The Ravenshold Files

Envelope style Kindle case

2011-05-13T22:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, I've been a bit scarce again, I've been trying to finish up my old project back log and that has meant I wasn't really working on anything new. Then I got a Kindle and decided I didn't like any of the commercially made cases. That lead to working out a pattern and deciding it would be cool to have something that was tooled to act as an advertisement for my business and this is the end result:

The case is made from 4 ounce tooling leather, lined with camel colored suede (I don't have any pictures of the interior so you'll have to trust me on that) and closes with two brass buckles. The tooling design comes from one of the vintage leathercraft books I've collected, in this case Designs for Tooled Leather Book II by Louise Hoeffer (second edition published in 1938). It was intended to be used on a book cover which I thought worked well on a case for a digital book. In doing the tooling I decided to go with inverted carving and finished off by painting it with Lumiere acrylic paints. The entire piece was then stained chestnut tan, the paint touched up and sealed.

The pattern worked out well so I'll be making some to add to my shop, but I'm not sure if I'll do any with carved designs. I love doing the carving but the time that goes into it means that larger tooled pieces are more expensive and that seems to put people off.

Neo-Victorian Ferns the beginning

2011-02-07T19:12:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd try something a bit different and do as close to a step by step set of pictures as I can manage on one of my larger pieces. I can't find the pictures of the early steps, prepping the design to get it ready for transferring to the leather, if I find them I will put them up as a separate entry.

This piece is one that I've wanted to make for some time now, since I saw the spiral of leaves that looked somewhat like a fern to me. It comes from the Dover book Victorian Floral Designs which is a reprint of Suggestions in Floral Designs by F. Edward Hulme originally published in 1880. Like most Dover books you can use a certain number of designs without permission and if you have an interest in Victorian design I really recommend it.

Here is the moment before I began to transfer the design to the tooling leather. The leather has been rubber cemented to poster board to keep it from stretching and deforming when it is tooled, and has been sprayed with water. I always cut the poster board at least an inch or two larger that the tooling leather on each side because it gives me enough space to staple the tracing film to it to keep the pattern in place as you see in the picture above. The next step is to trace over the design on the tracing film with a stylus which will engrave the design into the damp leather. (And yes it can end up being a lot of tracing with some projects, on this one I will end up tracing this design 7 times. )

And this is the transferred design, as you can see the ferns and lines are engraved into the leather, this will give me the guidelines I need when I start my carving and tooling. But not quite yet because I want the design to repeat across the cover so I will be transferring it 4 more times.

Garment leather cuffs

2010-08-15T15:25:00.000-07:00

Now that the August craft show is behind me I thought I'd share pictures of my newest pieces. Much like it took me forever to start doing tooled cuffs and belts I've just gotten around to making garment leather cuffs. There were a couple of reasons why, for one I had wanted to stick with mainly tooled pieces and there are a lot of people making garment leather cuffs and I felt they did it much better (and I didn't want to look like I was copying them). Then I came up with an idea to put brass filigree on leather cuffs and just couldn't figure out a way to attach the filigree to a tooling leather cuff that I was happy with so after a few failed attempts I admitted defeat and decided to try the idea on garment leather. After I had made that decision then my imagination ran away with me and I came up with all sorts of ideas to make cuffs using some of the odds and ends of hardware I've collected, so here I am with 4 done, 3 waiting to be sewn, and a bunch of strips of leather ready to be decorated and made into cuffs. (This is my main problem with my creative impulses, they tend to be on the obsessive side so I end up overdoing it.) So, for your viewing pleasure, here are the fruits of my recent creative impulses.

This was the first try at the brass stamping and filigree on leather and I was so happy with the result that I kept this one. The leather is from one of the leather sample sheets I have collected, the brass stamping and filigree I found on Etsy, it closes with two snaps and the cuff is lined with brown suede.

These two are the result of me playing around with some of the hardware I've collected. Again the leather is from sample sheets with the various hardware and straps riveted on with antique brass rivets and both cuffs close with antique brass buckles. These were a lot of fun to make, especially coming up with the way to use the lacing Ds.

This the second try at using filigree on leather. I love the look of the brass on the oxblood red leather but I'm not happy with the way the spots ended up, they were supposed to be graceful swirls and ended up pretty wonky. The upside is that I made them equally wonky so they match.

And finally this one made from a fantastic olive green deerskin I've had for a few years plus some fantastic vintage brass filigree I found on Etsy. There are four of the open rosettes spaced out across the cuff and it closed with an antique brass buckle.

What I've been doing. . .

2010-07-14T18:58:00.000-07:00

Just a selection of pictures of the things I've been working on the last couple of months.

iPod Touch Case

2010-05-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

It's been a long stretch between posts again, hasn't it? I've been working at getting some of old projects I had laying around finished, plus we had vacation at the end of April, and on top of all that Scooter had a torn cornea which has lead to an emergency vet visit, a couple of surgeries and lots of stress for me. Amidst all of that I did get a few things made.

I realized about a week before we left for vacation that I had never found a case for my iPod Touch that I liked so I decided to make one. Initially it was going to be a simple case that I was going to get cranked out quickly but then I thought it needed to look a bit nicer, so I decided to do a little decorative stitching and then it just snowballed. . .

The case is black sheepskin, lined with dark blue deerskin split. I did the decorative stitching using some old embroidery thread that had belonged to Grandma. The brand name is Nun's Boilproof Thread and after looking around on the internet it appears to be quite old, so I'm not sure where Grandma might have gotten it, possibly a garage sale or maybe from my great-grandmother. Beyond a little bit of wobble on the side seams I'm very happy with how it turned out and I can see adding this type of case to my Etsy shop.

Tendrils journal cover, completed

2010-03-14T12:38:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm finally done with it, after what, like 6 months, maybe more? It took so long because I set it aside to work on other things and never picked it back up and the most embarrassing thing is I set it aside after I'd finished the tooling which is the most time consuming part. I'm happy with the way it turned out, even if a few things aren't quite like I imagined they would be.

The biggest thing that is different than I imagined is the color of the paint I used in the tooling. It is a much more purple burgundy than I expected, but that's my fault because I didn't actually look at the paint until I started using it. The green isn't as even or as dark as I would like, but I always struggle with that problem with blue and green dyes. The uneven dye makes it look a bit older and worn though which isn't a bad thing.

So, now it's on to the next big project, I've got a few ideas but not sure which way to go yet. In the meantime I am going to try to do some tutorials, definitely one on card cases and one on embroidering on leather (and similar materials). I also may try to document a project from the beginning. We'll see, hopefully I can stick with it and actually do that.

Belts and card cases, oh my!

2010-03-02T19:01:00.000-08:00

I've mainly been working on a couple of custom pieces, an embroidered two pocket card case and a belt, and I got them done last week so here are some pictures:

The case is blue top grain leather with alternating stripes of light and medium blue embroidery done with silk floss. I got a bit silly and did the stripes on the two interior pockets as well. The case is lined with a lovely dark blue suede

The belt was made for a friend. It is 1 inch wide and stamped with a repeating diamond design that will make it easy to resize in the future.

I may try to do some little tutorial posts in the near fututure, maybe one on how I make card cases and another on doing embroidery on leather. I'm hoping that will get me to post more frequently. I am also trying to get the lattice journal, notebook cover and interlace card case sewn together so hopefully I'll have pictures of those to post soon as well.

Too many projects, so little time

2010-01-24T12:04:00.000-08:00

I took some pictures before I got started working on stuff today and I thought I'd share them.

First up is the card case and notebook cover from my last post. They are stained and sealed, I just need to get them lined and put together.

And this is a shot of the current set of projects that I'm hoping to work on a bit today. On the left a belt and key fobs that need to be stained or dyed. On the right card cases and the tendrils journal, ready to be sewn and perched on top a belt that I need to finish stamping. In the back is garment leather that needs to be cut and made into card cases. Hopefully everything goes well today and I can at least get some of it done.

Current projects

2010-01-10T13:01:00.001-08:00

These are a couple of my current projects, I got some pictures before I stained them and thought I'd share them here:

This is a notebook cover that I started before Christmas and I finally got around to working on it. The next steps will be staining and sealing it. I think I'll stain it saddle tan, but I haven't decided for sure.

This is a card case, and the stamp is a new one, I started playing around with it and got carried and here we are. The whole piece is done in the checkerboard and it will close with two straps that I also stamped to match. The next step on this one is to stain it, I'm thinking it needs to be a nice mahogany.

So. . .

2009-12-28T07:27:00.000-08:00

It's been a while hasn't it? After my last post things got a bit crazy here, I got sick twice (once with probably the flu and second time with definitely the flu), our hot water heater died on us, I went on vacation and I was trying to get ready for the holidays. Things have finally settled down, but I'm trying to get a few old projects done and out of my way before I start working on anything new. Once I'm done with that I'm planning on at least posting pictures more regularly. No promises, but that's the plan for right now.

The custom belts, the final shot

2009-10-11T14:56:00.000-07:00

And this is the belts completed. They both look fantastic, but I'm just blown away with how good the desert weeds design came out. I'm very happy with the final results over all and I can see doing both designs on belts again.

Custom belts

2009-10-03T12:49:00.001-07:00

This has been my current project, a couple of custom belts. It's been fun making them, although there was a point on the diamonds one where i wondered what I was thinking because it required a lot of stamping. The next step will be to dye the diamonds belt black and stain the desert weeds belt brown. I'm hoping to get that done tomorrow, I have more canning to do today.

Tendrils journal in living color

2009-09-27T13:09:00.001-07:00

I'm relatively happy with the end effect, the paint turned out to be much more of a purple burgundy than I expected, but I like the end effect. (It's my own fault, I had this mental image of what the color should be rather than looking at the sample the store had.) The dye, as usual, ended up being uneven and I'm still not sure if I want to go in and do touch ups. I expect it would help if i wasn't so impatient, by the time I get to this stage I really don't want to mess around with multiple light coats of dye so I guess I just need to learn to love the effect the uneven dyeing creates.

And now for something completely different --

2009-09-06T14:56:00.000-07:00

For my shop of course:

I've done a couple custom belts but this will be the first pre-made one in my shop. I'm really happy with how it turned out and I love that buckle. It's funny I put the buckle on just for the photograph but it looks so nice I'm going to keep them together. Next step will to work on more belts so this guy isn't lonely when I list him.

