need help with my tooling

[buckarooTB]

Here are some pics of my tooling and one that was tooled by Paul Vandyke, which is kind of what I am trying to get. I draw my own patterns as I am doing custom work for other people. So I need someone to tell me What I am doing wrong. Why isnt my tooling turning out proper? I cased it overnight and let dry to to pretty much completly natural. It doesnt have that smooth proffesional look that a lot of you guys can do. Is the way I draw my patterns? Thanks for any input

[buckarooTB]

how can I get that depth and color?

[CaptQuirk]

I'm likely no more experienced than you, so what I say is likely wrong. That said, it looks like it is cased well, you are getting the burnished look from your tooling. You might try cutting a little deeper, for cleaner outlines. To give it more depth, try using antique gels, to darken those nooks and crannies, adding a shadow like appearance.

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[sharkeyfinn]

im likely to be hung by my thumbs for saying this.....but, personally i think the leather was "too" wet when you carved it. casing thick leather is absolutely the right thing to do, however, 3mm is the thickest i have used yet ,and simply running it under the tap is ample to get a nice crisp carve, when the leather is too wet is goes like putty, which is a little like your picture,  also, the design you are carving from is fine, but .. for example , the top left of the flower sort of merges with the rest of the design, with no clear outline, if i may suggest an exercise ,  try carving just the flower, inside a box leaving say half an inch all the way around, bevell round the flower,then use your back grounder out to the inside edge of the box, start a new carve, but this time add just a couple of shoots, nothing fancy, the idea is to get your carving precise and crisp, and as someone pointed out, try using a form of highlighter, or antique dye, i use the smoke black ecoflow highlighter, it really help bring out the detail . the only other thing i will say is, stick at it, practise is ,as always the key word ,, 

you have all the right ideas and the know how,with the bonus of being able to design your own designs, personally i cant draw for ......well you get my drift lolol ;-) 

 

[Ferg]

Many don't like the manner in which I give a critique but you asked.

Your approach is "sloppy". Finger nails are probably too long. When you rest the fingers on the leather they make nasty marks. Your drawing may very well be alright, you simply are not following the tracing. YOUR TECHNIQUE IS TERRIBLE, WHICH YOU ALREADY KNOW. LOL

Those things said: It appears you are trying to begin at the end instead of the beginning of Leather Crafting. You need to develop your skills with tried and true patterns and written as well as Video information available. Tandy has a full line of the old pattern and "How To" books by Al Stohlman as well as many others. If you don't have a Tandy close to you, they have a very good On-Line presence. Leather work is confounding and at the same time very satisfying. Learn the basics of carving and practice, practice, practice.

I am not going to go into what I think you are doing wrong at this time. Think about what I have said and don't take it as being too mean and critical. Not intended. 

Ferg

[TonyRV2]

I'm afraid I have to agree with Ferg here, your methods lack discipline and it looks like you rushed through it, even though you likely spent hours on this.  You need to take a step back and learn some basics before you get to the level that you want to be at.  Al Stohlman's books have helped me tremendously in that regard.  Start out with the book entitled "Figure Carving".  You can find it on Ebay I'm sure.  One thing that I always keep in mind as a result of having studied his books is to always cut and tool the foreground first and then work backwards into the picture.  Do not even cut the background until you've finished the foreground.  The background should be struck more delicately to give the illusion of depth.  Things that are farther away do not appear to have as crisp an outline.  The border should be tooled last.  Your work on this project exhibits none of this....it all looks like its on one level because you cut and tooled it all at the same time.  This also led to mistakes where you overlapped tooling from one part of the picture to another.  Its great that your designing your own figures, but you should concentrate for a while on doing some work thats already been done so that you can see step by step how your goals may be accomplished.  On another note, as you're learning, only follow one master because there are a variety of ways that you might accomplish the same result.  Following just one master initially will clear a lot of the static from the airwaves.  You can't hardly go wrong starting out with the Stohlman books.

Edited November 2, 2016 by TonyRV2

[Bob Blea]

There are some very good points made above and the Stohlman books can be very helpful.  I would recommend spending more time practicing with your swivel knife.  Your swivel knife cuts are the foundation of any leather carving, and in your case you aren't making smooth flowing cuts.  In Mr. Vandyke's example you can see that his knife cuts along the vines are long and flowing with the length of the vines.  They gently and gracefully curve around the flowers.  Your vines are very short and end very abruptly, which is partially due to the small area you are carving them in.  Also, your curving cuts like your flower petals are choppy and not very smooth, which affects your tooling.  Much of this is just a matter of practice and getting comfortable cutting smoothly, but it also may be your swivel knife itself.  The blade needs to be sharp and well stropped to cut well, so if you have never done this spend some time sharpening and stropping that knife.  If you are like most people starting out you have a Tandy knife and it's blade needs work to tune it up as it doesn't come from the store in the shape it needs to be to do good work.

Hope this helps!  Keep working at it and you're bound to improve.

Bob

[TinkerTailor]

When you are practicing as bob says, make sure you keep the swivel knife vertical. You leaned a bunch in some of those curves. If you lean the wrong way the blade is pushing down the leather you intend to raise. There are times where experienced artists lean the knife for effect, however this is quite intentional and not a result of leaning in the curves. I have occasionally seen people use lazy susans for swivel knife work so you can turn the work and the knife at the same time to achieve smoother curves in detail work. Turning the work is very common in engraving metal.

As to design, if the bottom petals of the flower were 40% longer, they would cover that stem and both balance the flower, making it more circular but also add some depth.

[JLSleather]

2 points I think are the biggest -- leather is too wet, obviously, and it appears your knife could be sharper.  Those two things are really "rookie" mistakes, and make worlds of difference in your work.  Sharpen teh swivel knife, and don't be in such a hurry to dig in.. let it dry MORE...

 

[buckarooTB]

Thanks for all the input! I will keep trying.