Coasters

[eransh10]

Hi,

Please see my first try in carving leather coasters.

Feedback is appreciated (positive or Negative !!)

[Chief Filipino]

Not bad. I haven't tried this yet so I can't really comment much. Did you use an antiquing gel on the leather?

[Widget]

For a first try in carving, they look really good. To my eye, it looks like the beveling may have been done while the leather was too wet or that you just need to work on "walking" the tool across the leather (faster taps with less force might help). I still struggle with that a lot. Watch some of Bruce Cheaney's videos on YouTube, he's phenomenal at the western-style tooling and you can learn a lot about beveling by watching him. Also, I would include some decorative cuts on the bottom left example. They worked well in your top right example. I've never done roses so I can't comment on where/how/if you'd do decorative cuts on the petals.

Fantastic job!

[eransh10]

Hi Widget,

The top right coaster was done first.

I didn't do the decorative cuts properly there. Since than Ive learned and what really helped me learn is a video in tandy blog by jim linell.

Here is the video - pay close attention to how he does the decorative cuts.

http://blog.leathercraftlibrary.com/2015/11/02/learning-leathercraft-with-jim-linnell-lesson-8-decorative-cuts/

[Widget]

I love Linell's work in general, and in particular the video series you recommend.

[Widget]

Oh, and Kevin from Springfield Leather has done some nice videos on decorative cuts as well:

[kiwican]

very nice, way better than my 1st attempt....or the two dozen after that lol