Then it is on to making some test run bags, a messenger style one and a small purse that I want to have done before going on vacation in December. That way I can try them out and make sure they work before I start making them to sell.

Tendrils journal cover step three

2009-09-05T17:21:00.000-07:00

I finished to tooling on the tendril journal a couple days ago and went over it last night to even out the tooling. The next step is dyeing, and I applied the first coat of dye this afternoon. Depending on how it looks when that first coat dries I may need to do another coat. Once all of that is done I will paint the tooled area. I'll definitely be sure to get a picture after all that done.

After the craft show

2009-08-17T17:36:00.000-07:00

We made it through the craft show and I guess we did OK. We didn't sell a lot but we did have some sales so it wasn't a complete bust. I really think the weather and the economy were working against us, it was cool and we mostly ended up with scattered rain showers and lots of lookers. Hopefully next year will be better, and on the plus side I have a lot of cuffs and key fobs to list.

One of the things that really worked at the show was the display rack E made for the cuffs:

It still needs a bit of tweaking to get it just right but it worked perfectly. It was pretty simple to build too, 2" by 1" pine board, some screws to attach it all and small hinges to attach the legs. Once E is done making a few changed I'm going to stain and seal it.

This is the rest of my display:

The baskets worked well for everything except the key fobs, they really needed to be out and visible so E is working out a display for them too. It will be similar to the cuff rack but will have hooks to hand the fobs.

Final push

2009-08-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

It's been a while again but I've been busy trying to get ready for the museum craft show which is tomorrow. I'm not sure how many people may have been reading last year, but this is the same show that got cancelled then due to torrential rain. So far the weather looks good, just scattered showers on the forecast so we should be fine.

Overall I think I'm ready, but there's always that little chunk of my brain which is worried about something getting forgotten. I just have to keep telling myself that it's all going to plan and to stop panicking. One thing I'm a bit disappointed about is that I didn't get as many pieces made as I had hoped. I did get a lot of smaller pieces, like cuffs and key fobs, done and maybe hopefully I'll be able to have more done for the next one. E was also nice enough to take my rambling ideas and gestures and translate them into a display for the cuffs. I put the camera in with everything so I definitely get pictures of the set up and post them. It may not be until Sunday though, I'm guessing I'm going to just collapse in a heap when I get home tomorrow.

Tendril journal, the tooling begins

2009-06-14T18:15:00.000-07:00

So, I finally made up my mind on the tooling and ended up going with doing silhouette carving. This is around 1 1/2 to 2 hours worth of tooling since I have to bevel and background the design. I'm looking at at least another 3 or 4 hours of tooling since I have to finish the rest of the beveling and backgrounding and then I'll need to go back and even out the backgrounding. This is going to be one of those projects that takes me a while. I'm really wondering what I was thinking now.

Wide cuffs

2009-06-04T20:14:00.000-07:00

A couple of new wide stamped cuffs since the other ones I had sold.

I really like the way this one turned out, the black strap on the blue is a very striking combination. I just love this little stamp too.

It's hard to tell with the strap the way the strap lays when it is buckled but the cuff is put together so that the stamped cubes alternate creating a checkerboard-like design.

Tendrils journal cover step two

2009-05-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

And here it is with the design cut. About midway through I really started to wonder if doing it in silhouette carving is the best way to go. (Coincidentally that was also about the same point my hand started cramping and I started to wonder what I was thinking when I chose this design. All of these things may or may not be connected.) If I change directions then I'll do somewhat traditional tooling and have the tendrils stand out and background the. . .well the background of the design. I'm going to let it sit a day or two and decide then.

Tendrils journal cover

2009-05-24T14:57:00.001-07:00

This is the beginning of my newest large project, the next step will be to cut the design and start tooling. (Well, after I go back and put the remaining bit of the design in on the lower right corner.) The current plan is to do silhouette carving for the tooling, dye the main part of the cover green and paint the tooled section in burgundy. Now that I have it transferred to the leather I'm wondering if it's going to turn into one of those "what was I thinking" sort of pieces.

The saga of the ginkgo wallet

2009-05-23T10:29:00.001-07:00

It looks pretty innocuous, doesn't it? Just a bi-fold wallet with ginkgo leaves. Looks can be deceiving though, this ended up being a Murphy's law project, almost everything that could go wrong did. Here are the steps the project went through:

1. Get request. Establish that the customer wants same design and colors as the ginkgo checkbook cover in shop, ID pocket on the back of the wallet, tooling on the front and the interior of the interior should have a coin purse.
2. Get sick.
3. Begin to look for ID card pocket from suppliers. Determine I can get them but they won't work for this piece so I figure out how to make my own.
4. Go to get pre-assembled wallet interior, discover that Tandy no longer carries them and doesn't even have them in of their kits so I can't scavenge one. Manager at local Tandy can't find any in the system.
5. Give customer update and then begin digging through my books to see if I can figure out how to make a coin purse. I find some possible options.
6. Spend a couple of weeks tinkering to see what is going to work to make a coin purse for wallet interior.
7. Tool, paint, stain and seal wallet exterior. Realize I'm going to have to figure out a different way to attach closure strap.
8. Sew ID pocket on and put wallet interior together.
9. Get closure strap in, line wallet, get interior in and ready to sew together. . .and realize closure strap is not long enough.
10. Pull old closure strap out.
11. Make new closure strap and then reassemble wallet pieces.
12. Finally sew wallet together.

All in all it took me almost 2 months to make what seemed like a pretty straight forward piece. The up side is that I figured out how to do a few new things. The down side is I figured out ways to do some things better as I was sewing the wallet together.

No really I'm still alive

2009-05-03T17:18:00.000-07:00

Another large gap between posts, I'm just not sure if I'm ever going to get better about that. I get these great ideas for posts and then never get around to posting.

At any rate, I had some family stuff come up and then went on vacation and I've been trying to get back on track since then. I did manage to get the small bag with the embroidered strips done but i need to re-work the design so no pictures of it yet. I have some custom pieces I've been working on and new wide stamped cuffs so hopefully I can get back to posting pictures of new stuff soon.

I'm on Twitter now too (link to the right) I'm not sure how much better I'll be to posting there but it seems to fit better with my random thought patterns.

Tree journal cover

2009-02-22T15:48:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had one of those projects where you get a point where you wonder what you were thinking? Well, this is one of those projects. I had a glimmering of that feeling as I was cutting out the tree and all those little leaves, but it didn't really hit me until I was halfway through the tooling and at that point it was way too late to stop. This is probably one of the more difficult bits of tooling that I've done just because of all the little fiddly bits.

Emboidered band

2009-02-21T15:32:00.000-08:00

This is for one of my current projects for myself, it will eventually be part of a decorative applique on a small purse. The embroidery is done in a variegated silk floss from a company called Hand Dyed Fibers. The color is called Dragon Opal and is one of my favorites from them. The leather I'm using is a pearlized grey lambskin and it's been interesting to work on, it's light weight enough that I haven't had to prepunch the holes for the needle.

Over all, this is going to be one of my trial runs for making purses using the Necchi and I'm hoping to be able to finish this project before we go on vacation at the end of March so I can give it a good test run.

Beeswax

2009-01-18T13:33:00.001-08:00

This is the end result of one of my projects this weekend. Some time ago I had bought some chunks of beeswax with the idea that I could melt it and make it into small cakes that I could use for my hand sewing and that E and A could use for waxing bow strings. Well I never got around to doing it until now. After getting some advice on the Etsy forums I broke the beeswax into smaller chunks, melted it in a quart jar in a pot of boiling water and poured it into a silicon mini muffin tin to make the cakes. It was a bit messy but worked out well. I ended up with a couple dozen little cakes of beeswax which is probably going to be enough to last me for the rest of my life with plenty to spare.

Mine, all mine

2009-01-16T17:28:00.000-08:00

The titles says it all, these are all things I made for myself. I'm really bad about wanting to make things for myself and never getting around to it so this is a big thing for me.

My personal collection o' cuffs. I'll probably end up adding to it, I love cuffs and bracelets. The black one with the spots was originally intended for the shop but I liked it so much that I kept it.

I made this case for when we travel, it's great for clipping on the outside of my carry on to keep my ID handy. When we are in Vegas I have it clipped to the strap on my purse and it's an excellent place to keep my player's club cards and a little bit of cash tips.

Woohoo!

2008-09-15T20:21:00.000-07:00

I got my Necchi BU last week and got a chance to play with it yesterday. It sews through leather like it's lightweight fabric, it's just wonderful. I got so excited that made my first project with it, this little black and purple mini Moo card case.

It's another project out of sample sheets, but these were so small I wasn't sure what I could do with them. It turns out that you can use two to make a mini Moo card case and I have slightly larger sample sheets that I can use to make similar cases for business cards. I'm also trying to work out how to make a business card case in this style with a small pocket on the front for mini Moo cards.

Best laid plans

2008-08-24T10:42:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was the craft show I had been getting ready for. I didn't have quite everything done that I wanted to do but I was in pretty good shape, a little stressed but otherwise doing good. Then the rain came. It started out innocently enough with regular rain showers in the afternoon, then moved to torrential rain in the afternoons and culminated in rain that started last Friday and didn't stop until Saturday night. The craft show, which is an outdoor one, was cancelled and not rescheduled. I'm still a bit disappointed, it's hard not to be with all the work, but I'm trying to look at the bright side. I'm ahead on making things for my Etsy shop right now and that means I'm ahead in making stuff for the holidays.

The more pleasant news is that I am getting an industrial sewing machine. It is a 1951 Necchi that has been completely reconditioned and rewired and the people I'm getting it from may be able to work on the Singer 29-4 for me too. I'm really excited, the Necchi will really help me speed up my production on garment leather items which will give me more time to work on my tooling.

Fun with sample sheets

2008-07-29T20:45:00.000-07:00

I was fortunate enough to get some leather sample sheets though a recycling group for Etsy members and I recently got around to playing with them. One of the sheets was large enough for me to get a card case and iPod sleeve. I wish I could say that I did the embroidery on the pieces but the leather came that way, the embroidery is machine stitching.

