Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Naked Leather




When I first get my leather, it is a color best described as soft tan-peach. It's beautiful. I take my trusty 12 dollar swivel knife ( my fiance tried to buy me a new one that was both expensive and aesthetically pleasing, and I couldn't shake my love for the cheap starter knife, go figure :) ) and carve in the design of choice. And tool and tool and tool until satisfied. For the center of this belt the design is a rose. When you see it finished, it's shades of brown, antiqued and wiped away. For now, for a day, it is peach.

Every project brings with it the unexpected, exhilarating and slightly frightening reality that a bevy of things could happen that would merit a restart: knife slips, leather takes the antique poorly, cat decides to help, etc...but then when it's done it feels like a mountain climbed.

I am in the foothills now :)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I too use a cheap old swivel knife, but I have a really nice blade in which to me is the important part. It's nice to read a blog from another leatherworker and see we feel the same way when starting a tooled piece.

Oh, and the rose is gorgeous, I'm a bit jealous. :-)