New set of bracers for a metal band

[TomSwede]

Tom,

Fine work buddy. Now that I see them, I understand more of what you were talking about doing with them. You can also get a mottled look with the white if you apply a very water coat of dark gray acrylic after the white dries, then wipe it off a little. This is called a "wash". Then, to pull the white out a bit more, get some white on your brush and brush it onto your skin until the paint on the brush is a bit dry and does not go on evenly. Then lightly brush it across the tops of your texture. This is called "dry brushing". These are just extra tips to make things easier for you. This piece looks good, man. Keep it up!

El Vaquero Muerto

Thanks alot VM! I'm sure gonna cut n paste this snippet into my tip folder!!

There's plenty of room for improvement so I'm gonna get some grey or maybe some black and dilute it.

I won't be doing this stonetexture for the next bracer but I have 4 rifleslings to make and free hands on design too. Time to fix me some vinegaroon aswell.

Tom

[Bree]

Thanks Bree! The shape is very nice and comfy!

Oh the next one is just a variation of this one layed out to be similar to a runestone but the design is not set really yet so it might come out quite close to this one.

The guys I work for is a bunch of friends so they see each others and want similar ones.

So have you seen him operate the locomotive with it?? I love old steampoered locomotives, you can't find anything more heavy metal than that on land;-)

Tom

No I haven't! I think I will ask him to have some PIX taken with the vambraces on as he drives his locomotive. But I don't think it will be a steamer! More like a GE Dash 8-40C engine built by General Electric for Union Pacific!

If I get some PIX I will post them.

[TomSwede]

Thanx Bree! Any locomotive is heavy so it'll do just fine, after all, not many people are lucky enough to operate a steamer!

Tom

[francesca]

Hello Tom.. I don´t want to sound stupid, but... those bracelets are specifically for a rock metal band?

I really like them, they are like... tuff!

What kind of leather you like to use?

[TomSwede]

Thanks Francesca! Do you like metal??

Yes, theese are for the guitarrists of an hopefully upcoming extreme metal band. The members have good validation in this world so I keep my thumbs for them.

Actually a bit nervous about how they like them. They were picked up today (mailorder) but haven't heard anything yet wich I normally do via myspace.

The logo I think was a bit tricky for leather so it's a bit of compromises in the design to keep those thin lines and the logo straight. I did a first one that I cut and beveled deeper but I couldn't avoid getting the lines to crooked or straying away. They wanted it true to the image they sent me so had to do my best with that. I'd like to rework it a bit and toss around some of the foreground/background elements or widening the borders.

I use 1/10 to 1/8 inch, 2,5 to 3mm vegetabilic tanned leather. I like the thinner best because it feels better on the wrist and gives a slicker look but the thicker one is easier to tool but if you check my posts here for the pogskull bracer you can see that the thinner can take tooling great aswell. I think the motif/design is an important factor aswell to make a more relief look, it's alot about fooling the eye. Like playing with the borders and put elements in smart ways so that the stuff in the background still appear in relief. That was hard to do with this since the lines are to thin to bevel/tool properly.

Tom

[Bree]

Hey Tom when you make your bracers do you try to fit them so that the inner edges come together or fit snugly together or do you allow space between the edges? I see that you are using grommets so these would be fastened with lace.

The forearm is an oddly shaped thing. It is not exactly cylindrical and I have found that it can be difficult to mate the edges for some people. It makes life a lot easier to cut off of a pattern a bit smaller than the forearm and let the inner edges "breathe" so that you don't have to tweak them with ad hoc cuts to get the angle right.

Does that make any sense?? Not sure if I expressed myself very well.

[Tina]

I really like your style Viking Tom:-)

Seams like you've found yourself a nice corner in leatherwork over there...Good on you

[TomSwede]

Hey Tom when you make your bracers do you try to fit them so that the inner edges come together or fit snugly together or do you allow space between the edges? I see that you are using grommets so these would be fastened with lace. The forearm is an oddly shaped thing. It is not exactly cylindrical and I have found that it can be difficult to mate the edges for some people. It makes life a lot easier to cut off of a pattern a bit smaller than the forearm and let the inner edges "breathe" so that you don't have to tweak them with ad hoc cuts to get the angle right.Does that make any sense?? Not sure if I expressed myself very well.

Think I got you right so hopefully this answer is good enough: I have a little lesser then 1" (20mm)space between the grommeted edges and use a standard pattern. I take measurement from the lowest part of the forearm over the protruding point and just check it off the scale I have on my pattern and use a needle to mark out the corresponding connecting points on the leather to cut from. I often alter the roortop lines to suit the project well and I have a standard offset for the lines to accomodate the increasing armthickness upwards so if the arm is muscular there might be a wider gap on top (wich looks quite natural) and for people with very slim arms it can be even a little lesser gap on top in cntradiction to the bottom (that does look a bit funny but it's something you really think about).I gotta cut time somewhere and this is one point I use standard. Sometimes a customer ask about this just as you and if they feel unsure bout measurements or their armwidth increase I put the grommetts a bit further so they can trim it later by themselves and anyone can colour the raw edge with a felttip pen to black.Hope I got the message through, theese things can be a bit hard to convert from thinking in Swedish and then get it over to English. We speak the words very differently even though we share alot of them beacuse of the Norman heritage to English.

Tom

I really like your style Viking Tom:-)Seams like you've found yourself a nice corner in leatherwork over there...Good on you

Tack Svenska kollega;-)Yeah I really hope so but hope they realize I can make guitarstraps and lots of other stuff and how bout some ****** basketweaving tooooo!!!

I MISS THE BASKETWEAVING

Tom

Edited September 25, 2008 by TomSwede

[BradB]

Those look really nice Tom, I bet the owner is going to be really happy!

[TomSwede]

Thanks Brad!! (two owners)

Yeah I sure hope so, they were delivered by mailorder yesterday and i haven't heard anything. Makes me nervous but they do look good and true to their logotype.

Tom