Leather Picture Frame

[MattTheHat]

I used one of the Tandy Craftaids for the pattern, which I have practiced doing about a dozen times over the past month. That and a dozen or so other similar practice sessions have been my total carving experience. Still new to leather craft this was the first item I felt good enough about to give as a gift.

Still loads of room for improvement, and I would have preferred some kind of finish other than Satin Sheen, but my wife assured me the natural color better matched the young lady's shoes in the pic.

-Matt

[Rohn]

Looks fine for what I can see. I think you did a great job.

[DoubleC]

On the sewing Matt did you 'sew' the picture to the frame or is that just decorative? I think you did a great job!! Cheryl

[billybopp]

Very nice! What did you use on the back-side of leather to protect the picture from the leather?

[Greg528it]

Looks great

[MattTheHat]

Thanks for the kind comments!

The frame was made from two 10x12" pieces of 5-6 ounce Herman Oak leather. I backed each piece with Tandy's bag stiffener material. The stitching holds the two pieces together.

The bag stiffener worked great, except when it was time for burnishing the edges. After several attempts I settled on a lot of sanding to get the edges really smooth and a very thin layer of Edge Coat.

-Matt

[Colt W Knight]

Tooling looks great. Wish I could tool flowers

Edited June 26, 2014 by Colt W Knight

[RMB Custom Leather]

Can you post a picture of the back of the frame? I always wondered how to do the back so they will stand or can be hung.

[Wild Bill46]

Thanx for your post, I have entertained thoughts of doing picture framesmyself, NOW after seeing yours, I'll have to try too.

However, I'm like RMB , I'de like to see the back too. And as Cheryl says, I think you did a great job. too !

[MattTheHat]

Thanks for the comments guys!

I don't have a picture of the back. All I did was to use a 1" oblong punch to cut a slot centered on the back, about 1.25" down from the top edge. I basically ran out of time for doing the stand part and figured I could add it later if need be.

Tandy Leather's Leathercraft Library has a video showing how to slot the back, as well as how to make a simple folding stand. You have to pay for access to the premium videos, but the pattern can be purchased https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/p-1766-leather-picture-frame-pattern.aspx for $1.99. Once you see the pattern, it's dead simple, I don't think you'd need to see the video to see how it was used.

-Matt

[MattTheHat]

Tooling looks great. Wish I could tool flowers

You can if you practice. I think you'd be amazed at how quickly you'll learn. My first few attempts were pretty ugly to me, but each encouraging to some degree. I probably only have 50 hours tooling experience so far. After about 15 hours (I'd work for about two hours per session, so this took maybe three weeks in my spare time) I saw tremendous improvement and was encouraged to keep practicing. I saw noticeable improvement after each subsequent session. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I never thought I would see "acceptable" results in this little time.

I found showing my practice work to my spouse and non-leatherworking friends gave me loads of encouragement. I got all kinds of awesome comments from my very first practice piece and each and every one that I showed thereafter. They always seemed to look at me like I was a bit crazy when I mentioned all my mistakes.

I still have loads to learn, and I'm sure many folks with more experience will look at my work and cringe, but I'm more than satisfied with my results so far. I've also gotten some very good advice on how to overcome a few different issues here on the forum.

-Matt