Tandy Leather Celebrates the Grand Opening of its New Flagship Retail Store in Fort Worth.
In June, Tandy Leather will open the 23,000 square foot premier store at 1900 Southeast Loop 820 in Fort Worth, Texas. Hours for the two day event are: Friday, June 7th 9am – 6pm, and Saturday, June 8th 9am – 4pm.
30 NEW images have been posted to the 2013 Guest Gallery.
http://blog.leathercraftlibrary.com/galleries/guest-gallery-2013/
Thank you to everyone who submitted their work.
If you would like your work posted in the gallery, please send a 400 x 400 pixel JPG image preferably at 72dpi to social@tandyleather.com
In July, Tandy Leather began construction on a 23,000 square foot building on its corporate property at 1900 Southeast Loop 820 in Fort Worth, TX that will house its premier store currently located in rented space in Fort Worth. The building is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2013.
with Charlie Davenport – Day 4 and 5
Day 4
Here I am continuing to rough bevel the last of the cut lines. As you can see the rough beveling leaves a “halo” around the beveled object. To eliminate this “halo” effect, all that is needed is to tilt the figure beveler back so none of the edges are in contact with the leather. The tilting back of the figure beveler switches the tool into a smooth matting tool. Using the tool in this way to mat down the bevel will eliminate and/or reduce the “halo” for a more realistic look.
Once all the cut lines have been beveled, it is time to move on to the “dotted” lines of the pattern. By using the figure bevelers to bevel an un-cut line, the result will be a less defined and more rounded edge. This effect lends itself well to the folds here.
After finishing all the middle ground beveling, I stopped for the day.
Day 5
My goal for the day was to complete all the tooling, leaving just modeling and detail work for the next couple of days.
I used the F941 in the tight spots here to help define the leaves. As you can see, I try to drive the area outside the leaves down quite a bit so they will stand out more.
In the very tight areas, the F902 comes in very handy.
Pear Shaders work nicely for adding form to the rocks.
Here I used the F120 as a small double-sided beveler for the center of these leaves. I will come back later with the B202 R and B202 L to add additional texture to the leaves.
Using the F902 to start the grass takes a lot of time, but I feel is well worth the effort in the end.
After I have used the F902, I switched to the F926 to add the base texture to the grass areas.
Next, I used the F918 lightly to add some additional grass along some of the beveled lines. I also used it randomly over the areas that I used the F926 for another layer of texture for the grass.
I finished the day by added some additional texture to the areas between the rocks and grass with the M884 matting tool.
The remaining detail of the piece will done with modeling tools and a filigree swivel knife blade.
With all the swivel knife work done, I decided to start with the background areas first and work my way toward the foreground. I started beveling with a F900 figure carving matting tool to push the background areas down.
I needed to utilize the sharp point of the F876 to get into the areas around the hair.
Once I had the outline beveled down, I went back over those areas with the F901 to cover a larger area and work my way out from the cut line. As I walked the tool out I reduced the amount of force I was striking the tool to a light tap to blend the texture with the un-tooled background areas.
At the cut line I was striking the tool enough force to press the leather down to depth of my previous knife cuts to get some depth to the project.
On the background on the right side I used the F901 to go along the top of the “dotted” lines to bring the background hills to life.
In the tight areas of the background the A99 comes in real useful.
I was able to get a small portion started by the end of day 2.
With the right side of the background done yesterday, it was on to the left side today.
I used the F898 on the hills and a B936 to bevel around the small tree.
Using the A99 to matt down the small areas in between the branches.
Here I am using a F898 to matt down around the bushes and trees.
Once I had the bushes and small trees done, I started working my way forward to the grass covered hill. Starting at the top with the A98 tilted so as the heel of the tool was not making much of an impression. When doing something like grass I try not to be even in the force I strike the tool or in the spacing of the impressions. The more irregular the better it tends to look in the end.
I noticed that the matting around the bush and trees was a little rough, so I used the F901 to even the matting of the sky area.
After a few rows of grass with the A98, I switched to the F926. Here I started the base of the area and worked my way up the hill, varying my strikes with the tool tilted to straight up and down.
On the bush just above the sheep I used the F989 to give the bush a little different texture.
Now that I had completed the left side of the background it was time to move on to the middle ground and some rough figure beveling with the F895, F896 and F891.
I use the largest figure beveler I can use to assist in speeding up beveling, since at this stage I am more concerned with trying to get all the cut lines beveled so as to get the basic shape of the image to appear. I will come back and smooth out any uneven beveling and tool marks later.
Well I was able to finish the background, and most of the rough beveling of Jesus today.
Back in the bag until tomorrow…
with Charlie Davenport
Last week I was asked to give a demonstration on coloring leather with our Eco-Flo Leather Dyes and Cova Colors at Oklahoma City’s GRAND RE-OPENING of their new store on Thursday, April 5th. Great! Well, until I realized I needed something to color besides a blank piece of leather.
Then we received a question from a leathercrafter in Oklahoma who had downloaded, carved and tooled “The Good Shepherd” pattern from Leathercraftlibrary.com. The person wanted to know if we had any instructions on how to color the project. We looked through the archives and could not find any specific instructions or color photos of a completed project. Problem solved.
The following posts will be a daily overview of my progress through tooling “The Good Shepherd” project.
Day 1 (Tuesday, March 27th)
Step 1: I secured tracing film over the top surface of the printed pattern with tape, so the film would not move while I was tracing the pattern. Using a permanent marker I traced over the pattern.
Step 2: I dampened the entire surface of the 20“ x 26“ piece of 5-6 ounce leather (#9157-35) with a wet sponge.