After playing with the sample sheets I had gotten through the recycling group I bought a large lot of sample sheets so I'm going to be doing more with them. They are the perfect size for a smaller piece, and they are a great way to get different colors without having to buy whole hides.

So. . .

2008-07-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

. . .would you buy the I've been busy excuse again? No? I don't blame you even though it is true, I've also been really lazy and not posting.

Right now I'm in the midst of getting things made for the craft show in August, there's a bunch o' cuffs ready to be finished waiting for me, then I need to make a batch o' key fobs, and then a need to make some wallets. To be honest this is the easy part, I'm much more worried about the show itself. I keep telling myself that if things don't sell there then I'm ahead for my Etsy shop, but I'm not doing a very good job of convincing myself.

I'll see what I can find for pictures to post for the next little bit at least.

No really, I've been busy

2008-06-13T20:09:00.000-07:00

I've been a bit lax in posting again, mainly because I was busy making a big batch of cuffs and key fobs to take into the State Museum shop. The good news is that she took all of them so I have my first wholesale contact ever, the bad news is that I was either working on them or sitting here wondering what I was thinking. I've got a few pictures to share, I've gotten new stamps in the past few months and I've been having fun playing with them.

Embroidered leather

2008-04-19T18:05:00.001-07:00

Something I started to do in the last few months is to decorate some of my garment leather pieces with embroidery. Embroidering leather is nothing new, there are a lot of examples of embroidered gloves and even shoes from the Middle Ages and Renaissance and machine embroidery is still a popular way to decorate garment leather. It being me, I do my embroidery by hand and I've been using silk embroidery floss because I love the feel of it and combination of the leather and silk. Overall, it's actually much easier than doing embroider on fabric because I have to pre-punch the stitching holes and I have to space those holes out well to avoid creating a perforated line.

This is one of my favorite embroidered pieces so far, grey and blue grey are two of my favorite colors, and they work so nicely together here.

This iPod sleeve is another favorite because the embroidery floss is a variegated pale blue and pale green so the color shifts subtly across the design.

It's so very. . .pink

2008-04-15T19:52:00.000-07:00

I frequently struggle with making only things that I like and trying to make things for a broader audience, which is something I think many artisans and craftsmen struggle with. There are times when it's harder for me than others. I prefer more subtle colors with a touch of something to draw interest rather than bright or bold colors. Somehow though I ended up with a full side of pink cowhide. It's not a pastel pink pink either, I could deal with that because while it's not my first choice it's a more subtle color. No, this is much darker shade of pink, pretty close to fuchsia which has made it hard to work with. I have no point of reference on if a piece made from it looks good or not because I'm so weirded out by the color. So, I made an iPod case case out of it:

To add to the unsettling effect I added a black applique with rhinestones and spots. Someday, maybe, I'll come to terms with the color of this leather. Until then it's going to freak me out every time I go to work with it.

Bunch 'o cuffs

2008-03-29T12:30:00.000-07:00

This is the latest batch of cuffs. I'm really having fun making them, they a nice little project to work on between bigger pieces or while I'm waiting for something to dry. It's also made me look at some of the stamps I have a bit closer and think about how I can use them so it's really given me more options as well.

Harness cuff

2008-02-22T21:09:00.000-08:00

My latest little cuff and what may be the beginning of my first line of items because they are so dang fun to make. They are a nice item that I can make at the same time as I'm working on more complicated tooling pieces. Now I just need to figure out how to do the listings. Well and make them.

Victorian design cuff

2008-01-26T13:05:00.000-08:00

One of my more recent pieces, this wristband was an interesting experiment. The tooling design is from a reprint of a Victorian book of textile designs, and I just beveled it rather than cutting and beveling. Then I painted the design lightly with metallic campaign and metallic brown paint and then stained the piece with dark brown antique. The goal was to make it look like the cuff was made out of a much older piece of leather. I think it worked well, but it's funny to consider how much time I took to make something new look old. My hope is that it would be considered somewhat steampunk with the Victorian design and the overall look.

Decorating excess

2008-01-15T19:03:00.000-08:00

In my quest for new source material for tooling patterns I've begun to delve into Victorian design books and along the way I've learned some interesting things.

The first is that it is really easy to find reprints of actual design books from that era which makes the research much easier. Being able to look at these reprints has been wonderful because I get to see the designs in their original context. This has lead me to the next thing I learned which is that the Victorians apparently decorated every decoratable surface in a room. After reading a couple of these books I'm pretty sure that if someone stood still for too long or fell asleep in the wrong place that they would get decorated too. I'm still trying to figure out if there was mixing of decorative styles, like a Neo-Greco panel design on the bottom of the wall and medieval inspired designs above, or if you tried to stick with a theme for a room. I have this sinking feeling that it was a mix and match sort of thing.

The other thing that I learned has to do with something i was told long ago. When I first started doing calligraphy and illumination in the SCA we were warned pretty strongly against using any of the Victorian designs collections as the source for illumination designs. I didn't understand it then, but I do now that I've had a chance to look at both. The Victorian source books are not collections of exact copies of any of these designs, they are collections of Victorian interpretations of those designs. That might not seem like a huge distinction but it really is because you're different aesthetics and attitudes toward colors, layout and so on. For my history geek side this has been very exciting. Ultimately though I'm hoping to get some good designs out of this and maybe to expand into doing some different things, even some vaguely steampunk-esque stuff.

I didn't think that through at all

2008-01-07T18:24:00.000-08:00

There's a back story here so bear with me. I went poking around recently and looked at the blogs of some of the people who have commented on my past entries and came across Bloggy Goodness by rexxtime. While I was looking at his pictures I was wondering where he got all the cool spots he was using on his wristbands, then I came to the entry where he mentioned Standard Rivet and I had to go look. Then I had to order some stuff, which meant trying to meet the $25 minimum order and that is damn hard when some of the spots only cost two or three cents each but I managed to do it. It wasn't until today that I took a closer look at the confirmation email and noticed it gave the total number of spots that I had ordered, which is 1150. 1150 little bits of metal I have to find a home for. Why didn't I think about that and my lack of storage space before I ordered?

The only upside is that they are small and will be easier to store than a side of tooling leather.

The downside to being creative

2007-12-27T16:50:00.000-08:00

Actually there are several downsides to it. The first is that it can be hard to fit it into your life, and a lot of times other things suffer because you have to give something up. The biggest downside, at least for me, is storing supplies. On average a side of cowhide runs about 24 square feet (a full hide averages around 50 square feet) and ideally you should store the leather flat. If you don't have the room to do that, it has to be stored in rolls because it's too stiff to fold unless it is a thin garment leather. To protect the leather and keep it as clean as possible I will leave it in the boxes that it is shipped in which adds to the problem. To illustrate here are some pictures of my storage area:

On the left are the leather boxes. The front one has a tooling side in it, the large box means it is rolled a bit looser and that makes it easier to flatten out. On the right is a set of metal shelves that holds my shipping supplies, paints, dyes and a bin with larger lightweight pieces of leather. Right now I have another side of tooling leather in the same size box I need to fit in the closet.

A closer shot showing a bit of the boxes that are hiding behind the big one.

An even closer shot, each of the other boxes has a large piece of leather in it, the short box in the forefront has a full hide of teal cowhide nubuck in it.

I love working with leather, but there are days that I wonder why I didn't get into something that takes up less space.

Falling leaves

2007-10-20T16:29:00.000-07:00

I thought since I had griped about it in my last entry I would post pictures of the finished piece.

In the end I'm happy with how it turned out, and I got second place in the design challenge, but I'm still frustrated with the failed resist. I guess I'm going to have to do some test pieces so I can figure out what went wrong.

Gah!

2007-10-09T17:58:00.000-07:00

I am in the midst of working on a journal cover for the autumn design challenge that is being put on by one of the teams I am part of on Etsy. Things were going well, I had a great design of falling leaves, the tooling turned out great and I had colored the leaves by applying layers of dye creating a realistic look. The plan was to apply resist to the leaves to protect the color and then antique the piece. Unfortunately it didn't work that way, for what ever reason the finish I applies as the resist failed and everything antiqued. This means that I went from this:

To this:

A little bit of the dye shows through the antique, but I'm not really thrilled with the effect because it makes the leaves look muddy (and diseased for the ones with a lot of green) rather than realistic so I was forced to back up and come up with a new plan. Luckily my old standby of copper paint seems to have worked well, but I'm still disappointed. For one I wanted to do realistic leaves and two I don't want to end up using the copper and brown combination too much.

MOO cards!

2007-10-02T17:44:00.000-07:00

I got my new MOO mini cards in the mail over the weekend and I am very excited. For those who might not be familiar with them MOO mini cards are smaller than a standard business cards and you can put your own pictures on them. People trade them, use them as calling cards , use them as business cards, and a million other things. I had gotten some a while ago and had used them as business cards for a while, and hadn't really thought about MOO cards until they came up on the Etsy forums. I went to the MOO site and started looking at the setup for the cards again and realized that they could solve one of the problems I had run into because there was the option to do free text and to have no icons or the flickr logo on them. What I did was to make MOO mini cards with pictures of my work on one side and leather and suede care instructions on the other.

They turned out to be perfect, they are uniquely mine because of the pictures, the printed care instructions are easy to read and professional looking, and most importantly I don't have to write the care instructions out on paper tags by hand. This will be a huge time saver for me.

For more information on MOO mini cards, plus their other cool products, stop by MOO.com.

Well, that was interesting

2007-09-23T17:33:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on getting the right technique for working with the new Tandy stains, but so far I've gotten to the point where even if the piece doesn't turn out exactly like I expected I still get a good end effect.

The tooling design here is adapted from a belt design from Al Stohlman and is done in silhouette carving. The stain color is raisin mahogany and I really love the way it worked with the carving. I still haven't worked out how to get a good solid color on an entire piece yet but I like the fade in effect I ended up with here.

This one features something a bit different I came up with the tooling pattern myself. It's a doodle I did during a long meeting for work and it turned out nicely with the inverted carving. The stain color is dusty pink, and it is much pinker than I expected, i was thinking it would be more of a rose color. At any rate it turned out well, although I think next time I do something like this that I'll do a resist on the leaves and maybe the flower.

