What is a neat? And why are his feet oily?

Well, that's what my dad asked me when I asked if he knew whether I could get any neatsfoot oil in town here.

Neatsfoot oil. Why was I looking for some? Because no matter how good I ever get at leathercrafting, I will always be terrible at staining. That's just life. And I accept it. As long as I can have me some good ol'e neatfoot oil.
No, really. This stuff saved my life yesterday.

As a commissioned project, I created a 6 piece charger set for my uncles. (Later, I'll try to post something about the whole process so my wonderful readers can see the finished product.) The chargers themselves took me probably 10 or 12 hours to do all the cutting, stamping, tooling, and other work. When it was time to stain, I realised if I screwed up it was all over. I called my respected Master Leathercrafter, and asked her if she had any suggestions to make my staining job fool proof.

Her answer? Neatsfoot Oil!

What is it? Wikipedia tells me it's "a yellow oil rendered and purified from the feet (but not the hooves) and shin bones of cattle." So much for the poor little neat with oily feet.

Why is it going to work out for me so well? When applying any wet substance to leather, the fibers of the skin are dry and thirsty, and will soak up all they can. On the other hand, leather stain will soak into anything and everything, and when it dries, it's set permanently.

Dry thirsty leather + quick drying permanent substance =not much time to be sure the staining job is even

Basically the neatsfoot oil is there to prevent the leather from sucking up the leather stain at an insane rate. This gives you a chance to move it around and not have to worry about streaking and blotching. I mean you still have to be quick. Just not lightening speed.
Water can do the same thing if you lightly and evenly wet the leather and then let it dry just enough to where the leather turns back to it's natural color. The oil is the better and healthier decision(for your leather).

Needless to say, the chargers look amazing, and I can't wait to present them.

Crocheted Detail Tank Top

I decided to be daring. Hey, I'm a risk taker! Just... safer risks! Maybe some day I'll skydive. For now, my risk was with yarn, needle, thread, and $3 tank top from Wally World. Soon, I might try another one with a full back. We'll see.

My instructions here are not so much for the crocheter (or as my best friend would call us: hookers), but for the multimedia artist. I think wearable arts are so fun, and really get art crossing into the realm of function. I know, technically that's considered a craft. Read my artist statement and I'll tell you all of what I think about that.

I can attempt to write directions on the crocheted section if anyone wants, though most of my work is free form, so I would have to go back and count. It's basically a bunch of shells on top of each other, if that helps!

So here's where I can say my how-to: how to put this awesome crocheted section onto you're once before boring shirt to turn it into a FABULOUS masterpiece! Yes?

What you need:

Crocheted piece

Tank top, or other shirt of your choice

Needle

Thread the color of the yarn

Fabric marker (well, I used a sharpie. But according to most of my professors, I'm also crazy and succeed in things that are supposed to be impossible.)

This is how I did it. There's nothing saying it's the right way, but it's a way, and it worked:

Trace your crocheted section on a piece of card stock, making a stencil. This is so you don't accidentally mark up your beautiful handy work. When cutting your stencil, cut a bit inside your lines so the stencil is slightly (about 1/8 of an inch) smaller than the real thing. This helps pull the design tight and show it off!

Place your stencil directly on top of your shirt where you want it (careful- centering is something to consider.... personal experience) and trace with your fabric marker. Depending on where you are putting your design, the next step is just cutting it out!

The assembly. Putting it all together is the hardest part. (Sewing is not my strong point. I'm learning. I'm still not allowed to use my mom's sewing machine because it was so broken last time) I pinned mine together in a million places so the whole thing wouldn't budge. Next, just sew it on! Careful of the ends, collar of the shirt, and just in case, I made sure the ends of the yarn are included. This helps make it washing machine-able.

Enjoy! :)

Leather- a more difficult design

So yes, you can do leather and just stick to your everyday stamps and shapes that you purchase, or you can do something a little more special. I've been working on a set of chargers for a family friend. He requested trillium flowers with a small border. The chargers (which in this case are going to be more similar to place mats rather than plates) extend an inch beyond his dinner plates all the way around, and will be stained Fudge Brown.

So I started out the design with a good bit of research. I needed the perfect shaped trillium blossom that I could stylize to go with the dinner plates. Here's the test piece, and how I did it:

The biggest challenge for me was figuring out how I was going to get 8 perfect circles that were all exactly the same. Improvise. I went to the kitchen, and low and behold, the top to the wok was exactly the size I needed. I set the pot top on the leather and cut with an exacto knife. Voila! I ended up using a whole double shoulder of leather for this, but it's going to be worth it.

