Journal Covers, Coasters, Laptop Sleeve

[particle]

Here's a few Christmas orders I recently finished up for family and customers. Feedback, good or bad, is always appreciated!

This is a prayer journal I made for my daughter. It was supposed to have an orange flower, with the background being red. But the resist failed miserably so I just made the whole thing red. Honestly, it was probably my fault for not waiting long enough for the resist to fully cure (it was in the 40's or 50's in my shop that day). Oh well, she absolutely loves it. She's 6.

This is a set of coasters I made for my aunt. All 4 coasters are subtly different - they have alternating raised/recessed lettering, and alternating swivel cut patterns. I really need a new swivel knife blade. Mine cuts like butter for about 2 inches, then starts dragging really badly. It's such a pain to have to strop between each and every cut! I'm pulling all these images from my website - I don't have non-branded versions of this particular graphic uploaded.

This is another set of coasters I made for my sister-in-law to give to her husband's dad. He has a much more subdued personality of the recipient when compared to the previous red coasters so these are very simple by comparison.

This is a sleeve for a 17" Macbook Pro laptop. It's my first attempt at a sleeve, but I think it came out pretty well. I love doing these hand-drawn graphics on leather, but need to find a way to protect the hand-colored areas better. When I was in college, we had a brush-on rubber cement like stuff. When you were done with the artwork, you just peeled off the resist. It did a great job protecting what's beneath. If anyone knows or remembers what this is called, please let me know! This was lined with pig skin suede - I really love the orange color (also the background in the previous photo above).

Here is another hand-drawn journal cover. This leather was from Tandy. Notice how it took the dye when compared to the Wickett & Craig used on the laptop sleeve above. The Tandy leather has much more marbling in the coloring and the grain texture is much more splotchy and rough. I admit it has a certain charm to it - it lends a bit of a rustic touch to the leather. But, from now on I'll be keeping myself stocked with thin hides of W&C for holster lining and journal covers.

[HellcatLeathers]

I absolutely LOVE your work! Beautiful artwork!!! What color dye/stain did you use? And how did you apply it? Sponge, wool dauber, airbrush? It's so clean and simple.....LOVE IT!

[Aurelie]

Really nice job! i love it!

[particle]

Thanks! All my dyes are applied with an airbrush, except for Red, which is Tandy's Pro Waterstain - it's applied with a sponge. The journal cover (not the red one) and laptop sleeve was a base color of Fiebing's Pro Oil - Saddle Tan with Dark Brown accents. I usually blot the darker accent color on with a t-shirt, but I'm pretty sure I didn't do that with this particular journal cover. The laptop sleeve's backgrounds was entirely airbrushed. The flowers are colored with artists markers I snagged from my 8-5 job. As you can see, the Tandy leather took the coloring MUCH differently than the Wickett & Craig leather. The Tandy leather is deceptive - it seems that as the dye dries and absorbs into the leather, the coloring continually gets darker so you have to make sure not to over apply the coloring and give it plenty of time to dry - build up your color in stages. Then, once it was oiled with neetsfoot, it got even darker... I oiled the laptop sleeve with Lexol so it wouldn't darken the leather.

[mikesmith648]

the stuff you are looking for particle..............is liquid latex

[particle]

Thanks!! For some reason I was thinking it had a name like "mastik", but it's been nearly 20 years ago since I bought it. Liquid latex is probably exactly what I need to try. Hopefully it won't absorb too much into leather...

[rosiart]

I think you are looking for Masquepen, it's a liquid frisket.

I really like all of them, even the rustic one. lol

I think I wrote to Tandy about the Professional Waterstains in regards to a sheridan style finish and if I recall rightly, they said that the pro waterstains did not play nicely with resists. Maybe someone else has tried something that works?

[particle]

Thanks RosiArt!! Frisket is the word I was looking for.

I tested the red waterstain a while back to see how well it would be resisted, but now that I think about it, the resist I tested it with was Fiebing's Leather Balm with Atom Wax. I threw the stuff away though - I was sick of it making all my colors bleed. What good is it if it lifts the underlying colors and bleeds all over my thread, etc!!?!

[Jax]

I love your work, thanks for showing it

[benlilly1]

I love all of the projects! Color and design as well! Very nice work!