A kit purse

[ClayB]

My wife likes to change purses every couple months and it seems like she is always coming home with a new purse from Wal Mart or some other place. Nothing fancy, just likes something different. Last summer when we were in a Tandy store, she saw a kit purse with lots of pockets she liked. It's really simple to make, just sew on 2 panels, once they are carved. I wanted the carving to be something more personalized than the patterns that came with the kit, so I turned to Tina for some help. She drew up a couple different patterns just for this project for me. THANKS TINA!

This pattern seemed to be really challenging for me to carve. The leaves were almost too small for my smallest tools, but the use of a tiny pro petal tool from Jeff Mosby worked great, and gave them the depth that kind of makes them pop. For the color on the final flap, I went with a Sheridan finish, oil, neat lac, followed by tan antique. Then I painted the center of the S with angelus black acrylic paint.

There are quite a few mistakes in the carving, but Stacy is really happy with it. There are also a lot of things I dont care for about the kit purse, like the round holes, the big clunky thread, the way the black flap overlaps the carving, and how paper thin the black leather is, but it'll have to do until I get the "made from scratch" purse figured out that's next on my list.

I still have to carve the back panel for this purse. Just got another pattern from Tina for that, and since most of ND is closed today, I will have some time to work on it.

[Hilly]

You did a beautiful job, Clay! Your wife is a lucky woman, and Tina is very kind to draw you a pattern!

I always hated the round holes Tandy has in a lot of their kits. Wish they'd just leave it to the customer to choose his or her own method of sewing/lacing. I did buy a clutch purse kit from them, but I only wanted it to see how the interior was constructed.

I thought South Dakota is closed. Don't tell me North Dakota is closed, too! Do me a favor and just keep all that snow out there! I consider it a 4 letter word here in Wisconsin.

[Tina]

I Love the way you carved this one and the colors is naturally beautiful:-)

I agree with Hilly, snow is a 4 letter word...Today it's nothing special but yesterday we had around 70 and bright sunshine *Yihaaaa*

[rdb]

That's a nice job, ClayB. You are right, the little flowers do pop. That little lifter you got works great.

I like the background work too. Sometimes that pebbling just doesn't look right to me, but this worked well. The "yellowishness" (is that a word?) i kinda didn't like at first, but after looking at it, it worked for me. Real life color is probably different anyway.

What pebble tool did you use?

[MADMAX22]

Good job too both of you guys. Tina very nice design you really have a nac for laying out the design to look great.

ClayB very good job on the tooling and I really like the color. Did you copy the design of the purse before you put it together, that way you could make any changes in construction and do it the way you really wanted to next time. Atleast thats what I would think about doing.

[hidepounder]

Nice purse Clay! I agree with your own critique...those were the things I noticed also. Not much else to do with the pre-punched holes. The pattern that Tina drew is beautiful (Great job Tina!) and very difficult to carve, but you handled it! Tools will make all the difference here. I like the bebble backgrounder, found it a little distracting because there is so much of it, but I think it is what I would have used also. When using that tool it's important to get really even impressions throughout the field, which is difficult here because there is so much area to cover. The other thing that is difficult with this pattern is the fine scroll like vines. I like the color, it's nice and even throughout and I like the contrast with the black leather. Good Job!!!

[calanneh]

Looks wonderful!!!!

William

[ArtS]

Looks great Clay. You must have hidden teh mistakes pretty well because I don't see any (and I won't ask where they are either).

I really like the design.

Art

[UKRay]

I just wish I could design and carve like that... nice job, both of you.

[ClayB]

Thanks all of you for looking, and for your comments.

Hilly and Tina, I understand about the snow, but even so, if it wants to head anywhere but here, I aint gonna try and stop it. We got pretty lucky here, most of our moisture came before the temperature dropped. We only ended up with about 3 inches. The central part of the state got closer to a foot, and I heard that Deadwood, SD got around 47 inches.

One of the things Stacy liked about this purse kit was the way it was set up. Lots of pockets. Place for checkbook, cell phone, credit cards, coins, bills etc. I dont like the construction part of things like this very much, so making the inside of a purse like this is pretty much out of the question for me. The kit insides are pretty nicely made. Also, for a kit, the carving leather seems to be pretty nice. It takes carving pretty nice.