PS... a double shoulder is the spread from the bottom of one shoulder of the cow, up over the withers, and to the bottom of the other. You can buy leather in a variety of sizes, including a double shoulder, or single shoulder!

The rest, save for scrap test pieces and other small projects!

I needed to match the design of the plates, but didn't want to take away from the design. I sketched a few versions, and put the final one on tracing paper.

To transfer an image from tracing paper to leather:

Wet your leather. It won't transfer if you don't wet it.

Set your pattern on top of the leather, pencil up. You don't want your pencil markings to go onto the leather, because it won't come out.

Here's where you're supposed to use what's called a stylus, but since money is tight, I use a mechanical pencil with no lead exposed. This is just to make a mark in your leather that is faint and usually is covered by any tooling that you would do. Trace just hard enough so that the image will transfer, but not so hard that you will rip your paper. Remember, wet paper rips easily. I almost tried to make a joke about the durability of wet toilet paper, but I'll hold my tongue today. :)

Once your design is transferred, my best suggestion is to use a swivel knife to cut along the lines you just transferred so that when stamping, the relief area will be more pronounced. Starting with the forground, stamp along the outer edge with a smooth, flat, square stamp. (B201-00 from the Tandy website)

On my trillium chargers, I did the flower petals first, and then the leaves. I then used a smooth tear dropped shape stamp to give the leaves some texture. Leaves aren't perfectly smooth, so neither will mine. I used a few other stamps to give the flower some interest, and then used the swivel knife to give the leaves veins. Use your judgement on the details and accents. Anything to spice it up will help.

Enjoy! I'll follow up with more pictures of the finished product. This image is a sample for the colors, so I don't know how it will be stained in the end.

Leather- Lets get started

So it seems there is a lost art. The art of leather crafting. Well, maybe I should say lost trade. I picked it up working at Holiday Lake 4H Educational Center this past summer, and have gotten addicted to it. It's calming, rhythmic at times, and it can annoy some one in the room with the pound of a hammer! Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting!

Before you do leather crafting, you need to know that yes, it is SKIN. I had so many kids ask me if it was real skin. I get my leather through Tandy Leather, who takes the hides from animals used in their entirety. Also the stains and paints I use are Eco-friendly and 100% biodegradable. If you're a vegan, sorry.

There are two different kinds of leather. Veg-tan and Chrome-tan. The difference is in the tanning process.
Veg-tanned leather, in short, is tanned with vegetable extracts and is the kind of leather that is easily altered, moldable and stampable. It's the more decorative leather you might see in belts, saddles, boots, etc. Any mark made on it is permanent. Even pencil marks.
Chrome-tanned leather is tanned with chromium salts. It's what is used more typically in clothes. It is very easy to cut, and you can use a lace-maker on it quite easily. But I'll post about that another day.

These guidelines are going to be for working with Veg-tanned leather. You can buy it in all kinds of sizes and thicknesses. Just think about what you want to make, and the make the judgement.

The supplies:

Marble slab- you need a very very hard surface to hammer on, and one that doesn't bounce. I got mine through Tandy.
Mallet- you can get these in plastic or leather. I went with plastic. Just don't do rubber.
Stamps- designs, letters, backgrounds, whatever your heart desires.
Spray bottle filled with good ole H2O
Leather- make sure it's veg-tan
Good lighting
Creativity!!!


Let's get started.

Your leather can be cut into whatever shape you want with scissors or an exacto knife. I would suggest practicing before you do anything on your primary piece of leather.

Wet the leather with the spray bottle. Now it's not alive anymore, so it's not thirsty. Don't drench it. Just make sure that you get the surface wet enough so the water will absorb into the leather. Then hold your stamp straight up and down, touching the leather, and hammer. If you hammer too hard, you will puncture the leather. If you go to lightly, you won't make a mark.

There you have it!! More tips and techniques will come very soon, I promise.

Proceed and Be Bold

"Hi, I am Amos Kennedy. I am an artist. No, wait, I am not an artist. I am a printer."

On of the best art professors I have had the pleasure of exchanging conversation with. He'll tell you how it is.

"He manages to piss people off of all color. Often he'll make people angry because he makes race evident. He's always talking about race and a lot of people don't want to..."

"I like to tell people I'm colored by birth, negro by education, black by choice, but don't call me an African American. Why not African American? Because everyone is African American because life started there."

