colors. I guess a little history of the flag is in order. The Crescent comes from a banner carried by protesters against the Stamp Act in 1765. The Palmetto Tree comes from the logs used in 1776 to build the fort defending Sullivans Island which was under attack by the British. The cannon balls fired from the British War Ships just sank into the tough soft Palmetto wood. The flag that flies over the State of South Carolina today is the same design that flew over the Independant South Carolina during the Civil War.

Tom

[carr52]

I forgot to add that it is 4"x 5 1/4" x 1/2" closed.

Tom

[ClayB]

I have always thought that Jim Linnell's feathers with an embossed eagle on them were pretty cool, but didn't know for sure how he did it. I got to see one that Clay Miller did when I was visiting with him at his store a few weeks ago and decided maybe I could figure it out. So, I did one, and thought it would fit here for this months challenge.