Fine Writing

Writing on leather has always been a pain - very few option exist: You can stamp out letters, or tool them in, or have them laser engraved, but I think by far the best is writing with a wood burning pen!

I did this can cover many years ago. I was surprised to see my own very small work.

I had left my burning pen in South Africa and so I bought a new one. The tips were too big! So I filed them down. I still did not get a nice fine writing. Then I realized my original woodburning pen had a temperature control - on the net that meant a $300 layout! Disaster.

Luckily I came upon a website with instructions to build a under-$20-temp-controlled gourd burning pen. Ten minutes after I got home with the light dimmer switch, I was writing small! (I still have to build the dimmer switch into a more permanent little box....)

To see a video of me burning with the pen, have a look at my instructional blog, LeatherLearn.

A Stool from the past

 

 

 

I used a thirty year old kit for this chair (the legs were newly made by a friend) - I did replace the original latigo lace pieces with new brown latiga laces that were in beter condition.

The designs are my own - one is a simple basketweave with my favourite border around. The second corner is an imitation frog skin effect that can be seen on the www.leatherlearn.com instructional blog, and the third is just a random drawing I did.

The dyes are all the Eco-Flow waterbased dyes and then I put a coat of Drake's X1 dressing over that.

Anatomy of a leg

 

This is after a drawing by hogarth to introduce anatomy to artists. His drawings lend themselves very well to leather carving. This piece has yet to be framed....

Restoring with New Dye

 

I wanted to test the new Eco-Flo dye on an old existing project and the results were spectacular. This old handbag had been lying around my store for two years and as you can see on the one side, the color - done with the old spirit based dyes - completely faded!

The handbag had been treated with Aussie Conditioner and Dubbin, but not in the last six months. So I simply applied the new waterbased dyes directly on top. The dye penetrated well and you can see how the newly restored half looks. I have not yet applied a new conditioner over the new dye.

A Christmas Album

I managed to finish this in time to give to very good friends as a Christmas gift. A very nice project to work on and it came out 98% as I planned it should!

A Store Door Sign

I recently completed this door sign for a store front door.



A loose panel slides out at the back and can be turned around to show either "open" or "closed". That whole construction was made of leather and a hardboard panel was glued in between the two pieces of leather to keep things flat.











In the photo below take note of the thin black line, made with an extra thin sharpie, that gives a lot of definition to the carving that is being left uncolored (No antiques to go sit in the impressions and outline that carved figures.
















The next one shows the back of the sign. You can see where the open/close panel sits in its pocket at the back - it is lifted out and flipped around at open and close time.





Some of the detail from the back shows an African Cape Buffalo, and not a waterbuffalo as most Americans think.



Here is some detail from the back - just having fun with gemetric background designs.

From the distant past

Just dug up these old newspaper articles. And I realized if I do not digitize and electronify them now, they are going to be lost soon - they were real yellow already. But, cyber era to the rescue and here I have them "renewed" again.

This photo with the few words appeared in a local newspaper in Roodepoort South Africa in September 1985.


Some of the interesting scenes at the Roodepoort Publicity Association Hobby and Country fair recently. Enthusiasts from all over the West Rand came to see the exquisite dolls and other hobby demonstrations. Here are a few of them: Johan Potgieter, caught deep in concentration, while decorating a piece of leather.

Update April 5, 2019:  Found the whole article - 

Restoration Progress even Further

The coloring of the figure is done and the picture looks close to what it was when I finished it twenty years ago. Looking at the original photo shows that it must have been close to the same hue of brown that I used then as well.

On the next photo the background has also been given a light coat of tan to cover the white scars left by the thinners when I removed the Neatlac layers that covered the original.

The next step is rubbing on Dubbin to seal and waterproof the leather and help preserve it. You can see the rich lustre it gives to the leather and the spirit based dyes.

Restoration Progress

Slowly but surely the former image is emerging from the faded leather.

Restoration

This was the original work a few years after I finished it in 1982 - it is about fifty inches high and forty inches wide. Done on veg-tan African Buffalo leather - the hide was a gift from a friend and I had it tanned at a tannery near Johannesburg.

The artwork is a copy of a drawing by Hogarth, one of the original Tarzan artists - it is from his book "Dynamic Light and Shade."

This wall hanging has traveled extensively with me and when the glue-gun glue finally came off the back and let go of the leather frame, I decided it was also time to get the whole thing restored.

So I attacked it with thinners and a hefty scrubbing brush to get the four layers of Neat-Lac off - the dye had faded badly as you can see on the next photo.

With the leather clean again, I am now busy dyeing the figure first as close as I can to the original. On this second photo you can see the small piece that has been done so far. I am very pleased with the results.