LLWork Report post Posted January 16, 2015 (edited) It all started for me when I inherited my dad's bike after he passed away in 2012. It had been sitting around for a little while, so it was starting to look a little rough around the ages, namely the holey vinyl seat. I thought it was a good idea to restore the bike, and to do it as a memorial for my dad. I decided to convert it to a single seater, and that it would it have a hand tooled leather seat. After looking around a little bit, I either didn't like what I was seeing or what the price was. Being the DIY type, I figured I should try it myself. My dad was an artist, and he used to spend time in church drawing elaborate Celtic knot designs on the back of the program. Fortunately for me, he kept them all, and I concluded that it would be the perfect design to put on the seat. I decided to go with this drawing(not the original, obviously my trace). So off to youtube I went, and didn't find much on there. Maybe there is more on there now, but there wasn't at the time. After watching one video in particular many, many times(Thank you Iler Brothers!!!), I decided to just go for it. After cutting. Some tooling progress. Finished with the tooling, but thought there was a little something missing. There, my dad's initials, WWL. Edited January 16, 2015 by LLWork Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LLWork Report post Posted January 16, 2015 (edited) Dry fit test, everything is looking ok. Holes punched, next up is the color. Color done! I wanted a sunburst type thing happening, so I used three different colors in stages. I also learned that you need decent gloves when dyeing. Time to lace it all up! Lace, lace, lace. It's coming along. All right, top panel done. Time to move on to the sides. Decided to keep it on the simple side, but with a little added flair. Over/under is kind of the theme, right? And all finished!! So happy with how it came together! Edited January 16, 2015 by LLWork Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LLWork Report post Posted January 16, 2015 (edited) A couple months later, my family managed to convince me to enter the seat in the Utah State Fair by saying they'd foot the entry fee of $25. Much to my surprise, the thing won Best in Show! I got a $50 gift certificate to a local leather shop, a little camp chair, and this amazing ribbon! Needless to say, I sort of became hooked on hide! Edited January 16, 2015 by LLWork Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
plowboy73 Report post Posted January 16, 2015 Very cool story and a nice job! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LLWork Report post Posted January 16, 2015 Very cool story and a nice job! Thanks very much! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ta2ooz Report post Posted January 16, 2015 That looks fantastic, if you are new to this I think we will see big things from your workshop. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tramps Leatherworking Report post Posted January 16, 2015 Very nice! it would appear you inherited some of your dad's artistic genes... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leatherwytch Report post Posted January 16, 2015 This is stunningly beautiful and complex. Amazingly good job! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LLWork Report post Posted January 17, 2015 This is stunningly beautiful and complex. Amazingly good job! This made my day! Thanks! Very nice! it would appear you inherited some of your dad's artistic genes... I'd like to think so! He was pretty amazing at it. Those Celtic knot designs he did were all freehand. That looks fantastic, if you are new to this I think we will see big things from your workshop. This was a couple years ago now, and I do have some more stuff that I'm planning on working into these forums. I just joined last night though, so I figure I'll do it slowly so as not to flood them with my stuff. I do have a couple (what I think to be) big ideas in the works though! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
builderofstuff Report post Posted January 19, 2015 Excellent work. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LLWork Report post Posted January 20, 2015 Excellent work. Many thanks. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
