Lion and lioness

[ABHandmade]

Carving completed. Now this lovely married couple is drying up and waiting for coloring.

Size 9 x 11 inches, relief height 3/4 inches.

 

Edited August 22, 2019 by ABHandmade

[Alexis1234]

Beautiful! 

[mikesc]

Indeed, beautiful, as usual. :)

[RockyAussie]

Beautiful is the only word to use here I think. Funny thing about carving on leather is that I sort of prefer it without all the colour. To me its like painting a Greek statue.Could you imagine David in some way painted? From your other works I suspect that you could prove me wrong.

Edited August 23, 2019 by RockyAussie
mispel....

[Scoutmom103]

Very beautiful.  What a majestic pair.

 

[ABHandmade]

10 hours ago, Alexis1234 said:

Beautiful! 

Thank you!

10 hours ago, mikesc said:

Indeed, beautiful, as usual.

Many thanks, Mike!

5 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

Beautiful is the only word to use here I think. Funny thing about carving on leather is that I sort of prefer it without all the colour. To me its like painting a Greek statue.Could you imagine David in some way painted? From your other works I suspect that you could prove me wrong.

Thanks for compliment, Brian! 

I would like to reach a level where I do not need to color my works. But in this time I have to bring a quantity makeup on him for a decent look

53 minutes ago, Scoutmom103 said:

Very beautiful.  What a majestic pair.

 

Thank you, @Scoutmom103! The splendor of these big cats is sometimes simply amazing.

[RockyAussie]

35 minutes ago, ABHandmade said:

I would like to reach a level where I do not need to color my works. But in this time I have to bring a quantity makeup on him for a decent look

I will look forward to seeing it done. Take care my friend.

[noobleather]

Looking forward to seeing more of your progress with this work.

[JLSleather]

Another fantastic sculpture -- this is great (inspiring).  I do think you have not QUITE captured the expression... we all know the female should be a bit more .... sour. 

Seriously, to avoid loss in translation, lemme just say this IS FANTASTIC.  Anxiously waiting to see the color(s)...

[Northmount]

All I can say is that I can only aspire to do such great work.  And my remaining years are probably not long enough to ever get there.  Really great work of art.

Tom

[ABHandmade]

12 minutes ago, Northmount said:

All I can say is that I can only aspire to do such great work.  And my remaining years are probably not long enough to ever get there.  Really great work of art.

Tom

Tom, thank you so much! You make me blush with embarrassment. I think you're exaggerating a little

[ABHandmade]

13 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

I will look forward to seeing it done. Take care my friend.

Thank you, Brian!

11 hours ago, noobleather said:

Looking forward to seeing more of your progress with this work.

I hope not to disappoint you  Thanks!

11 hours ago, JLSleather said:

Another fantastic sculpture -- this is great (inspiring).  I do think you have not QUITE captured the expression... we all know the female should be a bit more .... sour. 

Seriously, to avoid loss in translation, lemme just say this IS FANTASTIC.  Anxiously waiting to see the color(s)...

Jeff! In connection with my meager knowledge of English, I will be brief - THANKS!  

[toxo]

Beyond beautiful. How do you learn to do something like that?

[MikeRock]

No added color needed, in my opinion at least.  The native yellow of the leather says all that needs saying. 

God bless

[Northmount]

17 hours ago, ABHandmade said:

 I think you're exaggerating a little

No exaggeration!  I'm not really an artist.  I can do the mechanics of maybe most tooling, but it just isn't the same.

Tom

[Rockoboy]

Exquisite piece of artwork. Both faces are dripping with attitude that only the king, and queen, of the jungle has/have. I can only imagine how the colour will improve this piece, because it looks like there can be no improvement.

[battlemunky]

I can only echo everyone else. You are a master at this good Sir! Yet another amazing piece.

Regarding painting vs not...I love to follow along with the progress. I'm stunned by the unpainted one and then am always afraid it'll be somehow less after you paint it but so far you haven't let me down. 

 

@toxo, a journey of 1,000 miles (or km  ) starts with a single step. Grab some leather and start googling and you'll find some starter advice. @ABHandmade has a few tutorials of how he does it on here as well. There is some building up of the underside with other leather, some molding and shaping, etc. First though, you gotta do it, and in this case, likely fail a whole bunch first dozen tries or so, and then one day we'll all be drooling over your stuff like we do ABH's.

[ABHandmade]

13 hours ago, toxo said:

Beyond beautiful. How do you learn to do something like that?

Thank you!

