No idea what I'm doing, but happy to be here!

[JiffyJones]

Hey guys!! 

Oh man, thanks Garypl for your experiment!! That's very interesting- the TanKote gives it a watercolor type effect, but agreed about your conclusion that it's too streaky for most uses.

DJole- that looks really clean!! I think I would like to try that method as well as opposed to the incredibly tedious one of painting each wrinkle like I ended up doing hahahaha

Mjolnir WELCOME BACK!!

Here's a bit of progress on the face if anyone is curious! I'm trying not to go too thick with the acrylic but I feel like something is missing on the mostly done leftmost eye.

Is there a way to remove the paint if say, it got out of hand or I left a streak somewhere it wasn't supposed to be (thankfully that hasn't happened yet)? Does anyone have any recommendations for cleaning the surface as well, say of fingerprints and general griminess that happens while painting but before sealing?

What do you think I should do with the edges? I burnished them a bit with just water to get them to be flat, but I'm debating if I should bring them to more of a shine- and logically, I'd have to do that before I painted them because you can't burnish acrylic, right? That doesn't seem like it would make sense. Would it be dumb if in the end I painted the edges a really obnoxious color?

Since I still need to worry about bending the flap to curve over the bag, I'm not super concerned about it right now, but I also just can not seem to get rid of some stubborn water stains. But maybe they're grease stains and they're just part of his skin now?

[garypl]

I think it's looking good!  I think maybe the colors in the eye are a little too washed out - maybe more vibrant colors would make the eyes pop a bit more?

Gary

[JiffyJones]

Here's some more progress on the face! It's movin along.

[garypl]

1 minute ago, JiffyJones said:

Here's some more progress on the face! It's movin along.

Looking good!  I like the darker color shades.  That tongue is nasty!

[alpha2]

And THAT'S why I don't do self portraits! I just won't do it.

[JiffyJones]

Hey guys!

Apologies for the delay, but as I've been sewing this I've realized that the back panel/top flap piece just isn't as malleable as I thought it was going to be. I got too excited thinking that I was going to have as few seams as possible, but the leather is just too thick to open the flap (even after oiling several times). Do you think it would be a wise choice to cut the top flap from the back panel and sew it back up, giving a more flexible joint for movement? Or is there another way? Also should I be posting this somewhere else?

Please let me know your thoughts!

Thanks for readin!

[alpha2]

Have you considered some grooves at the flex point?

 

[RockyAussie]

6 hours ago, JiffyJones said:

Hey guys!

Apologies for the delay, but as I've been sewing this I've realized that the back panel/top flap piece just isn't as malleable as I thought it was going to be. I got too excited thinking that I was going to have as few seams as possible, but the leather is just too thick to open the flap (even after oiling several times). Do you think it would be a wise choice to cut the top flap from the back panel and sew it back up, giving a more flexible joint for movement? Or is there another way? Also should I be posting this somewhere else?

Please let me know your thoughts!

Thanks for readin!

That is some awesome looking work there and I'd be tempted to put a sign on my car boot that says custom leather work and sandwich that in when I close the boot. That should soften the fold line up and when you get enough orders (probably a couple days) then whack it back into a bag. Hey ...just trying to help

[JiffyJones]

20 hours ago, alpha2 said:

Have you considered some grooves at the flex point?

 

I absolutely have not considered that!! This could definitely help! Thank you!!

[JiffyJones]

18 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

That is some awesome looking work there and I'd be tempted to put a sign on my car boot that says custom leather work and sandwich that in when I close the boot. That should soften the fold line up and when you get enough orders (probably a couple days) then whack it back into a bag. Hey ...just trying to help

Thanks! And HAHA- I like the way you think! 

[JLSleather]

On 1/14/2018 at 5:57 PM, alpha2 said:

From seeing this, I'd have to agree. Thanks for the info! I just read the bottle of my Tan-Kote, it says "used to thin Fiebings Antique Finish." Nothing about Acrylic paint. This is unexplored territory for me.

Funny that -- I see they removed it, but for YEARS the antique jar read "do not thin with Tan-Kote"   We did it anyway with no adverse results.

On 12/19/2017 at 2:03 PM, JiffyJones said:

craft that I know nothing about.

You seem to be failing very well

 

[JiffyJones]

6 minutes ago, JLSleather said:

Funny that -- I see they removed it, but for YEARS the antique jar read "do not thin with Tan-Kote"   We did it anyway with no adverse results.

You seem to be failing very well

 

That is HILARIOUS! Were you able to create some interesting effects? Or did you use it for more practical purposes like re-hydrating?

And I really appreciate that, thank you! It's been a really fun and rewarding learning process so far, and there's still so much to osmose