Yeah, I've been slacking off

2007-09-22T19:54:00.000-07:00

It has been a while hasn't it? Does it make it any better if I say I've been busy? I has the craft show last month, then went on the road for a week with my day job, and then I've had a bunch of sales in my Etsy shop so I've been trying to get more stuff made. I've also been working on some new things, including wallets and checkbook covers. I'll try to do a more detailed post tomorrow on some of my new tooled pieces, but here are a few of the new things I've been working on.

Red top grain cowhide embellished with lines of stitching with silk embroidery floss and rhinestone spots.

Teal nubuck leather card case decorated with lines of black silk embroidery. This is the first one I did with just embroidery as an embellishment and I really like the effect. I'm working on making some with more intricate embroidered designs.

My first wallet. It worked out pretty well, but I'm not happy with the interior. I need to work out how to get the sewing machine set the right way to sew the interiors together so I've ordered some pre-made interiors for the tooled wallets that I want to make.

New card case

2007-08-10T19:07:00.000-07:00

This is my second try at this design, I ran into problems with the finish and what it did to the stain. It didn't quite work out the way I had wanted on this one either, but the color is a lot more even across the whole piece here. The first one looked like two different projects had been cobbled together. The problem is that the stain tends to sit on top of the leather a bit and if you get too much finish on a piece it picks it up and you get patterns that look like water staining where it pools. It isn't a bad effect, just not what I was I was hoping for on this piece.

This is a close up of the tooling on the front. It is silhouette carving and the design is one of the ones from Al Stohlman's book on inverted and silhouette carving. I really like the look of these scroll designs so I expect I'll be doing more of them in the future.

Features and other things

2007-08-06T19:20:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to do a quick update of sorts.

First off I was featured on The Art of Craft blog starting this last Sunday, which I was very excited about. Along with running a blog that promotes crafts people and offers tips for selling your work they run a wonderful shop on Etsy Q Branch Ltd.. I'm particularly impressed with the needle cases that they have, I got a plain one for my leatherworking needles, but they have ones that have spaces for thread so you can have a sturdy and attractive sewing kit to carry with you. Please take a look at their blog and store!

Second, I'm done with the large custom item I was working on and hope to post pictures of it and a few other pieces later this week. Hopefully I can get more thoughts on the new stains as well since I've gotten a few more colors.

Finally, he craft show we have done the past few years is this coming Saturday so I'm trying to get ready for that which is going to make everything a bit crazy for a while.

Very excited

2007-07-28T11:06:00.000-07:00

This may not look like much to anyone else, but I am really excited about it. The other night I pulled out my reliable old Singer and did some fiddling around with it and discovered that I can sew the garment leathers I've been working with on it. (The picture is my test pieces.) That is going to make the custom piece I'm working on so much easier, and it means that putting together bags will be easier too. All I need to do is go get heavier thread in more colors and some more bobbins and I'm set. I just hope I can find what I need here since we have no fabric stores at this point, otherwise I have to order stuff and wait.

Six letter syndrome

2007-07-26T18:57:00.000-07:00

I think I posted here or in my other blog on what my husband and I call 6 letter syndrome, which where you can't stop at saying 'No' you have to keep going and add those other 6 letters which means you end up saying 'No. . .problem' instead. I get myself into a lot of trouble with that, but at the same time it also makes me push my boundaries and learn more. Well, I've done it again and now I have to try to figure out how to do a project and hope it works. And hope my hands survive the attempt. I have got to get the 29-4 up and working so I can lean how to use it. I'll still have to hand sew the tooled pieces but the machine will speed up the garment leather one. I will of course post pictures when I'm done.

In the meantime here is a picture of one of my recent projects which is a bit more experimenting with the new stains.

The leaf is from a book on Japanese textile designs and I think it is a stylized ginkgo biloba leaf.

On sales and liking what you make

2007-07-24T17:11:00.000-07:00

I had a large sale from my Etsy store yesterday, one of my largest ones to date, and it got me thinking about a few things. One is that while I love everything I make I never stay too attached to any of it. If I really wanted any of them I would just keep them or make one of my own so it doesn't bother me to send them off into the world. I'm not sure why I feel that way at all, but it works for me so I'm not going to worry about it. I just tend to be very nervous while they are in transit and I worry about if the other person will like it or not. I also realized that I have a tendency to end up making one of a kind pieces just because I get bored using the same tooling designs and stamping designs, but I don't want to specifically market anything that way beyond ACEOs because I don't want to be tied down, I want the option to reuse a design if I want to. This isn't something I every consciously decided to do, it just happens to be the way I ended up doing it. Is it just part of the way I am or is it connected to the craft I do? I'm not sure at all, but it makes for a nice of philosophical thought oin a Tuesday evening.

More experimenting

2007-07-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

I think I'm slowly getting the hang of the new stains, but it's going to be a while before I get it perfected. I have figured out a few tips for using the new Eco-Flo Hi-Lite stains from Tandy:

1. you can't be afraid to really rub it into the leather otherwise you don't get good even color
2. it works a lot better to apply it with a rag because you can get better pressure
3. trying to apply it with gloves on is nearly, but not quite, impossible
4. definitely wait to apply more of the stain until the first coat is dry because you run the risk of disturbing the initial coat
5. when the instructions say apply one coat of finish and let it dry before applying a second coat, they really mean it

All in all, though I am just loving this stain because of the colors. Below is another one of my test pieces, and I'm really thrilled with how such a simple stamped design turned out in the blue.

This is exactly what I had wanted every time I griped about how frustrating it was to only have black and different shades of brown available in antiques.

Small journal cover

2007-07-15T11:08:00.001-07:00

This is another piece I finished recently, and I think it came out quite nicely.

The tooling is based on a Persian embroidery design, and was done in the inverted carving style. This was a test piece for some of the newer metallic acrylic paints that I've gotten and they worked well, although I think I may need to start doing a number of light layers to get good coverage with the paint. This one just closes with a deer lace that wraps around a metal button which is a lot easier to set up than the bead toggle closure so I may end up using this style in the future.

Bamboo ACEO

2007-07-14T20:20:00.000-07:00

This piece is my first full scale try on the new stains over paint.

Above is the piece after it was painted. I chose this design because I've wanted to use it for a while now and it seemed like it would look nice with the green tea stain. The design itself is based on a Japanese textile design and I did basic inverted carving on it. The paint is a metallic brown for the trunk and metallic moss green for the leaves.

This is the piece after being stained. It's not perfect because I didn't realize that you have to rub the stain into the leather to get it to take well so it is uneven and shifted around when I put the finish on, but it's not too bad. I think it's interesting that it makes the tooled portions look like they have verdigris on them, that may be something to keep in mind for later projects.

The final verdict for the initial trial

2007-07-04T15:38:00.000-07:00

The pieces have dried and I've gotten the finish put on them and all in all I think everything went well. I did discover while putting on the finish that it is very easy to pull the stain up off the leather and out of impressions when the finish is applied which means that neither piece has quite as even of staining now as it did in the initial picture. The same thing happens with antique but not to this extent, so I'm going to have to sort out if it was not leaving the pieces to sit and dry long enough between steps or the applying the finish with a sponge brush that did it.

Stain test project pictures

2007-07-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

OK, here are pictures of the first two pieces that I tried the stain out on. On the left is a stamped piece stained with sky blue, on the right is a piece with a cut designs stained with thistle purple.

The sky blue piece was made out of a piece of tooling leather with a darker tone and I think that is effecting the color of the final piece, but I do like the end effect. I think I need to do another test piece for the blue out of lighter leather to see how it turns out.

Squeeeee!

2007-07-04T12:12:00.000-07:00

The new stains arrived yesterday and so far they are working exactly like I had hoped, a lot like the antiques I usually use. The only issue I have found so far is that if you are using the lighter colored stained on tooling leather that is sunburned or a bit darker in color the stain will not cover it as well and that darker base color will show through. It's not bad as long as you know about it and I think I can use that fact to create some cool effects. I am waiting on a stamped test piece and a cut design test piece to dry then I can finish them and get some pictures to post. I also got an ACEO tooled and painted to see how the stains work over that. Based on a discussion with another seller on Etsy I may try to use these stains as a wash over a dyed piece as well, but I'm going to need to get the right design for that.

The iPod case kit is not quite what I was hoping for, unfortunately. I think it may still help me with working out my own pattern so it isn't a complete loss though.

Fun, new and interesting

2007-06-27T20:51:00.000-07:00

I made it back from my weekend trip OK, although I wondered a bit with the heat. The craft show went OK according to A, we had some sales at least and I think it was enough to pay for the show fee. Now that all of that is done I can get back into making things and I'm really excited about some of the projects I have planned. One of them, thanks to a suggestion from another seller on Etsy, is to try to make full sized wallets. I think I have a plan and a pattern worked out for those, the next step will be to get the leather for the interior and do a trial run. The other is iPod, and possibly iPod Nano, cases. I've been trying to work on this one for a bit now and I haven't had a huge amount of luck with getting a workable pattern, but I see Tandy has kits for both now so I'm looking at getting one just to see what they came up with and maybe it'll help me sort out my pattern. I also have ideas for embellishing the garment leather card cases I make and maybe working on some bags.

Something else I'm quite excited about is that Tandy is coming out with a new line of dyes, paints, finishes and stains. For one they are supposed to be more environmentally friendly which I like, but the most exciting thing is that one product appears to work somewhat like the antique stains I use now, but comes in more colors so I'm not stuck with the same old browns and blacks I've been using. I'm planning on getting some to try after payday so there will probably be many experimental projects to post pictures of and I may talk about my impressions of these new stains too.

Monogramed card case

2007-06-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

I was asked to do a monogrammed card case and this is almost, but not quite, the end result. his picture is about mid-way through the process, but it is a nice shot of the monogram itself, plus I didn't remember to get a picture of the finished piece before I mailed it off. The monogram itself is done in Lombardic capitals, tooled and then painted with metallic pewter paint while the rest of the piece is dyed black. I had to laugh at myself while I was getting ready to start the tooling, I didn't like any of the common alphabet styles for the monogram so I ended up looking through The Art of Calligraphy by David Harris trying to find something I liked. I think the moral there is that you shouldn't ask someone who dabbled in calligraphy to monogram something because you never know what you'll get.

