I've been slowly easing myself back into making things after a considerable lull. Several months ago I carved this little songbird pendant and I just started to stain it yesterday evening. I thought you might like to see how it has progressed so far. The photos were taken with my iPod touch in artificial light, so the quality isn't the greatest.
I generally tend to layer my leather dyes, working from light to dark, building up the colors for a richer tone. In the image below, the lightest stain I currently have, Canyon Tan, has been applied to sketch in the bird's markings.
In the second image, I've added black to define the eye and I've layered two darker browns over parts of the initial stain to bring out some of the patterns in the plumage.
I'm tempted to leave it like this as the tone-on-tone dyes over the natural color of the leather is really appealing, but as with the previous songbirds (
Sparrow &
Finch) I'll be adding some acrylic to add more dimension and color. This little birdie is another sparrow, and her markings are a melding of those of the Chipping and Song Sparrow species.
