The Kitchen at 404 Blackaby Street, The Panels, Part 2

These are really gorgeous, Tom. Nobody has cabinets like these!

-- Tom, Surfside Beach, SC - Romans 8:28

I do. LOL

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

You’re good at this Tom!!! These are masterpieces.

-- Tom, Surfside Beach, SC - Romans 8:28

Where did you learn your leather work ? Looks awesome.

-- ..... art for lifes sake

Great Tom. The leather work is a work of art. But I guess that what make you what you are an artist.

Great job. Enjoy them and your warm kitchen.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

wow! you are sooo talented ! you certainly do the cowboys proud .

-- if you aint the lead dog the scenery never changes

Dan,
I started working leather when I was 15. Since then I’ve worked in custom saddle shops and owned 4 of my own. The last few years the shop was on the ranch. I was lucky and worked with some of the best in the business over the years. I also studied 4 years of , in reality, college level art while in high school. Later, my mother took the Famous Artist’s correspondence course and I inherited the books when she was through. I gave up on fine art and went to the saddles to make up for the lack of art in my life. I’ve worked with wood since 1978 and with leather since 1962. I started to build saddles in 1983.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Tom, this is amazing work! Really beautiful! I love to see two different disciplines combined to create something that wouldn’t be acheived otherwise.

-- Coffee is best with a fine layer of sawdust on top. -- http://www.north40custom.com

That leatherwork is as fine as any I’ve ever seen. I would have never thought oif putting it on kitchen cabinets, but it’s a fantastic idea!

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Now they are just wonderful. Boy what a great job you did on these. I admire your ability to do such wonderful work in leather. I have dabbled doing some leather work on wallets and such but never would get to this level..

-- Max "Desperado", Salt Lake City, UT

Amazing stuff Tom. I’m from the plains of northern Texas originally and this brings back a few memories. I tried my hand at leather work once when I was a teenager. I found I didn’t have the patience at the time but it does give me a deeper understanding of just how nice these pieces are. How many hours went into them?

I wish I could show these to my grandfather. He would definitely appreciate them.

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN

Jeff,
Thanks for the comment. Each panel took from 8 to 14 hours to complete. Of course, it took me 45 years to get to the place where I could complete one in that time. After the design is laid in it is just concentrate on doing a good job but I don’t have to think about it as much as I did when I was young.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Wow! I’d think this would sell like hot cakes on hutches, gun cabinets, and such. What the world is missing.

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

Wow, Tom! Those pieces look even more impressive close up!

I never considered gluing my leather to the wood BEFOREtooling, but now that I think on it, it just makes sense. Leather just seems to get all bent out of shape when you tool it, course, tooling IS beating it out of its original shape!

Fantastic job! You have forgotten more than I know about tooling leather and woodworking!

God Bless,
Hawg
(Still plugging away at learning and refining both leather and wood working!)

-- Saving barnwood from the scrapyards

Thomas that is some beautiful tooling. I’ve done quite a bit of leather work, but it’s been many years ago. I certainly never attained your level of workmanship. It’s funny, but just the other day I was going through some stuff in the shop and came across a bunch of my leather tools. It’s the only hobby I’ve ever had that I actually made money with. I used to make belts, wallets and purses – but that was back in the 70’s, haven’t touch it since. Maybe it’s time to try it again, now where did I put that slab of marble?

-- Bill - "Suit yourself and let the rest be pleased." http://www.cajunpen.com/

By god Tom those are incredible.

-- I've cut that board three times and it's still too short!

magnificent art.
Your description makes it sound very relaxing, rewarding, and inspiring!

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Those look great! I’m envious you get to work both leather AND wood!

-- miles125, Alabama.."Architecture is frozen music""

Thanks for the kind words, everyone.

Bill, that’s how we started. My father became an invalid and my mother quit her job to milk the cows and we took over the farming. There was no money at Christmas. My ag teacher had carved leather for years. He told me he knew a way we could make some quick money. He set my mom and I up with tools and we were selling purses and billfolds within a week. Mom would lace while watching TV. We spent a lot of evenings on the kitchen table. It’s never been that easy since but it was a great start.

Marc, if you will glue the leather down with rubber cement to poster board, illustration board or even heavy paper , it will peel off but not stretch while you carve or stamp it. Don’t use Barge.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

How well does it clean up in the kitchen? It is wonderful art work, but in the kitchen? I love cooking but I am a messy cook :) The first thing I thought of was “how do you clean it”. I think you should get some magazine to post this work on the cover.

-- "so much to learn and so little time"..

Snowdog,
The panels are made to be removed and cleaned. They will clean up with saddle soap and water just like a saddle. I think you would be amazed how little dirt these collect. The cupboard has been in the kitchen for over 18 months and shows no sign of being dirty. I wouldn’t put them over the sink or the stove for obvious reasons. Now a days, the kitchen is no dirtier than the rest of the house. Also, the top coat I use keeps a lot of the dirt from settling and Carleen wipes them down pretty frequently. If you are that messy I would switch to resolene which is an acrylic topcoat. Don’t forget, this carving is usually used on saddles which survive horse sweat, cow manure and all kinds of weather and abuse.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Simply incredible, outstanding craftsmanship. Congratulations. How long does it take to make one of these works of art?

-- Bob A in NJ

These pictures are even better! Thanks for posting them. You do incredible leather work and I am really glad to see this. I just can’t say enough about it. Very creative use of the leather in cabinetry.

-- Todd A. Clippinger, Montana, http://amcraftsman.com

Wow those are awesome!!!!I might have to keep your leather work in mind for a future project if your interested in a colaboration piece.

-- Scott NM,http://www.shangrilawoodworks.com

Just flat out amazing work!

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA

Fantastic. I have never seen tooled leather panels before. You do beautiful work.

-- http://dustynewt.webs.com/

wow, I’m blown away. I can see why Lee chided me on not including you in my assessment of finely carved leather. Great work Thomas. I have missed somehow in the past that you did leather work. I watch my internet with an accelerator running, so the photos always come through fuzzy. This is worth waiting for the full download time.

Do you have this door panel work in your booth at the gallery mall?

loved it, blown away,
Mark

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flinthill's Artisan

Tom, I really like them, you do some amazing, & artistically beautiful work.

-- Dick Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

Mark,
I have lots of it at Homeshow Daily, until the first of the year. We have had zero return from that deal and are terminating our contract there. They don’t even know what this is.

Thanks Dick, and DN, and Dorje et al

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

That is really beautiful.

-- Jiri

This is one of the many I missed when it was posted. I’m glad we keep getting new folks here because it brings things back to the top of the list as they go through all the projects. Beautiful work Tom, I love the leather surrounded by wood.

-- When you give someone a chance it may well be their last.

Thomas I guess I missed this one. You do fantastic work brother. The cabinets are great. and only 8 – 14 hours to complete. About the same for me making one out of wood.

Is the wood Sapele?

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Very ornate. Must be somewhere near a million hours of work in that.

-- Maplewood, MN

Thanks for the kind comments everybody.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Amazing – never seen anything like that in a kitchen before, but it’s beautiful! What a unique thing – thanks for sharing.

-- -- Kevin in Mentor, Ohio