Floral and Mountain Carved 8x11 Notebook

[Bob Blea]

This was a custom order I finished up recently for the wife of a coworker.  He had a very specific design in mind with wild roses in the foreground and a mountain scene in the background.  He also wanted the roses to have some color but the rest of the scene to retain the natural leather color.  Both he and his wife were thrilled with how it turned out, and since I've known both of them for over 20 years it was important to do a spectacular job.

The flowers were colored with acrylics and the overall notebook was antiqued.  For some reason I didn't think to take pictures of the interior, but it holds a 8.5 x 11 refillable notepad.

 

[Rohn]

You really did it! That is a spectacular job for sure. Beautiful work!

[Bob Blea]

1 hour ago, Rohn said:

You really did it! That is a spectacular job for sure. Beautiful work!

Thanks Rohn!

[bikermutt07]

I'd risk being called a sissy to carry that around.

Really beautiful piece.

[KurseD]

Dig it a lot man. The depth looks amazing.

[Sofaspud]

Wow, that looks fantastic.  Nice work.

[Bob Blea]

Thanks all!  She carries this around work daily and apparently one of her coworkers is considering ordering one too.  Hope that works out!

[Tugadude]

Just stunning.  I'm not a huge fan of lacing, but you can lace so well I might have to change my mind on that.

[TonyP]

Looks great!  I'm curious how you did the design in the oval ring around the flowers.  It looks like it's sewn or is it a stamp? 

[Brown64]

Beautiful!

[cjartist]

Beautiful work Bob!

[LeatherBeast]

That is such a sweet gift idea. I love it. It looks great!

[Bob Blea]

On ‎3‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 4:51 PM, TonyP said:

Looks great!  I'm curious how you did the design in the oval ring around the flowers.  It looks like it's sewn or is it a stamp? 

Tony- I apologize I didn't see your post until now.  That is a stamp.  It is called a Geer Braid and it's made by Barry King and is available on his website.  It makes a great impression of being some kind of sewing or braiding and it worked really well in combination with the lacing.  I really should be using it more.

 

Thanks all for the compliments!

[CraftyNick]

That is beautiful!  It's inspiring.  I have tried to figure out how a leather cover should work, does it have inside layers that the cover of the note book slides into?  Did you use a resisting finish to keep the leather so light after antiquing?  Now I am also wondering what leather you used to start with because it seems most leathers, at least the more high quality ones, are much darker tan, but I'd love to know where you can get light leather like that.  

[Bob Blea]

On ‎3‎/‎24‎/‎2017 at 5:26 PM, CraftyNick said:

That is beautiful!  It's inspiring.  I have tried to figure out how a leather cover should work, does it have inside layers that the cover of the note book slides into?  Did you use a resisting finish to keep the leather so light after antiquing?  Now I am also wondering what leather you used to start with because it seems most leathers, at least the more high quality ones, are much darker tan, but I'd love to know where you can get light leather like that.  

Hi Nick,

My notebooks typically have a pigskin lining across the entire tooled outer part.  On smaller notebooks I just cut a slot in the lining that the notepad can slide into, and that part of the lining doesn't get glued to the tooled outer cover so the cardboard backing of the notepad can slide into it.  I've done the same thing for these bigger 8.5 x 11 notepads and it worked OK but that's a lot of weight to hang off the pigskin.  So for these bigger notebooks I prefer to build a separate pocket out of 2/3 oz veg tan leather, cut the slot in that and let that hold the notepad.  It gives more support that way. 

I believe this notebook came from a hide from American Leather Direct.  It's the first hide I've gotten from them but it tooled really well.  It was a very light veg tan leather, but I've got the same basic light color in tooling leather I've received from Herman Oak and Wicket and Craig.  The antiqing actually darkened this quite a bit to a more tan color.

Hope that helps!

Bob

[CraftyNick]

Bob, thank you for answering my questions!  I appreciate it.  Was browsing your work on etsy and really like your style.