First Attempt At Carving-Please Critique

[Jeep1967]

I taught myself while I lived in UK for 3 years... no one to teach me. I do not tool Sheridan style...I guess you can say, I tool my own style. I sculpt tiles as well, and incorporated my experience in creating dimension into my leather tooling. Most patterned tools (that create the cross hatching) are best used on background, and in crevices. The antique dyes work great with those tools as the dye catches in the roughness of the pattern.. and this creates more dimension. The one critique I have of your first projects (and great job BTW) is that when you do background work (around the edges of the design) try to fade the patterning gently into the no tooled area of leather... no harsh lines. It should not take 5 hours for leather to dry to a point you can tool... a simple spray bottle works, cover piece with one even layer of H20, and then let sit. It should take no more than 15 minutes to be able to start tooling. If piece starts to dry out, just spray lightly another layer. Less is more with water.

I do understand you are working with limited tools. This past year I invested in three huge job lots of vintage tools on Ebay. The look of my work is much crisper now because of the better crafted tools from years ago. Do research on what markings make a craftool vintage, and invest in those, instead of your local tandy store. The tools now are not machine made, they are created from molds, and over time , the molds loose their edges, which results in poor patterning.

Keep up the great work!

~Tara

www.etsy.com/shop/sevenannine

www.facebook/sevenannine

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement, Tara.

I already started searching e-bay for "no letter" vintage craftool tools because I had heard from many sources that they are good quality and most are very reasonably priced.

I added your etsy shop to my favorites a few months ago, before I knew you were a member here. I like the Celtic style of your work and some of your pieces have inspired me to draw my own Celtic carving patterns. They are currently works in progress along with some non-Celtic geometric patterns that I am drawing and would like to try carving.

I am probably a little over-ambitious, because I would like to become proficient at many types and styles of leather carving and want to learn everything I can about all aspects of leatherworking. I am learning by reading, watching videos, and diving in and doing whatever I feel like trying. I learn a lot from doing and making mistakes, and the feedback from the helpful people on this site

Thanks, again.

Brad