Yes, I know

2007-06-07T17:48:00.000-07:00

I'm getting behind on updates and I'm haven't tagged anyone yet. I have to admit that the latter is because I hate to impose on anyone that way especially people I don't feel like I know really well. I still haven't managed to get over things like that.

On the updates I'm in the middle of getting a commissioned piece done so everything else had been put on hold for a bit. After this is done (and I will post pictures) then I need to get going on making a bunch of lanyards since A agreed to having them with the jewelry for out little business, and I only have 7 made with the first show in a couple of weeks. Yeah, it's somewhat poor planning on my part, but I figure I can really hit it over the next few weeks and get a few more made and then work on getting even more made for the August show. I have got to work on managing my time better, I've gotten back into doing leather work to the extent I keep ignoring working on lanyards.

Inadequacy and disconnect

2007-05-31T16:13:00.000-07:00

I was off from work today to go to several appointments and while I was out I stopped and picked up the latest edition of Craft: and as usual I'm struck with a combination of feelings looking at it. First I'm really thrilled with the fact that it has become cool to make things again and I'm amazed at the skills of the people that they feature. At the same time I feel a bit down because it doesn't seem like anyone feels that working with leather in any form can be a part of this movement. Is that most people that leatherwork can only be Western style tooling or stamped stuff that you mad a camp? Is it the whole 'working with leather is icky' thing? Is it because most leatherwork is functional and therefore doesn't end up being or can't be as edgy as other crafts?I don't know, but I find it really frustrating.

Something that added to this frustration was looking over the information for a series that ran last night on PBS, Craft in America. I wasn't able to see the shows so I was looking over the site and discovered they didn't feature any leatherworkers. Again, I have no idea why, since it is a craft that has continued especially out here in the Rocky Mountain region.

So, what to do about it? I can write letters and make suggestions but will that be effective? I don't feel like I have enough of a presence to really make an impression, but would it hurt, I have no idea. All I know for sure is that I'm starting to feel like someone has to do it or we'll be stuck in the shadows like this forever and eventually get lost because we missed the bus. The question really is, can my usual tendency to be the person to do something because it needs to be done overcome my desire to stay out of the limelight.

New supplies

2007-05-28T10:15:00.000-07:00

I'm really excited over the last couple of weeks I've gotten some great new stuff to work with. First off, I found a source for 100% linen thread in a wide range of colors. I have to wax it before I sew with it but it works perfectly and it's nice to be able to have a matching thread for a change rather than being stuck with black or brown.

I also got some very cool leather.

On the left is a moss green pig suede. It's a bit heavier than I expected so I won't be able to use it for linings, but it is such a nice piece of leather it will work well on it's own. On the right is a dark green top grain leather. It was listed as 'dragonskin green' and I think that's a really good description because it had an unusual wrinkly texture and the green is darker at the bottom of the wrinkles. It's exactly what you would expect dragon skin (for a non scaly dragon) to look like or even dinosaur skin to look like. Both at going to be fun leather to work with.

Stamped journal cover

2007-05-20T16:50:00.000-07:00

My latest large project was this journal cover which I finished sewing together last night.

I used my 14th century lattice design stamp and stamped three rows from the top and bottom stitching grooves towards the middle of the piece and staggered where each row ended on the front. The piece was dyed with oil dye and closes with a strap and brass buckle.

The cover is lined with red deerskin suede and hand-sewed together with black linen thread. It is large enough to hold a standard 5" x 7" refill journal.

Apparently I've been tagged

2007-05-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

Last night, while I wasn't looking I got tagged by K M Rani

The rules are:

1) State 7 random facts/habits about myself on my blog
2) Tag 7 other people by leaving a comment to that effect on their blogs;
3) And ask them to have a look at my blog to read the rules of the Tag game.

The first one will be easy, the rest are going to be a bit harder, I'm not sure if I know 7 people with blogs. (Or 7 people with blogs who haven't been tagged yet.) At any rate, since I'm waiting for leather to get to the right stage to stamp, here my 7 random facts:

1. I have bachelor's and master's degrees in international studies focusing on Eastern and Central Europe.

2. I spent a semester studying in Hungary and while there did my one big trip over spring break, I went to Prague. I always liked telling people that because it seemed so much more exotic than going to Florida or Cancun.

3. I am told I make killer dill pickles and dill pickle relish, if so I give all the credit for it to my Grandmother because she taught me how.

4. I like to take medieval recipes and work them out to a point where I can cook from them. Don't believe what you hear in your history classes, not all medieval food was weird and they didn't eat brown sludge, they actually made some darn good food.

5. I prefer to stay on the edges of things and watch, plus I have a level of social anxiety so I seem really shy and aloof, but if you get me talking I will ramble on forever about things. I think I like to stay on the edges of things because I know the tendency to ramble bores people to tears.

6. Given the option I'd never leave the house, I'd jut stay here and make stuff and correspond with people by the internet.

7. If I could I would get more cats, but I know the ones we have keep me busy, so I don't.

So, now I need to find 7 people to tag, which I'll try to do in the next week.

Leather carving and creativity

2007-05-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

I've touched on this before when talking about copying but not in a lot of detail so I thought I'd expand on it. (Yes, this is to make up for the fact I haven't got any new projects done to post pictures, why do you ask?)

A I mentioned in a previous post it is very common in leatherwork to use tooling patterns that were designed by someone else. This is not as bad or as sinister as it may sound. For one, it's hard to get a tooling pattern to fit on a the piece you are making and second, a tooling pattern is just a clear black and white line drawing, while there might be recommendations for tools you can tool it however you want to. As and example, this is a free tooling pattern from Tandy Leather Factory and this is the completed example with recommended tools. That is all you get and because this is an old pattern, not all of the tools are available anymore so there is no way to come up with an exact copy of the original. This is one of the reasons why copying a design or working off of copyright free or public domain images doesn't bother me at all. Another is the difference in mindset between the arts and the crafts. In the arts being unique is important while in the crafts the function of the item is more important. Since I am a craftsman my focus is on the function. Finally, there is the issue of time. As it is it takes me a good amount of time to make a carved piece between the actual carving, dying, finishing and hand sewing the piece together, having to draw up my own tooling designs would just add to how long it takes me to get anything done which would raise my stress level. Maybe someday I'll try drawing my own tooling patterns when I've got a good rhythm down for making stuff, but maybe not, it just isn't a big issue for me.

A few little things

2007-05-04T18:46:00.000-07:00

I haven't gotten any big projects made lately but I have gotten a few smaller ones done, including these card cases out of some of the new leather I've gotten recently.

The red leather was really a big step outside my comfort zone but I'm really happy with how it looks and it is fantastic to work with. This case is lined with black pig suede.

The taupe is from a lot I bought of upholstery "scrap". (I'm using quotes here because I wouldn't call a lot of it scrap at all, one of the pieces is close to a third of a hide.) This one is lined with a nice burgundy pig suede.

Big plans and the quesion of copying

2007-05-01T18:44:00.000-07:00

Last night I had one of those amazing ideas for a Big Project and now I'm trying to sort out of I really want to try to do it. The idea is to do a tooled picture that is a recreation of a page from the Book of Kells. The scary part is that I could do it, it would just be a project that required a lot of breaks, and I even have good black and white line drawings of several of the pages to work from. That is what leads me into discussing copying. Copying is a huge issue at Etsy and to be honest I just don't get it. For one, barring something really groundbreaking it is entirely possible for more than one person to come up with similar ideas. Second, a lot of leather tooling uses other people's designs to some extent. You an get all sorts of pattern books and craft aids and even free tip sheets that have tooling designs you can use however you want with no problems. To be honest, even though I don't do the standard designs I'm still copying somewhat, I just happen to be using designs drawn from manuscripts, textiles, and ceramics. I think that's why I tend to think of myself as a craftsman more than an artist.

Calluses

2007-04-11T18:46:00.000-07:00

I hand sew leather pieces. Part of it is because I haven't been able to get my Singer 29-4 working quite yet, but the rest is because it makes it easier to work on things while watching TV or at SCA events. One of the side effects is that I develop and interesting set of calluses on my hands and fingers. I hadn't realized that I had been sewing leather enough lately to develop the callus well, but I discovered tonight that I must have. While I was cutting part of dinner tonight, slipped and pushed the pad of one of my fingers firmly onto a hot baking sheet. I looked just a bit ago and I can't even tell which finger it happened to because they all look normal.

I'm still not sure if this is a good thing or not.

Leather Lingo - Silhouette Carving

2007-04-03T18:39:00.000-07:00

Silhouette carving is the other main type of tooling that I do.

Silhouette carving starts with a simple design that would work well as a silhouette. One thing that I've found that works particularly well are stencils because they are designed to create the design using painted and unpainted areas. As with the other projects I began by transferring the design and cutting it with the swivel knife. You then bevel in as if you are doing inverted carving. The above picture shows the design at the point where I've beveled the left half of it.

The next step is to flatten the entire design with backgrounding tools. The goal is to get all of the design evenly tamped down, which takes a bit of work. After the backgrounding is done the piece is allowed to dry.

There are two recommended methods of coloring silhouette carving. The first is to either paint or dye the silhouette in a dark color and leave the rest of the leather unfinished or lightly colored. The second is to dye the piece a dark color and paint the silhouette in white. Because I like to be contrary I decided to color this pieces following the second method, for the most part. I dyed the piece with black dye and painted the butterfly silhouette with light purple acrylic paint and then applied an acrylic finish.

Leather Lingo: Inverted carving

2007-04-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

Inverted is really what the name implies, it is leather carving that is done the opposite way regular carving and tooling is done.

The first step, as with all tooling projects, is to prepare the piece of leather. This piece is card case so I started out by cutting the stitching groove around the edge so that I can center the design appropriately and then beveling the edges of the piece. The next step is to use rubber cement to attach the leather to a piece of poster board. I don't do this step with all tooling projects, but in this case I did because I am working with a lighter weight leather and the tooling could cause it to distort which could be a problem.

To transfer the design I first trace it onto tracing film, which you can see on the left side of the picture, and dampen the leather and then staple the tracing film to the poster board to keep it in place. Then I used a stylus to go over the lines of the design on the tracing film which engraves it into the damp leather.

