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I finally got to work on my rehab art project. My maternal grandmother made tooled leather wallets, key chains and purses. I’m not sure where she learned how. After she passed away, my aunt got all of her leather-working tools. I asked to borrow them and made wallets self-taught. Getting tired of that, I decided to try a project way beyond anything I had done with leather so far. I bought a piece of leather and cut it in the shape of a cowhide and tooled a southwest scene with a stallion and other wild horses. To my surprise it came out beautiful. I had it framed and it hung in my house for 20 years. The colors faded slightly, but it still looked great. In 1998 It was wrapped up and boxed with my other stuff when I moved to my current home. Since I decided to go for a different décor, I left it boxed in the garage for the last 23 years. Deciding to get it out to see if mice had damaged it, I found they hadn’t but that all the colors had faded.

So my project now was to see if I could re-dye the areas that lost color. The problem with that was I had applied a lightweight sealant back in the beginning which made adding color difficult now. So, the results are better than it was in its faded form, but not as good as it was originally. However, it’s not going back to the garage. I’ve found the perfect place for it in my extra bedroom.


Here’s the finished product today. I had a hard time photographing it because light from different angles changes the appearance of the color of the leather. So this is the best I could get. The darkness on the right is just from less light.



This shows the shape of the leather like a cowhide, but just moving a little changed the appearance of the colors in the photo.



This is how it looked faded before I started this project.



This is how it looked 43 years ago in a very poor Polaroid photo, but with vibrant colors.

So, I’m happy with the outcome, but a little disappointed it doesn’t look like it did originally.
Sandi

it's beautiful ... you did a really great job
sheila

It still looks beautiful and shows how incredibly talented you are!

Thank you. It was a fun project.

I also did “The Good Shepherd” after completing the horses and gave it to my church.


Sandi

You are so talented. I'm glad it's getting wall space again.

Amazing work! Your talent really shows through!
Velda

Sandi, you have amazing talent & looks like it isn't anything new. Thanks for sharing your artistic side with us. Can't wait to see what you share next.

Sandi those look really good. I am impressed by how versatile you are in your projects. I wish I had gotten the artsy fartsy gene but alas I did not. My cousin sent me a care package yesterday. She made me 2 beautiful quilts, and 1 large wall hanging about why I love my dog, and another small one with a likeness of Emma. Now I have to get a couple of dowels so I can hang them in my office. I love everything she sent. She obviously got all the crafty genes.

Love these Sandi; awesome work and glad to see you sharing.

OregonLuvr wrote:Sandi those look really good. I am impressed by how versatile you are in your projects. I wish I had gotten the artsy fartsy gene but alas I did not. My cousin sent me a care package yesterday. She made me 2 beautiful quilts, and 1 large wall hanging about why I love my dog, and another small one with a likeness of Emma. Now I have to get a couple of dowels so I can hang them in my office. I love everything she sent. She obviously got all the crafty genes.

Karen, the quilts and wall hangings your cousin made sound wonderful and are things I’m sure you’ll treasure forever. I guess I got the gene from my parents but in different ways than they used it. My dad, the aeronautical engineer, could design and build anything from a machine to grind our terrazzo floors during the construction of our house to designing a space program vehicle whose shape was the precursor to the space shuttle. My mom could sew anything, loved to crochet, and knitted beautiful afghans. My interests went in different directions, but the gene was there I guess. My granddaughter apparently has the gene seen in her drawings and cute crocheted animals.

I’d like to thank all of you on the forum for allowing me to share my artwork. The last 10 or 12 years have been difficult dealing with my daughter. I don’t know what her problem is, but it’s heartbreaking that she and my 4 grandchildren live only 37 miles from me and I only see them a couple times each year. The pandemic has made all this worse so getting back to some artwork has given me something to do rather than thinking about family problems. So “Thank you” to all of you.
Sandi

Karen, that's so wonderful you now have new heirloom items to enjoy! Your cousin sounds talented.
Sandi, sounds like art has become both therapy and pleasurable pass time for you. A very good thing. I love seeing your projects.
Velda

Wow!

Sandi, don’t know how I missed this posting of your beautiful leather work. Just amazing. Carol’s Bill would be so impressed at your artistic ability as are we. You are our resident artist. As anxious to see where you go next.

I saw the first leather work but not the second you do good work I dabbled in it for a bit when in 4-H but that's been a long time ago....
my step father also did lots of leather tooling... was a master tooler used to have a leather wallet he did somewhere in the basement I am sure is a saddle that he tooled there is so much that can be done with that talent
you do so good in all you do
sheila

Sandi, I also missed this post and am in awe of your talent! You do beautiful work!