Leather tooling/carving

Nope neither of us can draw. I'm big on tracing paper. I almost never use a whole pattern though. Mostly elements from here and elements from there. Seldom find a pattern that works for me and what I'm trying to do. I had a saddle made once and the saddle maker came to the ranch and picked some oak leaves off of one of my trees. He went home and flattened them in a book and then used them to make his pattern for carving on the saddle, that was pretty cool. Speaking of saddles thought I'd share this pic with you. Nichole is selling one of her saddles, fits the horse great (the most important part) but is a little big for her. She's having another one built by the same guy. This is the cantle of the saddle she's selling. John Willamsma the maker is a well known TCAA (Traditional Cowboy Artists Association,) member and he is particularly known for his carving. Here's something all of us that scratch leather could aspire too:

KVjSBaV.jpg
 
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wow that's gorgeous , looks alot fancier then my old saddle. Dave I couldn't help but notice the conchos on the saddle are held down in the same manner that you tie your lanyards on your knives. What kind of know or how are they tied?
 
Thats called a blood knot. Or often referred to as being bled on. I have a special tool made by Horseshoe Brand Tools availble from Weaver but an exacto knife works pretty darn well too. Ours is just a working saddle check the video in the link to see what John does when he's showing off. That saddle in the video sold for $48,000.

http://tcowboyarts.org/members/john-willemsma/

Its also a good little primer on how to go about a project. He really stresses the importance of patterns.
 
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Unreal , you can really see the attention to detail. He's a real artist. Someone that can improvise and a swivel knife becomes a part of him. I can't even trace a straight line to save my life. I can make a mean meat loaf though ... i can't just kidding
 
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