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16556. Magoseph - 9/12/2005 9:24:40 AM Salut, Ali! 16557. Macnas - 9/12/2005 9:46:11 AM Hello Mago. 16558. Magoseph - 9/12/2005 9:47:15 AM I wasn't going to mention the following here, because it's just too absurd for words, but I’ll so that maybe one of you can give us some belated advice that may come handy in the future.
Have you ever dealt with a spunky dog that got away from you in the dark of the night and met a skunk? What I can tell you is that the washing machine and the dryer ran for hours, the bathroom and the shower downstairs were battle grounds, and the house’s windows were all open all night.
The neighbor, kitty-corner from us, became so worried with the house lit and the shadows scurrying around, (kind of fighting, she said), she came over and joined the battle, the smell, and went home stinking, dirty, and in hysterics because she thought we were so inept dealing with the situation.
16559. Macnas - 9/12/2005 10:02:49 AM Oh Mago, you poor girl, I have no advice for you other than to invest in a radio fence perhaps.
You have made me laugh though. 16560. alistairconnor - 9/12/2005 10:55:28 AM ... and the dog enjoyed all the attention so much, he's going to have a look for another one tonight! 16561. Ms. No - 9/12/2005 4:54:15 PM Two words, Mago:
Imitation Vanilla
My step-father's hunting dogs had a couple of altercations with skunks over the years and he swears by immitation vanilla --- has to be immitation, not the real stuff (which is fortunate for the pocketbook). It works better than tomato juice or any of the specialized products he'd ever bought. 16562. Ms. No - 9/12/2005 6:16:09 PM Okay, have digital camera will foist off pictures of craft obsession:
This was the very first project I did. It was a nice thick piece of leather which is good since I have a tendency to be rather....enthusiastic when handling the mallet.
I just realized that you have no clear idea of the size of this thing. It's like a wallet side, about 3 1/2 x 4. 16563. PelleNilsson - 9/12/2005 6:42:38 PM Very nice, Ms. No. Please tell us something about the technique. Do you just hammer away at the piece or do you have to first soften it up by soaking it in lyme or something? 16564. Ms. No - 9/12/2005 7:09:52 PM You start off with a piece of vegetable tanned leather --- either pig or cow. You do have to case the leather in order for the cutting and stamping to be effective --- this means wetting it down front and back with water. You don't want to completely saturate it but it needs to have enough moisture to soften up a bit and provide for "burn" which is kind of like a bruising that shows up when tooling.
You trace a pattern onto the leather and then cut it with a swivel knife. Once the initial pattern is cut you use a hammer and metal stamps to tamp down the leather to bring the picture into 3-D and add embellishments.
Once that's done there are any number of different methods of finishing the surface. I used neatsfoot oil on this one and then two coats of a leather stain and finished it off with a shiny clear coat of NeatLac.
This piece has only been tooled but not oiled or stained:
 16565. PelleNilsson - 9/12/2005 7:16:22 PM Remarkable. Maybe you could set yourself up as a sub-contactor to uzmakk for his more exclusive re-bindings of rare books. 16566. Ms. No - 9/12/2005 7:16:40 PM The rose was much easier than the Acanthus although I have improved since my first project so that has something to do with how much better it looks. The decorative cuts are hard for me because they're free-hand and I really don't draw well. Staining and dyeing can cover a multitude of sins, but I'm really excited about my latest piece. It's the first thing I've done where the composition is my own. I took a corner pattern and copied it in reverse for the front flap of a fringed hand-bag. The really cool thing was that there was a steer head hiding in it that I didn't plan for. It just appeared in the leather once I'd started the backgrounding. I enhanced it just a little bit by sculpting the nose and if I'd realized sooner what was happening I'd have lengthened the horns, but all in all I'm really pleased with it. Once I stain it I'll post it again so you can see the difference.
 16567. Ms. No - 9/12/2005 7:22:59 PM I went to the Autry Museum of Western Heritage a few weeks ago and looked at some of the stuff they have there. It's mostly saddles, but the craftsmanship is amazing. It was daunting to look at these things and realize that some of them are 100 years old and were done with only five or six different tools. The incredible amount of time that went into them and the superior skill of them was both daunting and inspiring.
There are a lot of leatherworkers here in LA. There used to be more work when Western films and Television shows were more popular but there are a lot of horse people still in the area so there's still quite a bit of leatherwork going on.
When I went to class this weekend they'd gotten in a shipment of finished kits that had been tooled by craftsmen in China. These things were so perfect they looked like they'd been turned out by machines --- actually a lot of the really good leather guys will purposely put faults in their work just to show that it IS hand-tooled.
I don't have that problem. ;-> 16568. judithathome - 9/12/2005 10:27:11 PM MsNo, I am gobsmacked by how well you are doing!! Sorry to use that word but it so perfectly defines my awe at your skills with leather...
I can't believe that first piece...it's really great and the other two are just amazing.
Your patterns remind me of William Morris stuff...check out his wallpapers for inspiration. 16569. Ms. No - 9/12/2005 11:05:31 PM Thanks, Judith, I'm really happy with them and doing the work itself is incredibly satisfying.
I have to stress that these patterns are not my own. All three of them are Al Stohlman patterns. The third piece is one of his patterns that I modified to fit the space I had --- that's why I was so excited about it.
Thanks for the tip, I'll check out Morris' stuff 16570. absensia - 9/12/2005 11:27:53 PM Wow, very impressive, Ms. No! You continue to amaze me with your talents. 16571. Ms. No - 9/12/2005 11:35:51 PM Thanks, Abs! It's good to see you, what've you been up to? 16572. arkymalarky - 9/12/2005 11:39:45 PM Man, that is just too cool, MsNo! I love it! 16573. arkymalarky - 9/12/2005 11:41:37 PM WRT skunks and dogs, we've had that problem a number of times here, and Judith gave us the tomato juice remedy. I'll try the imitation vanilla next time.
And if you want to keep dogs out of the garbage, pour a little ammonia in it. I got that tip from a colleague years ago. 16574. alistairconnor - 9/13/2005 8:22:20 AM Oh No, that is cool stuff! You'll need to get yourself a horse soon to display it all to advantage.
Or you could start tooling around with erotic themes... a whole nother niche. 16575. Macnas - 9/13/2005 8:33:31 AM Great stuff Ms.No.
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