First attempt

[FEATHERS]

Hi all,I am new to leatherwork & new to the forum,I am posting a pic of my first project a pair of chaps I made for my daughter,after practicing for about 10 months with my tools on scrap leather & getting used to the feel of them,I felt confident enough to jump straight in.The colour is saddle tan & black water proof marker in the background & it is hand stitched.As I live in Australia I am limited with doing any courses here,but I have a lot of books from lucky 7 up to clint fay.So any comments & any hints on my tooling will be great.Feathers

[Freedom]

WOW Feathers!!! Tha tooling practice really paid off!  The depth you created into that center floral looks like you could serve soup from it!!

One thing I would add..if you use a bag punch and run your front buckle strap threw the slot and then rivet it, you get a much stronger hold...The rivet will give "shear" strength instead of just pullin on the head....    That being said, a lot of guys want the strap to fail in case they ever get it hung up on something (saddle horn) during a wreck. don't know if that is what you had in mind , but just a suggestion..

Very fine workmanship

[Marshal Will Wingam]

That's really good, Feathers. The contrasting background really works with that tooling. Nice work. I referred to that lucky 7 book for years when I'd tool something. Looks like it worked for you really well. Thanks for sharing.

[FEATHERS]

Hi guys,Thanks very much for the comments,just finding this forum has inspired me to keep up this beautiful art.Feathers

[cowboywc]

Howdy Feathers
Very nice job.
WC
P.S.
Do you know about this?
http://www.dimensionsinleather.com/

[FEATHERS]

Hi WC,Thanks for the heads up on the conference over here,I will look into it as Brisbane is only 1 hour drive.Feathers

[cowboywc]

Howdy
Anytime.
There are always great instructors there.
The lady who puts it on  won the Al Stohlman Award last year.
WC

[FEATHERS]

Hi Marshall Will,Thanks for your comments on my chaps.I thought I might share a site that I found that has got some really good videos that you can play,very useful.www. cowboysaddlery.com then click on videos.Helped me a lot.Feathers

[Ace Lungger]

Howdy Feathers and Welcome,
I think the Chaps are AWESOME Your practice, has paid off in a big way!! I only hope that some day I get that good!
your work is great, and thank you for sharing that with us! that gives people like me, that just started using a swivel knife , big hopes!
Thanks
ACE

[Johnny McCrae]

Howdy Feathers,

That is a beautiful job of carving. Great design and real professional looking! We look forward to seeing your future projects.

[FEATHERS]

G'Day Ace & Johnny,Once more thanks for the comments,I'm only new to carving as well & just joining this forum has helped me a lot truely inspiring people here.Feathers.

[Gun Butcher]

   Feathers, welcome to the fire and good on ya mate. That is some mighty fine work.
                                   Gun Butcher

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

        Howdy Feathers

           Well like the others have said, and they pretty much have summed it up, BEAUTIFUL WORK, to say the least Pard, it's good to have you ridding with us, and I will look forward to seeing much more from you.

                                                   Regards


                                                   tEN wOLVES

[JD Alan]

Man alive Feathers, if this is what you do when you're new to leather working, I can't wait to see your work is a couple of years!

Realy nice work

WC, great link you shared there. I'd not heard of it. Thanks JD