The Double Needle Coptic Stitch

I decided to make a few books with my leather crafting. The nicest looking bind for them thus far is the Coptic stitch. It's time consuming, but definitely worth it in the long run. I think this last one took me 3 days to sew it together. Well, three days of on and off sewing. Using a curved needle is to one's advantage. I killed my fingers trying to pull straight needles through. I haven't tried the single needle Coptic stitch yet, though I suppose it would be wrong for me to start with easy... that's me!

I had a really hard time finding directions that actually went along with the way I learned to do Coptic stitch. So here I'll make them myself. Hopefully photos will be added soon.

First things first.

What you need:

Paper
Book cover
2 needles- curved is best, but straight works too
Thread- The thicker, the wider your spine will be, though the "braided" edge will look nicer!
Needle tool or pin
Bone folder- this is optional, though you need something to crease your paper to a crisp fold

Setting up:
The paper size. It all depends on the size of your cover. When the book is completed, it is typically ideal to have the cover stick out 1/4 of an inch beyond the paper on all sides except for the spine. This protects the paper, and it looks better. For example: If you have paper that is 8 1/2 x 11-regular computer paper- and fold it in half (hamburger way) for your signature, you will have each signature 8 1/2 x 5 1/2. This means your cover should be 9 x 5 3/4.

PS... a signature is a grouping of paper folded in half to form a mini book.

The pages. The book can have as many pages you want. Just make sure each signature is no more than 10 pages. This is a suggestion so that your pages will each be about the same - folding them makes the outer edge take a zigzag shape. Plus, it makes sewing a bit easier.

The thread. You need one piece of thread for every 2 sets of holes. If you want the binding to have 4 rows of "braided" stitching, you need 2 pieces of thread. Each piece should be about an arm length and a half, though if you are working with a lot of paper, take this into consideration.

The jig. No, it's not a fishing lure. The jig is a piece of paper folded to match the height of your signatures so you can make the holes perfect. It helps to either write TOP on one end, or make some other marking to distinguish the direction of your jig.

The holes. You need an even number of holes. This is because you will be stitching from both ends of the thread. I suggest measuring on your jig so your holes are even lengths away from each other. Say we have our folded computer paper signatures. Remember the 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 one? Since the spine is along the 5 1/2 folded side, for a spine with 4 rows of stitching I suggest doing your holes in inch increments with an inch and a half between the middle holes. Use your needle tool or pin and poke holes where you wish. Make sure your holes are in the same place on your cover as well!
Set your jig on the inside of the fold of your first signature and use your needle tool to poke the holes. Repeat on all signatures.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for....


Binding your book:
Start by taking your first signature and from the inside, thread both needles (one on either end of the thread) through your holes. Now with your thread on the outside of the signature, thread down through the hole of your outside cover, and then back into the hole you just came out of. Repeat with the other hole. Now on the inside of the signature, cross the thread and stitch each needle out of the other hole. The thread should lay flat inside the signature.

Now with your thread on the outside of your first signature, thread each needle into the hole of the signature directly above it. This is the only time you will stitch straight up into the next signature without doing the kettle stitch. Don't worry. It's coming.
On the inside of signature 2, cross your threads and exit through the holes.

The Kettle Stitch. Starting with one of your threads- with the needle, reach down and thread behind the threads between the cover and signature 1, and then back out the other side. It's basically a half hitch (a loop with the end pulled through to create a lock). Thread into the hole directly above into signature 3. Same with other side, and then cross inside signature 3 and exit again.

Rinse and repeat.

After you have added all of your signatures, to add the final cover, exit from the last signature, thread up through the outside cover, and back into the same hole you just exited from. Same with the other side. Now inside the last signature, tie the ends of the thread together and cut.

Fin!

Tips:
Make sure when you are stitching, don't pull too tight as you can rip the paper in your signature. On the same note, make sure to pull it somewhat tight as to keep the width of your spine as tight and small as possible.

Some people wax their thread as to prevent it from getting fuzzy. Hey, paper can wear a thread out if you're not careful!

Jazz it up! If you're feeling kinda plain and want some color in your life, try putting a piece of colored paper on the outside of each signature!

I've never tried it, but I've read that if instead of using one long thread, on the inside of signature 1 you can tie off 2 different colored threads... the "braid" on the spine will alternate colors as you ascend to each signature!

Bette Davis eyes... painted with Mascara