Tool pouch: progress so far

[OldCanuck]

I started on this project before Christmas. I knew it would take me a while to finish it, and it's not finished yet. Consider this a progress report. I figured that if I tell you all about it, you will hold my feet to the fire and make sure it gets done someday.

It's the outside of a triple-fold tool pouch. The design is two scenes from Rocky Mountain National Park, a lot of Colorado wildflowers, and some basketweave, all held together by some vinework which I wouldn't exactly call Western Floral, but it leans in that direction.

You've seen a photo of the wild roses on the flap before. Every blossom is from a photograph, either one I took or one I swiped from the Web.

The first panel (sorry, the photos are out of order and I can't fix it)  is a collection of some of my favorite Rocky Mountain wildflowers. Starting at one o'clock, and going clockwise, I have:

• Common western wallflower
• Indian paintbrush
• Forget-me-nots (they are tucked into several little corners)
• Wild strawberry
• Heartleaf arnica
• Blue flax
• White geranium
• Wild geranium
• Potentilla or cinquefoil
• Aspen daisies above the heartleaf arnica
• Jacob's Ladder to the left of the aspen daisies
• Wild iris to the left of Jacob's Ladder

The second panel is a tryptich, with basketweave on the left and right, and Ouzel Falls in the center.

The third panel will be finished last. It's Longs Peak and the Keyboard of the Winds, framed by columbine on the left and larkspur on the right. You may recognize the mountains from the Colorado state quarter.

It's difficult to keep the moisture content consistent on this huge piece of leather, especially in the dry Colorado winter. You will notice differences in the burnishing from spot to spot.

Feedback is welcome. I can't go back and change anything, but I can make improvements going forward, and I can use your advice in future projects.

EDITED TO ADD: I hate doing scrolls. I always messed them up when I was a kid. I don't know what possessed me to include six (SIX?!) scrolls in the vines, but there they are. I would appreciate pointers to resources on doing scrolls.

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by OldCanuck

[HandyDave]

All i can say is damn. Thats alot of beautiful carving and tooling. Makes my hands cramp looking at it. I can see why it has taken you some time to get this far and look forward to finished pics.

[Bert03241]

Lookin good now get busy and finish it LOL

[chuck123wapati]

Its a fantastic start, I love it mainly because i have seen all those wildflowers and tasted of the wild strawberries and smelled that fresh mountain air. I cant wait to see your finished indian paintbrush i have tried to come up with a workable design to tool those. But i am also following you tool pouch, i am in process of making some carving tools lol.

[alpha2]

On 2/5/2022 at 10:36 PM, Bert03241 said:

Lookin good now get busy and finish it LOL

"get busy", oh, my, Bert that's cold! That has "busy" written all over it! (I know you were kidding). Now, I'm thinking of doing one with the flowers he left out, should take about five minutes!

[Bert03241]

Didn't he say get on his case to finish them LOL , I was trying to be helpful with a gentle but firm push.

[OldCanuck]

I got all the tooling finished. Now I'm going to spend occasional evenings for the next 2-3 months dying the project and assembling it. This part here is the panel with Ouzel Falls nestled between the two basketweave pieces.

One of the photos I used as source material.

The design that resulted from the photo.

A practice version I did, to warm up my chops and to try out some techniques.

The finished panel.

When the tool pouch is closed, the flap will fold over this panel. I don't want to use a snap for closure, since the pouch may get too full for the snap to engage. So, I'm going to attach a rawhide lace or something to the flap, and wrap it around a concho on this panel. I'm still trying to decide between a metal concho and a leather one. I haven't found a metal one that I like yet, and I don't want to disrupt this scene. So I took a scrap of 9-10 oz leather and duplicated part of the design on it. The + shows where the concho will be centered, and the circle shows where I will cut out or punch out the concho.

I like the tooling on the scrap piece better. That's because I'd already practiced on two other pieces of leather before I got to this one. Oh well ...

[OldCanuck]

I saved my favourite part for last: the scene of Longs Peak and the Keyboard of the Winds, in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Here's the original source material. 

 

Here's a contemporary photo of the scene. (Not my photo; I swiped it without permission from the Web.)

 

Here's how it turned out.

Edited March 5, 2022 by OldCanuck

[battlemunky]

That's quite the endeavor Sir, looks great. I can't wait to see it as it gets dyed.

[battlemunky]

Man, you're killin' it! You gonna protect this under a flap as well? Same concho conundrum too?

[DrmCa]

Amazing ornaments!

[DrmCa]

Are you Bob Ross's reincarnation?

[alpha2]

I've got a slightly different perspective on Long's Peak from Ft. Collins, but it's still recognizable. From here you can't tell the peak is a flat top.

 

[OldCanuck]

59 minutes ago, alpha2 said:

I've got a slightly different perspective on Long's Peak from Ft. Collins, but it's still recognizable. From here you can't tell the peak is a flat top.

That is one of my favorite views of it. (Actually, every view of Looks Peak is a favorite view. It's very photogenic. )

Edited March 6, 2022 by OldCanuck

[OldCanuck]

2 hours ago, DrmCa said:

Are you Bob Ross's reincarnation?

"And let's put in another happy little tree here! Because trees like company."

[AzShooter]

That looks fantastic so far.  Can't wait to see the finished product.

[OldCanuck]

8 hours ago, Bert03241 said:

I dont see anything  new

 

:-) I put the new stuff into two other posts. Too many pictures in this one already.

[alpha2]

When I still had my plane, I could be there in about 10-15 minutes and look down at the hikers on the top, from above. I couldn't help thinking about how long it had taken them to get there! 

I never thought Pikes Peak was that photogenic. The only view I can remember is from the Springs, though.

[Northmount]

7 hours ago, OldCanuck said:

Too many pictures in this one already.

Nope!  It is better to keep related items in one thread, especially the development of a project.  I'm going to merge the threads into one and do a little cleanup.

 

[OldCanuck]

20 hours ago, Northmount said:

Nope!  It is better to keep related items in one thread, especially the development of a project.  I'm going to merge the threads into one and do a little cleanup.

 

Awesome, thank you! I will contine to add updates to this thread.

[YinTx]

Fantastic inspired effort putting that design together.  Having tooled one purse body, can confirm it is a lot of tapping to boot.

YinTx

[OldCanuck]

I got Longs Peak finished!

I temporarily lost my ambition, because I just didn't feel like mixing dyes to get the colors I needed. But I finally kicked myself in the butt and got to it.

I'm using Eco-Flow Cova Color, because that's what I'm familiar with and it will give me the desired shades. So first I made myself some color swatches.

I had done a practice piece, to get back into rhythm before I committed to carving the real thing. So I mixed up some Rocky Mountain grey (three shades, not 50) and colored the practice piece. It sucked. Sorry, bad language? Okay, it inhaled deeply. But it gave me needed practice, and it helped me figure out what to do with the real thing.

The snowfields on the practice piece were awful, and the shading was all wrong. So I did a snow study using a White-out and a photocopy of the real workpiece. And I did a shading study using my tracing pattern.

 

I'll post the rest of the pictures tomorrow.

 

Edited May 21, 2022 by OldCanuck

[OldCanuck]

One coat of the lightest grey:

Mountains are finished, first coat of sky:

All done! I used one shade of forest green on the trees. I'm not happy with it; it makes them look flat, compared ot the mountain. I'm going to go back and highlight the trees in the foreground with a different shade of green, maybe lightened with a little bit of yellow, to give them some depth.