petal lifting on flowers

[llasso]

I have been trying to do some petal lifting on flowers, but they are not coming out the way I would like. I have two petal lifting tools but when I use them I mar the leather. and I am not getting the proper penitration of the leather to get the effect I would like to have. Can any one help or send me in the right direction.... Thanks Larry

[ClayB]

I have been trying to do some petal lifting on flowers, but they are not coming out the way I would like. I have two petal lifting tools but when I use them I mar the leather. and I am not getting the proper penitration of the leather to get the effect I would like to have. Can any one help or send me in the right direction.... Thanks Larry

One thing you have to do is make sure your pro petal tool is sharp. If they aren't sharp, they dont work well at all. Then it's just a matter of sliding it into the leather, usually on inside curves of leaves. Try to hold the tool at an angle so it will go about half way into the thickness of the leather. If you go in to shallow, the leather can rip out on top. Here are a couple of pictures, one with the tool inserted in the leather, the other of what it looks like when it is taken back out.

[llasso]

One thing you have to do is make sure your pro petal tool is sharp. If they aren't sharp, they dont work well at all. Then it's just a matter of sliding it into the leather, usually on inside curves of leaves. Try to hold the tool at an angle so it will go about half way into the thickness of the leather. If you go in to shallow, the leather can rip out on top. Here are a couple of pictures, one with the tool inserted in the leather, the other of what it looks like when it is taken back out.

Thanks Clay, i appriciate you shairing that information with me. I can see that it will take some practice to do as good a job as you do, I will give it my best.....

Larry

[Roger]

from what i can tell with the ones i made... i would agree. they need to be good and sharp and will cut with very little pressure. just make sure you are pushing it straight in and not pushing it down or you will leave marks even if it's sharp

[ClayB]

from what i can tell with the ones i made... i would agree. they need to be good and sharp and will cut with very little pressure. just make sure you are pushing it straight in and not pushing it down or you will leave marks even if it's sharp

One thing that Jeff Mosby does on the ones he makes is to round the heel part of the tool. This makes it a lot easier to use without the back end marring the leather. It shouldn't be that hard to file the back end of any of the Pro Petal tools to make this improvement.

Clay

[Mike Craw]

I've also found some marring when I use them. I usually try to get all my lifting done before I background. The backgrounders will cover most of the tool marks around the lifted areas. Also be really careful that the point of the tool doesn't cam out and the point skips across the work. It will ruin your day...and your work!

[pete]

as usual Clay- beautiful work. I've noticed on you pieces that you have a great, how do I say, vertical or flat border along your leave's edges. Do you use a thin blade and do you bevel AND mat before you background? I don't seem to get the "depth" with my tooling even though I cut and bevel as deeply as you do.

pete

[Mike Craw]

Clay, Not only is that a great looking leaf, but the background is outstanding. Is that a Beard stamp?

Mike

[ClayB]

as usual Clay- beautiful work. I've noticed on you pieces that you have a great, how do I say, vertical or flat border along your leave's edges. Do you use a thin blade and do you bevel AND mat before you background? I don't seem to get the "depth" with my tooling even though I cut and bevel as deeply as you do.

pete

Thank you Pete. That was just a demo piece I was playing with. I dont normally mat before I background. One thing I found for getting depth to my backgrounding is to use a small background tool for most of my backgrounding. I can get a lot more depth with a small tool than a larger one. It takes more time, and sometimes I have to go over it several times to get it smooth. Sometimes after backgrounding, I will even re bevel and then background again for greater depth and to even it out. You have to have your leather glued to something though if you do this to keep it from stretching way out of shape. I am starting to think there is a point where the leather will not compress any further. At that point, your background can get pretty smooth, and you will usually get good color too. As for knife blades, I am still trying to figure out what I like. I use an old Craftool angle blade, Peter Main's low angle blade (made by Henley) and recently got a couple angle blades from Bob Beard. I switch around a lot.

Clay

[ClayB]

Clay, Not only is that a great looking leaf, but the background is outstanding. Is that a Beard stamp?

Mike

Thank you Mike. It's the Hidecrafter version of the Beard pebble backgrounders. They are my favorite backgrounder to use these days.

[Patrice]

And how do you sharpen your petal lifter? By stropping them?

[Michael Sheldon]

And how do you sharpen your petal lifter? By stropping them?

Pretty much just like you sharpen a knife, progressively finer grit stones, then strop to a mirror finish.

[The Major]

You know Clay, I have always been amazed at your lifted leaves. Personally, I think yours blow Jeff's away.

[ClayB]

You know Clay, I have always been amazed at your lifted leaves. Personally, I think yours blow Jeff's away.

I don't know what to say to that. Thanks Shawn.

I have step by step pictures of carving an oak leaf the way I do them someplace. I'll have to try and get them posted on here sometime.

Clay

[pete]

Clay- the close-ups look really neat. Did you use a hair blade on the leaves or is that the lines from a vertical thumbprint/pear shader?

Guess I've never looked at MY leaves under a magnifying glass!

pete

[JohnD]

I have step by step pictures of carving an oak leaf the way I do them someplace. I'll have to try and get them posted on here sometime.

Clay

I will be looking forward to this, yessir.

John