Hummingbird Notebook

[Bob Blea]

Here is something that I made for my wife.  It's a notebook designed to hold a 5" x 8" refillable notepad.  It has a floral carvings in the corners front and back with a hummingbird and my wife's initials on the front and a geometric design on the back.

 

The geometric on the back is probably too busy for the floral carving, as it kind of gets lost in the stamp design.  If I did it again I would probably leave the floral off the back and just use the geometric design.  I've had quite a few comments and questions on my Instagram account about this stamp, so I'll just say up front that this is a combination of stamps from Barry King.  It is his Tri-Hex Hollow stamp and the Seashell Filler.

The edges are laced with Tandy Calf lace and the interior is lined with pigskin.  The whole piece was antiqued with Eco-Flo Saddle Tan to highlight the carving and stamping.

 

[Rohn]

That is a real nice cover.  Good work.

[Sheilajeanne]

Very, very nice work! Did you put any sort of stiffener in the panels to keep the leather from bending?

 

[Bob Blea]

8 minutes ago, Rohn said:

That is a real nice cover.  Good work.

Thanks Rohn!

8 minutes ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Very, very nice work! Did you put any sort of stiffener in the panels to keep the leather from bending?

 

Thank you Sheilajeanne!  Not really.  The leather is 4-5 oz to start with and once the pigskin liner is glued to it, it makes it firm like a hardback book cover, but still flexible.

[garypl]

Bob - that is a very nice piece of work - I'm certain your wife was very pleased with it!

Gary

[Bob Blea]

22 minutes ago, garypl said:

Bob - that is a very nice piece of work - I'm certain your wife was very pleased with it!

Gary

Thanks Gary!  And yes she was.  She loved it.

[YinTx]

Some seriously nice work there.  Love the tooling.  Creative use of stamps on the back as well, and you are getting your antique to do what I only wish mine would do for me.  Did you do any dye on the background, or was it all antique coloring?

YinTx

[Tim Schroeder]

Excellent job.  Like the geometric design on the back.

Edited March 29, 2018 by Tim Schroeder

[Rockoboy]

I like the whole piece just as it is. The flowers on the back don't get lost in the geometric pattern, not for me anyway.

[Bob Blea]

16 hours ago, YinTx said:

Some seriously nice work there.  Love the tooling.  Creative use of stamps on the back as well, and you are getting your antique to do what I only wish mine would do for me.  Did you do any dye on the background, or was it all antique coloring?

YinTx

Hi YinTx,

Thanks for the compliment!  The background areas are only antiqued, no dye.  It has taken me a while to get the antiquing down to where it is consistent.  That is definitely an art unto itself.

[Bob Blea]

13 hours ago, Tim Schroeder said:

Excellent job.  Like the geometric design on the back.

 

43 minutes ago, Rockoboy said:

I like the whole piece just as it is. The flowers on the back don't get lost in the geometric pattern, not for me anyway.

Thank you both!

[Jack1970]

I love that!  Beautiful!

[Bob Blea]

13 hours ago, Jack1970 said:

I love that!  Beautiful!

Thank you Jack!

[Stetson912]

Another beautiful piece. I wish I could get to that point haha. I know ecoflo gets a bad rep, but I do like the saddle tan gel antique.