For the past 4 weekends, I have been at the Austin and San Antonio Tandy Leather stores upping my skills in leather working.  I have learned how to use a swivel knife and how to tool; hand stitching, and dying and finishing. 

Last weekend, I tried to make another cover, this time for a 8 1/2" by 5" notebook (see here for my small book covers and adventures in leather) and let's just say it was a bit of a failure, so moving on... 

I spent the week watching some more video's and asking question in the leather group I belong to and yesterday I  started another cover which I just finished.   

As you can see on this cover, I used a frame to mount a chasing & repousse panel, I did some decorative stamping, hand stitching and an overall dye color.

I did find a few things that I have to change/improve before I start making these and the smaller books, to sell.  I did not add antiquing which would put a dark color in the tools (patina as we could call it for metals)  and as you can see my panel is off center, due to the tooling, and card holder is a bit off kilter - but I learned lots.  ​
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I spent part of this weekend learning some basic leather working skills.  

Why? 

Well, 3 -4 years ago I worked on a series of leather journal covers with a riveted metal panel that had chasing & repousse designs. And even though they are all in the hands of others, I knew that this was something that I wanted to continue to make and eventually sell but the move to Texas and not having a studio interfered with my ability to resume this work.  Having a studio again, and having everything unpacked, I was finally able to do something about that and earlier in the month, I signed up for 3 leather workshops - this weekend was tooling, then I will have a workshop on sewing by hand and with a machine; and then a class by about dying. 

These will give me the basic skills to raise the visual appeal of the covers. 

What did I learn this weekend in the tooling class? I learned pattern transfer, casing (wetting) the leather, using a swivel knife, and 6 basic tool techniques using a Camouflage, pear shader, beveler, veiner, seeder and background stamps. We had a scrap of leather where we could practice with a specific tool and then we tooled a flower on a leather coaster. 

I did find that my chasing and repousse skills helped me understand how to not only hold the tools but to hammer and move the tools to even work; the teacher even commented that my "beginner" skills were very good.

So stay tuned, more leather and metal work is on the way!

In between teaching a few private workshop, I have been working on the last panel, for my first set of leather book covers.  The first one, a ginkgo leaf came out well and gave it to a friend who just loved it, how could I not. Then I did the palmette panel followed by another ginko leaf and now I have finished the leaves cover. The design was supposed to be bamboo but it look more like a lotus to me - but what it is, is up to you.

I started this panel about a 3 weeks ago and I just finished it.  Next I have to cut the leather and dye it; rivet the panel to the front and then sew on the end flaps. This I will do next week week.  But until then, here are the process pictures, mostly of the final chasing.​

Yes, it has been a while since I posted but I have been very busy trying to get back on track with projects and the always messy studio. 

This week and this post is about completing the first of three book cover projects - the covers having a chased and repoussed (sp?) panel.  

​Back in May I made a book cover prototype with a ginkgo leaf on it.  In July, I bought some more "pocket" books and started to work up the templates to cut the leather for 4 different sizes/types. I then cut more leather, sewed them and made sure the books fit in the covers.  Along the way, since then I received a request for 3 covers and I worked up the designs for them but since things got crazy with the day job and then the trip to Nechamkin Silver Studios, a couple of private classes I was asked to give and not a lot of progress was being made on the book covers.

I was able to finish the first panel about 3 weeks ago and so I set aside this weekend (Thanksgiving) to finish the first book.  First I had to trim up the panel and drill the holes for the rivets. I did a bit more polishing to clean up the clean up. Next up was to cut the leather and dye it and let it dry. Yesterday I was able to rivet the panel to the front of the book, stamp my makers mark on the leather, sew the end flaps and fit the book.  1 down, 2 more to go. 

I like having a 3 day weekend because I can work on a project and IF I planned correctly, I can finish it; and I have done just that.

What was this weekends project? A leather notebook cover with a chasing & repousse panel. I have wanted to do a panel on a book for quite a while but this project has been pushed down the to-do list many times due to prep-work for workshops or commissions or LIFE in general.

Not this weekend; nor did I take on doing a large panel such that I would not be able to finish it and then add to that the time commitment - I took 2 of my cuff's to the setup of the San Diego Fair and I used several hours up on Saturday.

The panel was to be a Ginkgo leaf which also just happened to be the subject of the challenge in the Facebook Chasing & Repousse group. See what I am doing - I am taking care of two goals at once! And even though I am the admin for the group and I organize the challenges, many times I actually don't do them, again for lack of time.

Let's start the project shall we? 
 Step 1 - Make the panel.
 Step 2 - Make the notebook cover.
 Step 3 - Attach the panel to the cover and add a blank book.

The design was to be worked on brass which I thought would be a nice color to go along with the leather notebook cover I was also going to make. YES, not only was a doing the panel and attaching it to a notebook cover, I was making the cover too. Can you say over achiever? 

I put the brass into the pitch on Saturday afternoon and then drew the design on to the metal and even lined it. While the pitch cooled, I drew up the pattern for the notebook cover, played with the dye colors on some scrap leather, and figured out I was going to bind the book into the cover so I could reuse the cover as well as adding a closure.  After I lined the leaf, I turned the metal over so it would be ready for the repousse on Sunday.

Sunday, I was able to do all the repousse and flip it again so I could do the final chasing on Monday (today). I also cut out my leather for the book cover and dyed the outside green and the inside yellow and along the way trimmed the corners so they would be round. The dye would be dry by Monday morning and then I could seal it to give it some water resistance. 

This morning (Monday) I finished up the chasing and removed it from the pitch. I then trimmed the panel and polished it. While it was in the ultrasonic cleaner to remove the polishing compounds,  I punched the holes on the spine of the leather so I could thread the chording. I also punched the holes for the closure.  Once the panel was out of the cleaner, I figured out where the rivets would go, I drilled the holes in the panel; marked the holes on the leather and then punched the holes for the rivets. After attaching the panel, I then used my makers mark to stamp the back of book cover. It was time to add my little notebook and take pictures which puts us now here at posting the pictures and writing this blog post.

Enjoy the pictures and soon I will have a few book covers for sale in my store, I will let you know when.