This is a shot of the stylus I use and a close up of the design after it had been transferred. The next step is to cut the design using a swivel knife. First I make sure the leather is still the correct level of dampness and then begin cutting. The key is to use a light hand hand because you can cut all the way through light weight leathers with a sharp swivel knife.

Above you can see the piece after I've completed cutting the design. You may notice that the circles in the center of the flowers look a bit different. I am awful at cutting circles with a swivel knife so I used a plain round seeder stamp to make the center of the flowers. Once the design is cut I dampened the leather again and began tooling the design.

In inverted carving rather than bevelling away from the design, you bevel into it. On this particular design I beveled around the edges of the leaves and around each of the petals of the flowers with a patterned beveler which gives the leather a bit of texture. To give the leaves some dimension I beveled along the center line with a plain beveler. since the center line was not cut it doesn't create as deep of a bevel but it does make the leaf look like it has a central vein. Finally I used a modelling spoon to open up the cut vines between the flowers. After all of the tooling was done I set the piece aside to dry overnight.

The next day the leather was dry and I moved on to painting the design in metallic acrylic paints in green, rose pink and gold. The key I've found it to use thin coats, in part because it allows the paint to stay flexible, but also because it keeps the texture from the tooling from getting covered up. Once the paint is applied I let it dry overnight before moving to the next step.

The next step is applying the antique stain. The particular antique I use is a thick liquid which you apply, let sit and then remove with a a damp sponge. The removal portion is a pretty messy process because you have to keep rinsing the sponge out, and while I'm careful to keep from getting it on the table, I usually manage to stain my hands.

Above is the piece with the antique removed (and a shot of the sponge I used). This is the point where you can see why it is important to open up the cut vines, it allows more of the antique to fall into them making them stand out more. That is also why it can help to use textured bevelers, they catch the antique and pull it into the areas that have been beveled down which highlights the design. Now that the staining is done the piece has to go and sit overnight again so it is completely dry before the finish is applied.

And here is the piece with the finish applied. The final steps will be to add the closure straps and lining then to sew the pocket into the piece

Best laid plans

2007-03-26T21:04:00.000-07:00

Yes, I was supposed to add more on other tooling styles, but I ran into a small problem. I have a really good series of pictures on doing silhouette carving, but no step by step pictures on inverted carving. I'm in the process of working on a piece and taking pictures as I go so I'll have a good run down on all the steps. I'll probably end up doing it as a several entries and hopefully will get the first part of it posted by this weekend depending on time constraints.

Leather Lingo - the tooling process

2007-03-10T10:45:00.000-08:00

Today I'm going to talk about the process I go through when I do leather tooling. I've gotten pictures of pieces in process so this will be a picture heavy entry.

The first step is to case the leather. This requires dampening the leather and letting it dry a bit so that it feels cool and slightly damp to the touch. You then transfer the design to the leather using tracing film and a stylus. (No pictures of this right now, but I may add some later.)

The next step is to cut the design into the leather with a swivel knife. Below you can see a design that has been cut.

The next step for a piece that is being done using standard tooling is to bevel the design using a bevelling tool. A beveler is somewhat wedge shaped and presses the leather down where it is used. In standard tooling the process is used to make the design stand out. Next I use a backgrounding tool to press down the background of the design. Below is a piece that has been bevelled and the backgrouning has been started on. If you look at the left side of the picture you can see how the beveling has been done to make the interlaced beasts and the boarder stand up from the rest of the piece. Starting with this picture I'll be following a specific piece all the way through the rest of the tooling and finishing process.

The following picture shows the piece after the backgrounding has been completed. As you can see everything except the interlace design and the border has been compressed. The next step is to let the piece dry completely so it can be colored.

Once the piece is dry you can move on to coloring it. In this case I painted the interlaced beasts with acrylic leather paint. (You can use regular acrylic paint, but I prefer the leather paints because they are a bit thinner and seem to bond to the leather a bit better. ) Once the painting is done, you let the piece sit to make sure the paint is completely dry before moving on to the next step.

The next step for this piece is to apply antique stain. Leather antique works by falling into the lower parts of the leather, particularly tooled areas. I generally prefer to use antique because it creates an interesting effect on large pieces. As you can see in the picture below the antique I use is a thick liquid, you apply it to the piece and let it sit, then remove it using a damp sponge.

After the antique is removed and the piece dries, the next step would be to touch up the paint if it is needed. In this case i needed to touch up the light purple on the bird because the antique had discolored it pretty badly in places. Once the tough ups are done this is the effect you have. As you can see the color is darker in the portions that I backgrounded and into the portions of the interlace designs that are lower.

The final step is to apply the finish to the piece. For this piece the back and sides are sealed with a wax finish that is forced into the leather using a scrap of denim and the front is sealed with an acrylic finish.

Next time I'll discuss the other styles of tooling I do, again with pictures of some recent pieces.

My first ACEO

2007-03-03T09:25:00.000-08:00

I am trying something new for my Etsy store, I'm making ACEOs. ACEO stands for Art Cards, Editions, and Originals and is a small piece of collectable art. The only rule fo them is that they have to be 2.5 by 2.3 inches. It's interesting to be working on that small of scale and I'm finding that they are a nice way to try out new techniques or materials. My first one was pretty simple, it's just a stamped and engraved piece.

Of course I had to be silly and use my medieval stamps and the iron oxide dye but it really is a simple design. The one I'm working on right now is a tooled interlace design.

I'm still planning on continuing my series of pieces on doing leatherwork, I'm just adjusting it a bit. It occurred to me that it would be good to get pictures of the different tooling techiques so it made more sense so I'm working on that right now. I may just go ahead and talk about dyes and finishes while I'm doing that, but I have't decided yet.

A short interlude

2007-02-10T17:51:00.000-08:00

Life has been really weird here so I haven't really felt up to continuing the leather lingo entries. However I thought during the brief intermission I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of my latest leather project, a stamped card case.

Leather lingo - types of leather

2007-02-03T11:58:00.000-08:00

It has occurred to me that people who might be reading this blog may not know all the leather types I talk about or the leather working terms I use, so I'm going to try to a few entries on that. I'm to start with the different types of leather.

One of the things you'll notice that I do is differentiate between tooling leather and garment leathers. This has to do with the way they are tanned and finished. Tooling leather is vegetable tanned, that is tanned through a process using plants high in tannin like oak and this tanning process is what allows you to tool and stamp vegetable tanned leather and also allows you to wet form this type of leather. Vegetable tanned leather is not dyed and does not have a finish applied to it, that is done after you have completed tooling or stamping it. Garment leathers are prepared in several ways and come in several different styles. The ones I use are chrome tanned top grain leathers, suedes and sueded splits. (Hides are usually thinned during the tanning process and the split is the part that is shaved off at that time. A split has no grain side at all, both side are sueded.) The main thing to know about them is that they have been dyed and finished and can't be tooled and probably shouldn't be redyed.

One of the other products I wanted to mention is rawhide. I've run into a lot of confusion about what constitutes rawhide over the years. Rawhide is exactly what the name implies, an untanned hide. It is not suede and it is not a hair on hide both of which are completely tanned.

I also try to mention the animal the hide came from if I know. Part of that is I want to be completely up front about the materials I use but the rest is that each type has it's own special characteristics. Cow hide is the most versatile it can be dyed and finished to look like almost any other type of hide. Pigskin is thin, has a distinctive look due to the pore structure, is very strong for its weight and is usually washable. Deerskin is soft, easy to work with and is a slight stretch to it. Elk hide is also stretchy but is heavier.

Next I'll talk a bit about working with vegetable tanned leather.

A few new pieces

2007-01-25T18:20:00.000-08:00

A few new pictures to share since I couldn't figure out a way to take pictures for a lanyard tutorial by myself. (E is out of town for work this week.) I'm sure there is a timer on the camera, but I haven't figured out where it is yet.

This is another custom lanyard for one of the supervisors at work. I really like the way it turned out, it's very elegant. After making it I'm really tempted to do one for myself in black an silver.

This piece features the four wind mahjong tile beads strung with sky blue quartz and white lace agate. I think this is my favorite bracelet of the ones I've made recently.

This was an intersting experiment, oval mother of pearl beads with emerald roundelles. It doesn't look bad, but I'm still not sure about the combination.

Completed floral journal cover (finally)

2007-01-21T14:24:00.000-08:00

I finally got the journal cover I started on last weekend finished.

Exterior shot showing the tooling and the button closure on the front. I'm still really happy with how the tooling turned out, but the pictures in natural light are making me notice all the tool marks from the beveler that I didn't get smoothed out.

Interior shot of the piece. It is lined with rust pigskin split and the journal is held in with straps of slightly lighter tooling leather. This is not actually the original plan, originally I had planned on having a pocket one each side of the journal, but I cut the main piece too short and there was no way to follow that plan and use a 5" x 7" journal refill in it. I didn't want to use a smaller refill because it didn't fit as nicely so I had to come up with an alternate plan.

I think it turned out nicely in the end but I'm still a bit frustrated with the problems I had because they were caused by me not thinking ahead.

Latest leatherwork project

2007-01-15T19:37:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I got started on a leather journal and I'm so excited about how the tooling turned out that I'm not waiting until the project is done done to talk about it.

The design is an Eastern European folk design and I decided to try inverted tooling rather than regular tooling. In inverted tooling you cut the design as normal, but bevel into the design rather than beveling out from the design. It creates an interesting texture and is really well suited to this type of design. I got the idea to try it from this older tip sheet by Al Stohlman which features a Pennsylvania Dutch folk design. On a whim, I decided to try copper paint on the design before I antiqued the piece expecting the copper paint to end up being very muted. It didn't and even though it didn't end up the way I had expected I am really thrilled with the effect. The whole thing has got me really fired up about doing leatherwork again.

A few new lanyards

2007-01-07T11:39:00.000-08:00

Lately I'm been working on lanyards, mostly because I got a lot of orders after I started wearing mine at work. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of all of the ones I made, but I did get pictures of a few.

I made this one for A for Christmas. It is made, like all of the lanyards I've done so far, out of glass and silver plated beads with silver plated findings. This was done with the addition of a parrot charm on the swivel hook.

This is a lanyard that I made for one of my co-workers. Again it's done with glass and silver plated beads and she had picked out the beads she wanted me to use. I really wasn't sure how the design was going to work out because I wasn't too sure how the beads would look together, but it came out very nice. Nice enough that another co-worker decided she wanted on in similar colors.

