Flask complete!

I went back and tweaked the compass gear design one more time – I decided to use a gear that has more teeth.

I also gave the pattern a boarder.

Next, I traced the pattern onto the leather.  I just went over the trace with a ball point pen this time, and it worked pretty well.

Next I carved the pattern into the leather with the swivel knife.

Then beveling and using the background tool on the inside of the gear.

I used a new, smaller beveler on the gear teeth.  I like the lined pattern that it makes.  Of course, when I background the outside of the gear, those lines will go away.  I’ll have to find a project that will let me show that detail at some point.

Next, I used a “geometric stamp” on the left and right flaps of this piece of leather.

The imprint left by the tool is actually a small X shape.  But when used in succession as I did here, the strikes form a square (a geometric shape – hence the name).

Then it was time for the last bit of tooling – the background between the boarder and the central pattern.

Happily, I used a bigger background tool for this larger space, or it would have taken a REALLY long time.  I also used the spoon shaped end of the modeling tool that came with my kit to round the edges of the boarder and compass arms.

Next step: fun with leather dye.

On the background, I used a dark brown.  I used the resist technique and a light brown dye on the compass points.   The gear and the rest are dyed “saddle tan.”  And then I applied the finisher to seal in the stain.  I learned a couple of really interesting things this time out:

• Using the background tool makes the leather quite porous.   Which, you know, I should have expected from a tool which effectively pokes a bunch of holes into a surface.   Thus, it took a lot of dye to get a good dark color, and it took a REALLY long time to dry.
• The saddle tan dye doesn’t work the same way as my water based dyes.  I stained part of our living room table with an inadvertent spill.  I also stained part of the kitchen sink when I was cleaning everything up.
• The finisher darkens up the dye just a bit.

The next day was Saturday, so I took my leather to class at Tandy and learned how to affix this to it’s intended home – a shiny new flask.

Super washed out background!

I used some contact cement on the flaps, and then stitched the whole thing together.   I learned that you do leather stitching with  two needles.  You center the thread at the start, and then work from both ends – like lacing up a pair of shoes.

And here is the finished product:

One steampunk flask, perfect for costumed occasions, camping, and parties of all sorts!

Now, for a test drive…

A perfect pair!

Thus ends my first completed leather project!  I’m quite pleased with the outcome.  I figure I’ll use it maybe twice a year, but it was a good sized project to go through all of the steps of leathercrafting.  If you want to see the pictures with more detail, look through the album.