Step 3: After letting the leather set for about 5 minutes to let the moisture to absorb down into the fibers of the leather, I placed the tracing film onto the leather and secured the film with tape again.
Step 4: Using a stylus (#8039-06) I started tracing over the lines with my normal writing pressure. I trace over the dotted lines as if they were solid lines, just with less pressure (just enough to visible). The reason I trace the dotted lines as a continuous line is that I tend to use too much pressure when I trace them as dotted lines. The resulting depressed dots in the leather are hard to camouflage when tooling.
Step 5: Once I had completed tracing the entire pattern onto the leather I removed the tracing film. I removed the film one corner at a time ensuring that all the lines have been transferred to the leather.
Step 6: Using my swivel knife (#8004-00) with a (#8026-00) 1/4” ceramic blade I started cutting all the solid lines on the pattern. I also cut the exterior dotted lines of the hair and the wool of the sheep to get better depth when beveling later.
Step 7: After I had completed all of my swivel knife cuts, I re-dampened the leather and placed the leather in a tall kitchen trash bad and taped the opening closed to retain the moisture content for the next day.
9157-33 3-4oz Veg-Tanned Tooling Leather
99280-11 or 9100-00 1-2oz Soft Lining Leather
8072-00 Adjustable Creaser
8091-00 or 8079- Overstitcher, Size 7
Awl
2605-09 Eco-Flo™ All-In-One Stain & Finish, Grape
2525-01 Contact Cement
3048-00 Leather Shears
56450-01 Waxed Thread, Black
1195-00 Stitching Needles
©2010 by Tandy Leather Factory. All Rights Reserved.
by Charlie Davenport
PATTERN: Wallet Card Case Pattern
Make a tracing of the case pattern on a sheet of tracing film that is at least ½” larger than the case design itself. Cut the leather the same size as the tracing film. Dampen the entire surface of the leather on the grain side. Place the tracing film over the leather and fasten with tacks or tape to your work surface. Trace the design with a stylus or modeling tool using a ruler to assist in all straight lines (Fig. 1).
Be careful not to draw the lines past where they need to stop. Once the tracing is complete, remove the tracing film and go over all the lines making them deeper and more pronounced. If there is to be tooling, this is the time to use the swivel knife to cut in the design as I have done here (Fig. 2).
Using a rounded modeling spoon lightly bevel the swivel knife cuts starting with the borders (Fig. 3).
The next step I stamped down the background using the A104 and A104-2 background stamps. I also used the S631 seeder for the flower centers as shown (Fig. 4).
At this stage, turn the leather over to the flesh side. The background areas and the outlines of the design should be visible. If any of the outlines are not visible, re-bevel that area with the rounded modeler. Once all the lines are visible on the flesh side, take an ink pen and trace the burnished lines of the pattern, this will help on the next step of “Repoussé” or embossing. Now using the ball modeler tool in one hand, and the leather (grain side up) in my other hand I started pressing down on the leather making sure to stay inside the pen lines (Fig. 5).
After all the raising work is done with the ball modeler, I “painted” on Leather Weld glue onto all the areas that were raised and let dry thoroughly (In hind sight I would have mixed dryer lint with the glue to make a better plug) (Fig. 6 & 7).
After the glue has dried, lightly re-dampen the grain side of the leather. Using the rounded modeler I re-beveled, and rounded off all the cut lines (Fig. 8 & 9).
While the leather is still lightly damp, I applied Eco-Flo Mahogany Antique Gel to both sides. I apply the stains while the leather is still damp to eliminate the streaking that sometimes happens when stains are applied to dry leather. While still damp, take a bone folder along the fold lines of the pattern on the flesh side of the leather. Allow to dry, apply sealer and let dry again (Fig. 10).
Glue a liner to the inside and cut out the case (Fig. 11).
Using a Size 7 Overstitcher and an awl haft w/ diamond blade to prep the project for hand stitching (Fig. 12).
The thread I used is the waxed Nyltex, this a five cord thread. I split the thread and only used a single cord for this small project, and completed the sewing using the saddle stitch method (Fig. 13).
Another small project completed that can be done in a day.
©2010 by Tandy Leather Factory. All Rights Reserved.
9157-93 3-4oz Tooling Leather
3500-01 Tracing Film, 1yd
2602- Eco-Flo Cova Colors (-01 Black, -05 Green, -06 Red, -08 White, -20 Gold, -21 Silver)
2610-01 Super Shene, 4oz
3443-00 Small Wood Daubers
11210-07 Waxed Braided Cord, Red
1504-00 ½” Solid Brass Buckle
35010-02 Damascus Straight Trim Knife
3777-00 Drive Punch, Size 0
35050-00 Swivel Knife
8039-06 Modeling Tool (Point/Stylus)
8027-00 Ceramic Knife Blade ¼”
Craftool Stamps (B935, B203, B200, B197)
8039-05 Modeling Tool (Sm/Lg Undercut)
8039-01 Modeling Tool (Fine/Sm Round Spoon)
8039-03 Modeling Tool (Med/Lg Pointed Spoon)
3031-00 Precision Craft Knife
8074-00 Adjustable Groover
8079-05 Overstitch Wheel, Size 5
31218-01 Awl w/ Blade
3132-00 Lacing & Stitching Pony
1192-13 Harness Needles Size000 (2)
3080-00 Strip & Strap Cutter
8072-00 Adjustable Creaser
PATTERN: Luggage/Gift Tag Pattern
C. Davenport
©2010 by Tandy Leather Factory. All Rights Reserved.
