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Crafty Thread - what are you working on at the moment?

moose said:
Blacksmith course booked for start of September :cool: We make a poker in the morning, and 'whatever I like' in the afternoon. :hmm: If my arms haven't fallen off by then.
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Nice, love to do something like that :D

Follow up pottery classes in September for me, got the Bisque fired pots back and I've got a glazing session then another course booked
 
13939508_10210165692442817_6592364987843271253_n.jpg

Not jewellery but I resurrected and sanded, painted then waxed these knackered steps from our cellar after rotting there for the last seven years. My latest display unit :)
 
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Does anyone here do leatherwork? It seems really interesting but I would imaging manipulating the skins can be quite challenging?
 
moon said:
Does anyone here do leatherwork? It seems really interesting but I would imaging manipulating the skins can be quite challenging?
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What were you thinking of making?

ViolentPanda has a book on leatherwork, including the tooling and shaping required for masks, and I did a little leather embossing to make a leather coaster during one day of craft tasters. Obv making garments is a different thing entirely.
 
I decided that it would be too hard, even manipulating fabric can be hard, and I can imagine the frustration associated with trying to get leather to form into the shapes you need..
I just wondered if anyone had tried it :)
I have a cute embossed leather cover for my fake Midori travelers notebook, so I can imagine your coasters must be quite pretty :)
 
moon said:
I decided that it would be too hard, even manipulating fabric can be hard, and I can imagine the frustration associated with trying to get leather to form into the shapes you need..
I just wondered if anyone had tried it :)
I have a cute embossed leather cover for my fake Midori travelers notebook, so I can imagine your coasters must be quite pretty :)
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Manipulating leather is a doddle if you follow three principles - use the right thickness of hid for your project, shape the hide when when wet (the leather, not you!), and if you're working in 3 dimensions, shape it on a form. I've seen some excellent masquerade masks made on forms, and of course all the old leather armour - as worn by the archers at Agincourt, for example - was, too.
 
Wow, now I am becoming more interested, I make 3d paper templates for crafters so the idea of shaping leather in 3d is intriguing... I will look up the forms etc as I don't think I've ever seen these before.
 
moon said:
Wow, now I am becoming more interested, I make 3d paper templates for crafters so the idea of shaping leather in 3d is intriguing... I will look up the forms etc as I don't think I've ever seen these before.
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This man has the studio opposite me and I've known him for years. My friend learned to make bags from him.
www.tan-my-hide.co.uk
If you were ever this way he loves talking about his work.
 
moon said:
I decided that it would be too hard, even manipulating fabric can be hard, and I can imagine the frustration associated with trying to get leather to form into the shapes you need..
I just wondered if anyone had tried it :)
I have a cute embossed leather cover for my fake Midori travelers notebook, so I can imagine your coasters must be quite pretty :)
Click to expand...
You're very kind, but I only made one in that session, (we were allowed an hour). It's honestly not difficult to get the knack of. I have next to no coordination and not much skill when it comes to fine art, so if I could get the hang of it... :hmm:

The trainer had about half a dozen different designs which he thought were suitable for beginners, including an eagle about to land, a horse's head, and a rose in full bloom. He also had several sets of the different punches (think replaceable hammer heads) needed to create each one.
 
Did me blacksmithing yesterday, it was huge fun, and hot, hard work. I ended up with a beautiful poker and fire rake, the making of which enabled me to learn a variety of techniques on both round and square section iron bar. Definitely going back again once my hands start working properly again. :D


scroll round.JPG scroll square.JPG 2 twists.JPG upsetting point chamfer.JPG forged corner.JPG straightish.JPG
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moose said:
Did me blacksmithing yesterday, it was huge fun, and hot, hard work. I ended up with a beautiful poker and fire rake, the making of which enabled me to learn a variety of techniques on both round and square section iron bar. Definitely going back again once my hands start working properly again. :D


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Bloody fabulous missus :cool: :D
 
moose said:
Did me blacksmithing yesterday, it was huge fun, and hot, hard work. I ended up with a beautiful poker and fire rake, the making of which enabled me to learn a variety of techniques on both round and square section iron bar. Definitely going back again once my hands start working properly again. :D


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View attachment 92030
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Wow!
Those are amazing! I want them too! When will you be taking orders? :)
I'm really looking forward to seeing more of your work.. :)
 
am working on an outline drawing of two indian elephants for a piece of embroidery for someone, so the unicorn etc has been on hold for a while - hands too fucked in the heat for stitching - this is just the first rough sketch to work out the shapes, I traced the main basic lines and shapes from a photograph (bone structures, muscles, wrinkles) then overlaid more paper to draw it in mehndi patterns. gotta finish it asap to do the next tracing in pen, final tracing will be on calico. The eventual stitches will be different lines of about 5-6 different chestnut brown tones to replicate henna on the skin. am toying with the idea of some shisha mirrors, but I've not done any of that work, so still undecided.

it's getting a bit messy with all the pencil because I keep changing my mind about different areas. think I'm balancing it quite nicely though, it's interesting to the eye, my favourite line is the one in the middle where it starts at the top of the head on the right, but ends at the trunk of the one on the left, nice flow to that. some of the lines are to indicate stitches, ie: lines with baales on is coral stitch, the single balles are french knots and so on - haven't really planned that intensively. is around A4 size

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re-tracing this to change some bits and clean it up a bit - was getting well grubby cus I used a 3B, switched to 2H. posting to kick my own arse, I need this finished and retraced and the colours figured out and put on calico by sunday. I spend too much time thinking about lines atm. I really need to start the first stitches on sunday, am three weeks behind on plan.

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