One of the least complicated leather stamps to use is the
seeder. If I described it as a dot on the leather, it might seem very
insignificant but it can be used in places other than on the flower centers.
Seeders come in different sizes and different patterns as well. As with the
other stamps I have described in the previous posts, it is not necessary to
have a bunch of different seeders to stamp your pattern.
I just viewed the Tandy Leather Factory website and to look
at their tools and I found that many of the tools that were available when I
first started tooling leather are no longer made. It is possible that they had
to cut back on the number of stamps that they were making to reduce the cost of
production and a possibility of overstock. They also offer a conversion chart
for their stamps and here is the address: http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/media/downloads/CraftoolConversionChart.pdf.
Just copy and paste it into your browser to visit the site but be sure to come
back and finish reading this post
The way I look at using the seeder is to think in the realm
of geometry. I found out early that although not too complicated, the seeder
stamp offered a few of its own challenges to the user. When I refer to geometry,
I am referring to circles. The best illustration that I can offer you is for
you to take some coins, such as pennies, and arrange them. If you place one
penny as a center and place the others around it, you will find that only six
pennies will fit around the center one. (See the photo below.)
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| Pennies arranged to demonstrate basic use of a seeder |
One of the things that you have to be careful about when
using the seeder, especially when stamping lightweight leather is that it is
small and circular just like a punch. I have almost ruined the leather for a
wallet cover by having the stamp go almost all the way through the leather. I
was probably a little heavy handed with the mallet and the leather may have
been a little too damp. That was in the old days before I learned that you do
not want your leather wet, just a little moist. Have I said that before?
The photo below represents, badly at that, what you might
see if you were looking over the edge of a petal into a flower. For years, I could
not figure out what kind of flower looked like that. Then one day it dawned on
me that I was looking at it wrong. Please forgive the different lengths of the
two sides. If you look, the portion of the line to the right of the center is
shorter than the one on the left. You can tell by looking at this bit of a
pattern why I am terrible at drawing with a pencil or pen.
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| Flower petal line |
When you compare the “flower petal line” shown above with
the layout of the pennies, and if everything on my line were correct, the
pennies would be arranged differently. The center penny would be a little lower
than those to the left would and right and would throw off the arrangement of
the pennies all the way around. Also, bear in mind that the pennies are a lot
bigger than the seeder stamps. That might sound as if it might be a disaster in
the making but you are working with leather and it is a somewhat forgiving
medium. The photo below more or less demonstrates the basic idea of what I am
trying to point out here.
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| Pennies arranged on the petal line |
In the photo above you can see that there four pennies around
the center but they are not perfectly arranged and this allow gaps between the
coins. This is perfectly normal for using the seeder on leather. A person
looking at the tooling on the pattern would be rather hard pressed to pick out
any imperfections in the stamping with the seeder. What might stick out like a
sore thumb would be very large gaps between the stamps instead of putting them
as close together as possible. Crowding your seeder stamps close together will
probably look better than having large spaces between them.
The photo below shows a flower that I carved freehand
because I was in a hurry. I had another project that I had applied cement to
the surfaces to be glued together and I did not want it to dry too much. The
flower might look somewhat better if its parts were in better proportion but
that is not what I am demonstrating here. The photo below shows what one side
of the petal line looks like after being beveled. It is important, at least to
me, to bevel the petal lines before using the seeder. It will give more of a
dimensional look to your design.
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| Right side of flower petal line beveled |
The number of rows of seeds that you put on a flower is
dependent upon what you think looks the best. What you want to keep in mind is
that the smaller the flower, the fewer rows of seeds you want to put on your
flowers. If stamping a small flower, you may want to use a smaller seeder that
will keep everything in proportion with the rest of the design. The photo below
demonstrates reasonably how you might want to arrange the seeds along the petal
line. If a larger seeder were used you would want to use fewer rows while
achieving approximately the same diameter of seeds displayed along the line.
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| Seeder used on the flower petal line |
You are not confined by any kind of law or regulation as to
how you use your seeder to decorate other parts of your pattern. Personally, I
would not get too wild with it but it is your project to do whatever you wish
to do with or to it. Below is an example of how the seeder can be used on the
stem of a flower to add and accent. I like this use of the seeder because it
does help set off the stem at the base of the flower a little bit.
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| Seeder used on the flower stem |
Another way to add a little more character to a leaf on a
pattern is to put a seeder stamp on the stem at the base of it. One is usually
enough and you might find that more than one is too much. This anecdote about
my early days more or less point the use of too many seeders can be
challenging. I thought that I had to have a lot of different patterns to offer
people so that they would purchase my products. One of the patterns that I did
not particularly like had a various sized seeder stamps used as flower stem. It
was not so much the number of them but the sizes that were used. There were
four or five different ones used to create the stem, and from the base of the
flower each succeeding seed was a smaller size.
I remember trying to stamp the background around all of
those seeder stamp impressions. For me it was brutal and to top that off, I
very seldom have used most of those particular seeder stamps on my patterns.
Once in a while I will get the notion to use one or two of them but it is only
to make them feel somewhat wanted. (Please pardon my attempt at humor.)
The last photo is of a leaf that has a seed stamped on the stem
at the base of the leaf. When I did this sample, I evidently did not want the
seeder to feel lonely so I added the pear shader stamp to the leaf as well.
Actually, I think that it helps to demonstrate how versatile the seeder can be
on your project.
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| Seeder used on the leaf stem |
In closing, the seeder is one of the easiest stamps that you
will have to use on a pattern. Remember, over use of this stamp is one of those
things that can detract from the looks of your project. Placing the seeds on
too many parts of the pattern might need to be explained as, “Those are
actually butterfly eggs on the leaves and stems.” I also would not recommend
that you not use a seeder as a background stamp either. Stamping the background
is almost an occupation in itself, but using the seeder would take a long time
and to make it look as if it fits in with the design might be most difficult.
Have fun!