The background tool is a pebbler from Hidecrafter. It was one of the first tools I got from their Pro line and I have been fairly happy with it. It doesn't have the crispness that one from Bob would have, but it's not bad. I just used the small size one. Seems like it makes a better impression than the larger one, but it is more difficult to keep the background even with the smaller tool. One thing I like about it is that it seems to be easier to make a smooth looking background with it than a regular checkered background.

Keeping the vines even is something that I could have done better (or at least tried to). I also messed up the border inside the S. It's not even at all. The thing that might not show up is how small this pattern is. The carving area is only about 3 inches by 6 inches and some of those little leaves are REALLY little! I'm working on the back side pattern right now. If possible, it's even more challenging than the front. I wonder if it was Tina's way of saying "keep asking for more buddy and see what you're gonna get!". Seriously though, I wish I could draw half as neat a patterns as she does.

[Tina]

"The carving area is only about 3 inches by 6 inches and some of those little leaves are REALLY little! I'm working on the back side pattern right now. If possible, it's even more challenging than the front. I wonder if it was Tina's way of saying "keep asking for more buddy and see what you're gonna get!". Seriously though, I wish I could draw half as neat a patterns as she does"

Geezzz...Sometimes it's no good hanging on the keyboard (seams like I did send an answer???)

True, this pattern is small/er and the backside is actually even more wines and such. A small thing I've discovered is that when a wine crosses over another...Bevel the cross part first before beveling along the sides of the wine, this seams to work to make them more even. (hope I make sense here) I have every faith in your capabillity to carve this pattern Clay:-)

I also use the pepple tools from Hide Crafter...But I use all 3 of them. My way is to use the biggest one "around" the work and in an angle to allowe it to fade out and leave untooled areas.

Edited November 8, 2008 by Tina

[Crystal]

Hi Clay-

Great job! I didn't know this was so small - even more impressed! I liked how everything turned out. I haven't gotten any kits and I guess I never noticed that they are pre-punched. That would make the sewing not the best. I have to agree with Stacy's purse requirements - a pocket for everything is needed. Can you get us a shot of the inside? Can't wait to see what you do with the other pattern Tina has come up with! (Great design, Tina!)

Crystal

[Spider]

This looks great. You did a wonderful job.

[leatheroo]

i thought it was wonderful before i knew how small it was....now i am even more impressed...more pics to follow i hope!!

[ClayB]

Thanks Crystal, Caroline, and Spider.

I finished up carving and coloring the back side panel and sewed it on to the purse. Since I didn't like the big holes or the stitching, or the part of the flap that covered part of the tooling, we came up with a different way of attaching it. I am not completly happy with it this way either, but Stacy likes it a lot better than the way I did the front. SO, I have ripped out the stitching on the front and am doing it over with the buckstitching.

I went to Tandy's website hoping they'd have pictures of the inside, but they don't so I'll try and see if I can get some for you Crystal.

[Crystal]

Very nice, Clay!

Tina really had you working with all those twists and turns! I really like it. I think the buckstitch is neater (cleaner) looking than the stitching. Good call on that. I am guessing the inside of the bag is black. It's probably going to be a pain to try to get a pic of the inside of the bag - I didn't think about that before I asked. Don't worry about trying that. I bet by now you are wondering why women have to have such complicated things like handbags... You have done a beautiful job.

Very pretty design, Tina!

Crystal

[ClayB]

Ok, here's the final pictures.

From the cover of the kit.

The front flap buckstitched on.

Inside the front flap, cell phone pocket, zippered coin pocket, credit card pockets, zippered bill pocket.

ID holders, checkbook pocket, more credit card pockets, pen holder

Center zippered pocket for all the other stuff

The curly vines weren't nearly as difficult to do as the leaves, I actually kind of thought they were fun. I was really happy with the patterns and how the carving turned out. What's even better is that Stacy is really happy with it. Now in a week or two I'll try and get started on the next one.

[Crystal]

(Slapping self in the forehead) It's an organizer bag! Now I understand how everything goes together. Thanks for the extra pictures!

Crystal

[Tina]

I know people...Those swirly things is a pain in the ....But I just love them:-)

I think you did a super job with the swirls and the leaves Clay. The buckstitching did all the difference and the finished purs looks better than the kit's stiching...Much better