This last one is one I made for my Etsy store. Again it is all silver plated and glass beads, even the ones that look a bit like hematite. On this one I set the design up so I could use as many of the lilac luster beads a possible because I accidentally ordered them twice.

No. . .problem I can make that

2006-12-21T12:29:00.000-08:00

We call the tendency to not be able to just say no as seven letter syndrome because you end up saying 'no problem' rather than 'no'. Mom called a week before we left on vacation to ask if I could help her out by making a couple of bracelets because he gifts she had ordered for my second cousins were not going to work. Since I am a good daughter, and I have that seven letter syndrome, I said sure and ended up spending a good chunk of that wee alternating between trying to work out the bracelet designs and get ready for our trip. The final results were both made with glass and sterling silver beads, silver charms and findings and are strung on Accuflex wire.

This one has a mix of Thai Karen Hilltribe heart charms and sterling silver puffed heart charms. The beads are a combination of two different types, the bicone beads are milk glass beads, and the round pink beads are Czech druk beads. It closes with a silver heart shaped lobster claw clasp. This was the more challenging design because I had a hard time getting the design to work out and having the bracelet be the right length. It took three tries to get it right and of couse it was the one I worked on last on the day I had to get it delivered to Mom.

This one has a mix of silver charms with an enameled silver charm as the centerpiece. All of the glass beads used for this bracelet are Czech druk beads, but they all have slightly different finishes and the black beads are somewhat triangular along with being a bit longer. This one went together much easier but it took a bit to get the design to balance out well.

I won't know until Christmas what the recipients think of them, but Mom was very happy with the designs and they were fun projects. I just need to remember I work better if I have a bit less pressure.

snopes craft challenge entry

2006-12-06T20:28:00.000-08:00

As promised here are the pictures of my entry in the snopes craft challenge and a picture of the idea that didn't quite work out for the challenge.

This is the actual entry. It is a bone panel with facted onyx beads, charoite ovals and silver beads and findings. There is a story that comes with the bone panel, it was originally part of a bracelet that belonged to my mother. The bracelet was made of a set of these panels strung on elastic cord that had broken a long time ago. (I remember looking at the pieces in Mom's jewelry box as child, so it had broken by that point.) The bracelet what a gift an employer had brought back from a trip to Hawaii and they had ben told that it was ivory. I've done some research, mostly because of the mahjong tile beads I had found, and these panels are definitey bone. High quality craved bone, but bone none the less.

This is the design I had originally started with for the challenge. I had thought that it would be cool to combine the bone tile with fire opals and pearls because of theconnection to Hawaii. Unfortunately it turned out to be too delicate of a combination to work with the bone panel and I had to step back and come up with an alternate focal bead. I had picked up the bone flower bead recently and itended up fitting perfectly.

The lanyard project (final product)

2006-11-21T19:42:00.000-08:00

I'm sure I'm not the only person in the world who has to wear an ID badge/key card for work and hates the options you have for wearing it. It's hard for me to use the little belt clips with the retractable cord because of the type of clothes I wear, plus I'm a klutz and I know I would catch them on something so I wear it on a lanyard around my neck. The lanyards that are out there are out of fabric tape or cord and they don't look good with work clothes. I'd been trying to find a good solution but had been having problems finding a good way to attach the badge. I finally found silver plated swivel hooks at Fire Mountain Gems and made my first lanyard last night.

It made out of blue Czech druk glass beads, black glass beads I found I had hanging around, silver tube beads, silver findings and the silver plated swivel hook. I wore it to work today and the reaction from my co-workers just blew me away. I think I am going to be a very busy girl making these for a while. The only change for those will be that I am going to use silver plated brass beads to keep the costs down. I will, of course, post pictures as I get those made. I also may try to do a step by step on how I make them.

There's good news and bad news

2006-11-19T17:53:00.000-08:00

The good news is that my muse showed back up, apparently she went to Turkey to get her coffee, and I finished the piece I was struggling with a few days ago. The bad news is that I can't post pictures until this coming Saturday because the piece was made for a craft challenge at the snopes messageboard. I'll post pictures as soon as I can along with pictures of the piece I ended up with the first time I tried to make something. Hopefully I'll get the small bag I have waiting around together sometime soon too so I can post pictures of it.

Other good news is that I got a really fantastic deal on more glass beads for the lanyard project so as soon as the swivel hooks come in I can get going on those too.

Lots of leatherwork stuff

2006-11-18T18:49:00.000-08:00

We took a trip to Denver to do some Christmas shopping today and I talked E into stopping at Tandy so I've got lots of new stuff to work with. I even picked up a book on inverted leather carving that also includes instructions on doing silhouette carving and has a number of different patterns. Some of the patterns are very 1950s (after all this is an old book) so I don't think I'll end up using them but some of the others are really nice floral designs. It makes me want to try some stuff out, but I still have three pieces that need to be sewn together. I guess I'll have to see how tomorrow goes.

Apparently my muse has gone out for coffee

2006-11-14T20:03:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit frustrated right now. I spend around 45 minutes trying to work out the design for a specific bracelet I'm making for a craft challenge. I got it strung together and realized that the design did not work at all. I managed to salvage the piece, but I still don't have the other one done, and the deadline if rapidly approaching for the challenge. It would look really silly if I initiated the challenge and didn't come up with a project.

The lanyard project

2006-11-13T19:20:00.000-08:00

I touched on this project a bit in my regular blog. What I am trying to do is to make a beaded lanyard for the ID I have to wear for work. I had found some on the web for sale, but I didn't like the design because the piece ended in a large metal ring since they were designed to be either an ID holder or a glasses hanger. To begin with, I couldn't find similar rings and ones that size don't really go with the style of jewelry I make. Secondly, I wanted the lanyard to have a clasp that could work as a quick release in case it got caught on something or someone grabbed it. Finally, I really wanted the badge to attach with a hook of some sort, sterling silver if I could get it, silver plated if not. The ultimate find would be a sterling silver swivel hook. Today I came close to this part of it because I found silver plated swivel hooks and also sterling silver lobster claw clasps with swivels at Fire Mountain Gems. I'm still trying to figure out the quick release, the problem is that I'm essentially looking for a clasp that will fail. I've got a couple possibilities though, I just need to get them and do some experimenting.

Once I get it all sorted out maybe I'll do an entry showing the process from start to finish.

Working on leatherwork

2006-11-05T12:58:00.000-08:00

I'm in the middle of another leather project, a small bag for my Etsy store, and I've decided on a few things. The first is that Sunday is a good day to work on the stages where I have to wait for things to dry because I'm busy with doing other stuff so I leave the leather pieces alone to dry. The second is that baby food jars are an excellent place to store small amounts of antique, finishes and glue to use while I'm working. I use the small foam paint brushes to apply those things and baby food jars have a wide enough mouth to fit the brush in. In addition, they have a lid so there is a lot less waste and if I have to step away the cats can't get into or spill anything. In the case of dyes and antiques the glass won't pick up any of the color so they can be cleaned and reused for something else. All around they are the perfect thing for the job.

I'll post pictures when I'm done.

Some more bracelets

2006-10-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

I worked on jewelry yesterday so I have a few more pictures to post here.

This was a bit of an experiment, because I wanted to use the green dragon tiles but I wasn't sure quite what to use with them. In the end I used two different colors of jade which worked well.

This one was a lot of fun to make. I've had the bone frog bead for a while and it seemed like the perfect centerpiece for a bracelet. I used kyanite and labradorite with it because both stones shift color in the light and have teal highlights which went well with the frog inlay. This is the bracelet out of this seeion that I'd make a copy of for myself if I could find another frog bead.

This bracelet is lepidolite (the beads in shades of purple) and rhodochrosite (the raspberry sherbert colored beads). It was another experiment in combining colors. I think the combination worked well, but I may end up thinking of it as the sherbet bracelet because of the color of the rhodochrosite.

I wasn't sure if this design would work at all because it is onyx roundelles and turquoise coin beads, but it worked remarkably well and ended up being a very elegant bracelet.

Bamboo Aventurine Necklace

2006-10-14T18:11:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are pictures of my most recent project, one on the display bust and then a closeup with the flash.

This piece was a commission for someone over on the snopes messageboard and really ended up being a theme piece. The mahjong tiles are (from left to right), summer, six of bamboo and bamboo flower, and the color requirements were to use blues and/or greens. I was really struck by the idea of two of the tiles having to do with bamboo and decided to use that as the unifying idea for the piece. With that in mind, I chose to use light green aventurine, partially because it matched the greens in the tiles and partly because they look like foliage, and then chose bamboo shaped silver tube beads to use as spacers. I'm really happy with the way it turned out, although I designed it flat rather than curved so the top strand is longer than the lower strand and will drape over or under it. I was afraid that would be a problem, but it ended up creating a really nice effect.

I found a great new tool to use with this project. Usually I start off by finishing one end of a piece because then I don't have to worry about shifting a cord wrong and having beads everywhere. Since this had a central element I needed to be able to work from both ends so that I could keep the design even, plus it was double strand so I was looking at having to come up with a way to keep the beads on the threads that was easy to remove. Fortunately, I found the Bead Stopper in the directions for a project. They're fantastic and I highly recommend them to anyone else who works with beads,

No really, I'm still alive

2006-10-13T21:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's been a while since I last posted and I swear I have project pictures to post. I plan on putting them up over the weekend when I'm a bit more awake and a bit more coordinated. I just thought I'd post a quick note and do a quick little magazine review. I had a meeting at Barnes & Noble last night and ended up wandering over to the magazine racks. I was looking for the fall issue of Stringing but it isn't out until the end of the month. What I did end up picking up was a copy of a new magazine Craft. I'm not sure if I'm in the target demographic at all, I don't feel quite hip and edgy enough, but I think it's good to have something marketed to the younger crafters out there. There were definitely a couple of projects I am interested in, one on making hard cider which is something I really want to try one of these days and there was also directions on really cool wall mounted cat furniture out of corrugated cardboard. There's also a couple projects that have techniques that are amazingly creative, but not things I would try or come up with. One is the holders for the tea lights for the Random Screen which are made out of drink cans and are designed to turn from the heat of the tea light. I'm just blown away by this, I could never come up with something like that. I'd love to see that in action, but large number of cats + fire = many bad things.

