Old dog and some new tricks.. 'bout time to share

[Subterra]

This old dog has learned some new tricks over the past several years and I thought it would be a good idea to put them out here.
My handle "Subterra" comes from a very unique root cellar... in case you are wondering.
I am in my 60's and have been tooling leather since I was in the Navy and started tooling leather in 1975 after being coached by a Texan on board the USS Enterprise.
Wouldn't even take a guess on how many projects I have made over the years... but the last 15-20 years have been working more as a leather artist. I started making leather patches for bikers. One of my own designs started selling like crazy and I needed to figure out how to do multiples of the same design without all the tooling time. I ultimately ended up using an epoxy to make a plate and have made between 50-60 plates of my own designs as well as for biker organizations. In the past four years I ended up being hired by a large organization to produce six different patch designs and have probably produced over 1000 of each design using the plates made from my original tooling. 
The new trick comes in when learning how to use one of the new products Tandy sells called Waterstain.  It is by far the most colorfast stain I have ever used... it doesn't run in the rain, nor fade in the sun.
HERE'S THE BEST PART... I had bags and bags of scraps from making the patches so one day it occured to me that with the Waterstain I could probably make a rose. Since then I have made many many roses from my scraps as well as sculptures. They all sell well. 
Hope you enjoy the photos of some of my leather art.
Subterra/Dan
 

[bikermutt07]

That is some really beautiful stuff. I think I like the arm guard the best. Super clean looking.

Thanks for sharing and welcome to the forum.

[kiwican]

love the sculptures

[rodneywt1180b]

I love the sculptures too.  I've never seen leather used like that.

Rodney

[Bodean]

Very nice stuff, thanks for sharing.

[ldgood]

Thanks for showing us, what did you use for rose stems? Leather also? 

[Subterra]

Yes it is leather with a piece of fine wire in the center to keep it stiff enough.

The rest of the flower is all leather.

[HavenHillJay]

The roses are seriously cool, gonna have to try one for my wife.  Thanks for sharing!

[battlemunky]

Really novel stuff you got there Dan ( @Subterra ), thanks for sharing it! The roses, sculptures, armquards....all of it, really, is very cool.

[sbrownn]

I've been making similar plates using 3D printing.  

[Old Coach Saddlery]

Positively beautiful work. Thank you for sharing

 

[Sofaspud]

Beautiful work.  Great colors.  Arm gaurds are awesome, but I really dig the frog.

[maxdaddy]

On April 12, 2017 at 0:11 AM, Subterra said:

...I needed to figure out how to do multiples of the same design without all the tooling time. I ultimately ended up using an epoxy to make a plate and have made between 50-60 plates of my own designs...

Dan,

That's a wide variety of projects, and they're all nice!

Please tell us more about the epoxy plates and how you made them.

[Fat Dog Leather]

Great work.....love that it is really something different!

[Chief Filipino]

Awesome work! That's a great idea for using the scraps! Do you mind if I use it? I have a footlocker full of scraps that I need to get rid of sooner rather than later. 

[smitty93068]

WOW! is all I can say. Very nice work. thanks for sharing.

Jonathan SMith

Plymouth ohio

[Valarie]

Love the flowers and dragonflies! You do some amazing work! And thank you, for your service, sir.

[Jetdoctorbox]

Very nice!