Using the Seeder Stamp

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.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Using the Pear Shader

As with many of the leather stamps that are available to the leather craftsman, there are many pear shaders available for purchase. Pear shaders come in many in sizes, shapes, and patterns. It depends on whether you how much money you want to spend and if you want to use the same exact stamps that the pattern designer used. Remember, some of the people who designed the tooling patterns also designed some of the tools that are used on those patterns. Do I think that this is wrong? Absolutely not! If I were creative enough to draw a pattern and make my own new stamps for it, I would do it, especially if I could make an extra buck or two.

The pear shader can add some very interesting effects to a pattern that carved into the leather. I like to use the pear shader sometime after I have done the beveling on a pattern but before I use the other stamps. I do this because I believe that it gives more prominence to the visual effect of the stamp. I guess that in other words, it makes it show up a lot better. I especially like using the veiner after I have used the pear shader because it adds a little more texture to flower petals.

The pear shader, shown below, can be used in many ways to add different effects. The photos that follow will hopefully demonstrate how it can be appropriately tilted, slanted, leaned, and feathered to achieve the desires effect. Please bear in mind that the photos that follow will be a little scary to some because the pear shader appears much larger than it really is. (Please excuse my feeble attempt to be humorous.) I managed to get a great close-up photo of ways that I had used the stamp. I cropped each usage of the stamp into an individual photo for you to see here.

Pear Shader - Full Impression

This is a complete stamp impression of the same crosshatched pear shader that was suggested for purchase in an earlier post. The leather used is approximately 8-9 ounce that has been in my scrap bin for many years. Leather is one of those things that just seems to hang around for a long time, kind of like the not so favorite long lost cousins. However, back to the pear shader, you can see how this stamp can add a great deal of texture to your design.

As with most of the stamps that you will use, the pear shader will probably never used in its entirety on a single impression. Most of the time, you will find that you will want to lean it a little one direction or another to get the effect that is the most desirable. In some cases, you might find that you want to use the wider end of the stamp because it seems to fit a little better. Keep in mind that you do not necessarily need to make the stamp impression fit the shape of the leaf. I will include a photo towards the end of this post showing a curvy line with various ways that the pear shader can be used.

It might be a little hard to put the individual photos in the perspective you might see on a pattern. The curvy line that I just mentioned will help with that. The photo below shows how the impression of the pear shader will look if it is tilted back at anywhere close to a ten-degree angle. I actually do not know if that it an accurate estimation or not, I never use a protractor to check my work. Something that you will notice when you tilt a stamp is that the darker portion will be in the direction of the tilt.

Pear Shader - Tilted Back

Looking at the photo above you can see that the upper portion of the impression is darker than that toward the bottom. Also, this photo shows the full width of the heel or the wider end of the stamp. I generally do not want to have the full width of the stamp showing unless I am working on a larger area  on the edge of a leaf or petal.

Depending on the pattern and the size of the outer curves of a leaf, it might be more desirable to tilt the stamp back and to the left. Doing this will make the leaf look as if it is curled somewhat downward on the side of the leaf that is away from you. The photo below shows the effect that is gained by tilting or leaning the shaft of the stamp back and slightly to the left. From the upper left to almost the midpoint of the impression it is a little darker. Notice that the right side of the impression is lighter.

Pear Shader - Tilted Back Left

Applying the previous consideration to the photo below you can tell what will appear when the pear shader is tilted to the back and to the right. It is easy to tell that this impression was made with the stamp tilted to the right and back because the back right side of the impression is darker. Also, this photo shows how important it is to make sure that all of the moisture is allowed to distribute itself evenly throughout the flesh side of the leather. If you compare this photo to the previous one you will see that more of the impression is darker. This could also occur because the stamp was stuck with more force than the previous one.

Pear Shader - Tilted Back Right

In previous posts I have probably referred to the heel or the toe of a stamp, with the heal being the back end or the toe being the front. In this case, the heel is the wider portion of the stamp and the toe is the narrower tip. It does not matter what you call the ends of the stamp, it only matters here where I am trying to explain them. In addition, I do not want to have too many lapses from one description to the other without giving you an idea to what I am referring. Besides that, the word toe is shorter than front of the stamp.

The photo below shows what the pear shader looks like if the stem of the stamp is leaned toward the toe and struck with the mallet. If you look the impression left with this style of striking the stamp, you can see that the area at the toe or front of the stamp is somewhat darker. Notice that the color of the leather gets lighter as you look toward the bottom. This is because there was less pressure on this area when the stamp was struck. I can see that there is a bit of an issue for me when I look at this photo. I got too much of the whole stamp in the photo. Generally, I would like only about half of the surface of the stamp showing. If this were actually something that I were making for a customer I would have feathered it out and made it a little longer.

Pear Shader - Tilted Forward

The photo below shows how the impression of the tip of the pear shader would look if the stamp was leaned toward the toe and to the left. It is a little difficult to tell from this photo, but the darker area is toward the top of the photo and slightly darker on the left side. You will also notice there is a band that runs slightly below the top part of the toe. This could be from a number of things, such as the moisture content of the leather, a slight chatter after the stamp was struck, a slightly sharp area on the face of the stamp, or a whole host of other things. If you notice this happening on a regular basis, you might want to check your pear shader closely to make sure that you do not have a scratch on it.

Pear Shader - Tilted Forward Left

Below you can see an example of how the impression of the stamp would look if you were to tilt it back and to the right. To be honest with you, it is difficult to tell that the impression is a little bit deeper to the back and to the right. I can also see another band running slightly under the tip in this impression. My thoughts are after I see this a second time is that it is possible that the grain of the leather is torn a little bit because the leather could be a little too dry. If it is too dry it could cause the grain to tear a little rather than stretch when the stamp is struck.

Pear Shader - Tilted Forward Right

The photo below has the examples that I spoke of earlier in this post about having a curly line with the pear shader used. Here is what the numbering indicates: 1) The full toe of the pear shader was used to make this impression. 2) The full heel of the stamp was used to make this impression. 3) The heel was used with the stamp tilted back and leaning to the right. 4) I believe this one was supposed to represent back and to the left but I may have struck it too hard. 5) The the full heel of the stamp was used to make the initial impression and then feathered out to almost nothing. This effect is accomplished by striking the stamp with more force near the edge of the leaf and then just lightly tapping the stamp until you get the impression stretched out as long as you would like.

Pear Shader Sample on Leaf or Curvy Line

Again, there are a lot of different pear shader sizes, shapes and with different patterns cut into them. Each pear shader may have been designed to be used on a particular pattern and it may not be necessary to have to make the leather look like a piece of art. Just like some of my other stamps, I have my favorites and I have those that I bought because I thought I had to be true to the original pattern. It does not matter what stamps you use on a pattern to complete it.  What matters the most is that you enjoy what you are doing and you make the design your own.

Have fun!