The only problem I ran into is more of a personal problem, I just feel really inadequate now. I'm not hip and trendy at all and while I don't do strictly traditional crafts (beyond canning) I'm not wildy innovative or cutting edge either. I feel like I'm in some sort of odd no man's land between hip, edgy and innovative crafters and grannies making tea cozies and things out of needlepoint canvas to hide Kleenex boxes. It's an odd feeling and I'm not quite sure what to do about it.

That's all for tonight, and I'll post pictures of my most recent project tomorrow and then some other jewelry pictures on Sunday maybe. (I'll have to see how things go, I also tend to post the pictures and a bit on the projects on MySpace so it depends on how much time it takes me to do that on top of my weekend chores. and repairing a bracelet.)

New earrings

2006-09-24T15:38:00.000-07:00

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of these earrings. They are my first attempts at working with silver wire and I think they turned out pretty well.

This is the first pair I tried, they are loosely based on a pair of earrings that a co-worker has. These are made with 26 guage silver wire, pearls, garnets and garnet briolettes. The most interesting aspect was trying to work with the pliers that we had on hand. By the time I was done my hands were very stiff and cramping up pretty badly. I've invested in pliers with ergonomic handles which should help. One thing to note, I spread the drops out for the picture, when on the shift around quite a bit.

This pair of earrings grew out of a mistake. I closed the top loop on the drop before attatching it to the rest of the earring and rather than redoing it I thought I'd make a second one so I could make a pair of earrings out of it.

The last pair is amethyst barrel beads and rainbow fluorite briolettes. This was just to practice the technique a bit more.

Canning

2006-09-10T18:43:00.000-07:00

I did some more canning this weekend and because I was feeling silly I even took some pictures.

These are the dill pickles I put up yesterday. It was hard finding pickling cucumbers so I had to make do with smaller ones, which means that I ended up with 11 quarts of small spears and chunks.

And since I had the camera in the kitchen, this is a picture of the relish I made last winter. This is what happens to the dill pickles from previous years. If I feel more energetic later in the week I'll post the recipies.

The book

2006-09-05T18:18:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are pictures of the sign-in book.

The cover of the book is made of 6-7 ounce tooling leather, and I used a wood stylus to transfer the device and engrave it deeply. I beveled around the device to give it a bit of dimension and then painted with acrylic paint. The rest of the book was antiqued with a medium brown leather antiquing and then finished with a matte acrylic finish.

The book is lined with a golden oak garment pig suede and the pages are acid free light weight cardstock in cream. The pages are laced in with deerskin lace and the closure is a stubbed lace made out of deerskin scrap.

I tried a few different things with this book. The first is that I increased the number of holes to lace the pages in since this book will be traveling and will need a bit more stability. Second, because it will be traveling through the mail, I used a tie closure rather than a buckle or a bone button that could get broken. I liked the stubbed lace closure from the satchel so I made one to close this book. The other different things are more refining my techniques. I usually put the finish and antique into a bowl when I get to the point of applying them. I do this for two reasons, the first being that I use large brushes and it's hard to get them in the mouths of the bottles. The second is that it in the case of the finish there will be color transfer and this way I don't contaminate an entire bottle of finish. The problem has always been that I can't leave a bowl of finish or antique unsupervised or I'll have at least one cat in it. This time around I realized that the baby food jars I had kept are perfect because they have a big enough mouth to fit my brushes in and they have lids so they can be closed up. I also discovered that it works well for glue as well because it allows me to apply it with a brush.

Another quick project rundown

2006-09-03T18:40:00.000-07:00

I got the sign-in book I was working on finished today, and I'm pretty happy with it. I tried some new things with it, and I think it worked out well for the most part. I'll be getting pictures tomorrow and will post them with some commentary on the process, including some new techniques I figured out.

Last weekend I also did a bit of experimenting with making earrings using silver wire and gemstone beads. They're kind of hard to explain so I'm going to be getting some pictures tomorrow to post.

I'm not sure what to start on next. I'll keep going on the jewelry of course, but I've got some large sewing projects that I need to work on along with trying to rearrange my craft supply stash.

Pickles

2006-08-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

(No pictures, although I suppose I could get a few at some point. Doesn't seem to be much point though, I'm expecting most people have seen pickled vegetables at some point in their lives.)

I ended up being able to make 5 quarts of dill pickles from the cucmbers that E harvested from the garden. I think I like doing that way. It was a good amount of pickles to make but it didn't take me all weekend to do it and I wasn't wiped out when I got done. E suggest that since A is considering doing a garden at her house maybe we can look at planting a bunch of pickling cucumbers next year. I think it might be a good idea because it would allow me to make pickles at a nice relaxed pace.

In other project newsI got the paper cut and punched and the leather cut out for the sign in book. I don't think I'm going to get a chance to do any tooling today since I need to finish up housework and get a shower in, but I should be able to on e of the next few nights after work.

Project round up

2006-08-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

I've got a few things I'm working on right now. I've done some more bird toys, and have pictures that I'll probably be posting this weekend, we have enough pickling cucumbers in the garden to do a jar or two of pickles, and I have a sign in book to get started on. The plan right now is to do the pickles on Saturday and then I can get the pieces for the book cut out and do the tooling The first problem with the book will be the fact that I have to wait for the leather to dry between steps which can take a while. The second problem will be that I didn't get the paper for the pages until today and since the craft store did not have the pre cut 5.5 by 8 inch paper I need to get that cut and then punched before I can punch the lacing holes in the leather cover. Thankfully I have a week and two weekends to get that done.

And I will post pictures once I get the sign in book done.

A couple more pieces of jewelry

2006-08-21T20:23:00.000-07:00

I had the camera today so I got some pictures of a couple of new pieces.

This was a design that I came up with as I was drifting off to sleep one night. It isn't exactly the way I first imagined it, ut it is a very elegant style. Once I get more of the silver tube beads I'm going to make a similar bracelet for myself, although I may use different stones. Unfortunately, it'll be a few weeks before I can work on it because I have to wait for the beads to get here from Thailand.

After getting a few inquiries I decided to try to make some anklets. This is the first one and it is rainbow fluorite and silver. I like the way the design turned out for the most part, but I had a hard time coming to terms with the idea that it had to be so much longer than a bracelet. I decided it was going to be too long, took a bead off each side and then realized I didn't need to. I think as time goes on I'll get a bit more comfortable with making them.

Another installment

2006-08-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a bit of a break from getting ready for the show tomorrow and I thought I'd put up some more pictures.

This was a fun one to design. I saw the S-hook clasp with the rose on it as part of a mixed lot of clasps and just had to get it. I then found rose charms that matched it and leaf charms that looked a bit like rose leaves and designed the bracelet. The fun part is the way that the clasp is part of the whole design, that than just a closure.

This was an interesting experiment because it is braided. I'd like to try that again, but I think I need to work out a better technique for the braiding. The beads in this bracelet are labrodorite disks and dyed freshwater pearls.

I really love the charms on this one because they are also bells. It makes it a fun little design.

We had picked up the rainbow fluorite bear beads last year and hadn't used them so I decided to try to work out a design for them. I decided that something simple would be bed to focus on the bears and I think it worked out well.

After I got done with the fuorite bear bracelet I had 2 of the bear beads left so it was natural to make a pair of earrings.

Should be making stuff

2006-08-10T19:39:00.000-07:00

I should be working on stuff since the show is Saturday but I'm stressed and just can't get myself to do anything so I'm adding more pictures here. I guess that's related somehow, right?

This was an interesting experiment. The design is based very loosely on a pattern I saw in Beadwork magazine. The original pattern used glass seed beads and small silver beads, and had more strands, but I liked the effect and the use of the cones so I gave it a try in this bracelet using small freshwater pearls and carnelian beads.

This ia another somewhat experimental design, I saw jewelry in a catalog where briolettes were used like normal beads rather than as focal points and I thought I'd give it a try with these small garnet briolettes and the larger white potato pearls.

This is a slightly different design for me. I had been looking for ways to use the cognac sapphires and thought I'd see how they worked with the pearls and silver. I think it works well especially with the silver beads separating each of the other groups from each other.

And this last one is proof that I do make something other than bracelets. This is a set of pearl and cognac sapphire earrings that somewhat match the bracelet above.

Yep, you guessed it, still more bracelets

2006-08-07T17:07:00.000-07:00

Here's another batch of bracelets, this set is from what I've made for the show on Saturday.

This one is a single strand silver bracelet with heart charms. All of the silver beads and the charms are made by the Thai Karen Hill Tribes.

This one is blue quartz roundelles and black lace agate interspersed with silver beads. It's definitely a design I'm not too sure about, but I expect there is someone who would like it.

Peruvian blue opals with grey potato shaped pearls with engraved silver bamboo beads. The opals and pearls are a bit bigger so it creates a chunky effect.

Double strand bracelet made of silver wrap beads, silver spiral beads and knot wrap beads. It seemed natural to pair the wrap and spiral beads together and the did work well together. I've done a few variations on this design and it is a nice, simple design for a silver bracelet.

More bracelets

2006-08-05T21:42:00.000-07:00

This group of bracelets are ones that I've made for myself.

Thi sone is mahogany obsidian and dark honey amber with Thai Karen silver tube beads. I love the interplay for the different browns in it and it is a simple design that works well if you want to wear it with other bracelets. This is actually the second one I made for myself, the first one I sold to a co-worker because she liked it so much.

This bracelet is rhodochrosite, platinum pearls and Bali silver. The pearls work really well with this I think because they are understated so they don't overwhelm the rhodochrosite.

More dark amber, but this time with carnelian roundelles and Thai Karen wrap beads. I love these particular beads for the texture they can add due to the wrapping.

This one is african plum rubies and lavender pearls (the color doesn't really show up well in this picture, but they are pale lavender) And Thai Karen knot wrap beads. This is another silver bead I love and I'm really impressed with the intricacy of them, they are strips of silver that have been stamped and then woven into knots.

More pictures to come, I grabbed the camera this week and got a bunch of pictures of various pieces I've made and I'll be adding them over the next week or so. Mostly bracelets but I did get pictures of a few pairs of earrings too.