Almost all methods and techniques are drawn from the wonderful books of Al Stohlman. Plus a little practice. I will not try to retell - better than in the original source, it definitely will not. Especially considering my English.
Now 3 books on figure carving and embossing are available for free download at LeatherCraftLibrary (many thanks to Tandy for such a magnificent gift):

https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/product/1140/figure-carving-finesse-by-al-stohlman

https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/product/1124/the-art-of-embossing-leather-by-al-and-ann-stohlman

https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/product/1139/pictorial-carving-finesse-by-al-stohlman

Edited August 24, 2019 by ABHandmade

[ABHandmade]

13 hours ago, MikeRock said:

No added color needed, in my opinion at least.  The native yellow of the leather says all that needs saying. 

God bless

Thanks! I colore this work in soft colors, so I hope that some naturalness of the leather will be preserved.

12 hours ago, Northmount said:

No exaggeration!  I'm not really an artist.  I can do the mechanics of maybe most tooling, but it just isn't the same.

Tom, I know that you are a wonderful specialist. Plus you work great with wood. And with the leather... Plus home... Great family... Therefore, it seems to me that the whole point is simply in priorities and free time, which is never enough.

3 hours ago, Rockoboy said:

Exquisite piece of artwork. Both faces are dripping with attitude that only the king, and queen, of the jungle has/have. I can only imagine how the colour will improve this piece, because it looks like there can be no improvement.

Thanks, Brian! I still hope that coloring does not spoil this work

2 hours ago, battlemunky said:

I can only echo everyone else. You are a master at this good Sir! Yet another amazing piece.

Regarding painting vs not...I love to follow along with the progress. I'm stunned by the unpainted one and then am always afraid it'll be somehow less after you paint it but so far you haven't let me down. 

 

@toxo, a journey of 1,000 miles (or km  ) starts with a single step. Grab some leather and start googling and you'll find some starter advice. @ABHandmade has a few tutorials of how he does it on here as well. There is some building up of the underside with other leather, some molding and shaping, etc. First though, you gotta do it, and in this case, likely fail a whole bunch first dozen tries or so, and then one day we'll all be drooling over your stuff like we do ABH's.

Thank you for compliment! 

I absolutely agree with you. It seems to me that the desire to achieve a result and the availability of time are the main factors.
I really like the phrase in Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day" - "Elementary! 6 hours a day and six months later you are a specialist"

PS. I gave the links above for @toxo to the books of Al Stohlman, which describe the technique. This is better than retelling by me.

=============================================================

Andrey

[toxo]

5 hours ago, ABHandmade said:

Thank you!

Almost all methods and techniques are drawn from the wonderful books of Al Stohlman. Plus a little practice. I will not try to retell - better than in the original source, it definitely will not. Especially considering my English.
Now 3 books on figure carving and embossing are available for free download at LeatherCraftLibrary (many thanks to Tandy for such a magnificent gift):

https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/product/1140/figure-carving-finesse-by-al-stohlman

https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/product/1124/the-art-of-embossing-leather-by-al-and-ann-stohlman

https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/product/1139/pictorial-carving-finesse-by-al-stohlman

Thank you for taking the time. All downloaded. It never occurred to me that building up layers of leather was a thing. I will love the learning.

[bullmoosepaddles]

As always, great work and detail. I always love seeing your post. Awe inspiring. Looking forward to the finished piece. 

[MikeRock]

One of the Tandy library downloads ( I think) had something about putting in hair with a glovers needle.  I just thought of something else entirely and looked at my suture kit.  There are curved triangular needles that would do the 'hair' trick nicely.   Go here and look at the third cutting needle down from the top.   http://www.micromed.com/en-US/surgical-suture/suture-needle_needles/

In some kind of needle holder that would make awesome hair grooves as you could easily make a curved track.

God bless

Edited September 5, 2019 by MikeRock
added 'curved track'

[ABHandmade]

9 hours ago, MikeRock said:

One of the Tandy library downloads ( I think) had something about putting in hair with a glovers needle.  I just thought of something else entirely and looked at my suture kit.  There are curved triangular needles that would do the 'hair' trick nicely.   Go here and look at the third cutting needle down from the top.   http://www.micromed.com/en-US/surgical-suture/suture-needle_needles/

In some kind of needle holder that would make awesome hair grooves as you could easily make a curved track.

God bless

Thanks for the great tip! I use several of my own tools, made by finalizing dentist's spatulas and trowels. Your idea is great and I will definitely try the option you proposed.

[ABHandmade]

On 8/25/2019 at 4:39 AM, bullmoosepaddles said:

As always, great work and detail. I always love seeing your post. Awe inspiring. Looking forward to the finished piece. 

Thank you, @bullmoosepaddles! I apologize - I did not notice your comment earlier and only now reacted.

[MikeRock]

AB,  just had the idea that  one of those suture needles in a swivel knife type holder would let you 'flow' the hair lines very well.  The triangular cutting surface would be below and behind the swivel point so some nice curves could be made quite easily. 

 

God bless