Holiday Traditions

My family has many Holiday traditions, some new and some that go back through generations.
One of our favorite and longest-standing is the annual yum of Thumbprint Cookies.
I remember helping my mother make them when i was very small, and my children grew up helping me. When my oldest daughter spent the Holiday season in Italy during college, her one request from home was for a tin of these favored treats. My youngest daughter agrees -- it's just not Christmas if there aren't any Thumbprints!
This is an unusual cookie recipe -- It contains equal amounts of ground nuts and flour, giving them a wonderful texture. There isn't much sugar to the recipe, and no eggs or leavening products. Trust me; none of this is a typo!
They bake on low heat and will come out of the oven looking very much like they did when they went in.
But my oh my! Very rich, nutty and flaky; they are sure to become a favorite with anyone who tries them!

So Merry Christmas -- my gift to you is this wonderful family recipe... enjoy!

Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients:

1 Cup all-purpose flour
Dash of salt
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
3 Tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Cup finely ground walnuts or pecans (I use walnuts)

For filling; chocolate chips, apple jelly

Combine and set aside:
Flour
Salt

Cream together in Large Mixing bowl or food processor:
Butter
Powdered sugar
after these are well blended, add vanilla and stir just long enough to mix it in.

Add dry ingredients, 1/2 at a time, mixing well between halves. Add nuts and continue working the batter until you have a firm ball and a clean bowl.
Cover and chill in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.

To Bake:
Preheat oven to 300f

Spoon off teaspoon-sized chunks from the batter ball and roll into small balls, about the size of a large marble. Place on ungreased cookie sheet about 2" apart.
Make an indentation with your thumb and fill with chocolate chips or a small bit of apple jelly. (For a festive holiday look, the apple jelly can be dyed red or green with food coloring -- I'm a purist and prefer the natural gold color.)

Bake for 20 minutes.
Cool for several minutes before removing from cookie sheet with a spatula. Cool completely before eating.

How many you get depends on how big you roll them -- I get about 2 1/2 dozen per batch, and I always make several batches! (Multiple batches should be prepared separately and not combined for 1 larger batch.)

This is a cookie that benefits from being made ahead of time, as they are even better after sitting in a tin or covered container overnight!

Stitching Leather Together

I have nothing against sewing machines. In fact I own 3, each tweaked for different types of materials. When putting cowhide together, however, I usually prefer the low-tech high-strength methods. Here are two of my favorites.

For the joining of multiple layers of heavy leather, as with this axe sheath, I like my stitching awl. It's a heavy duty little tool!

The waxed thread feeds from a center-mounted spool through a groove in the needle.

It's a push-pull operation; push the needle through a prepunched hole, pull back to create a loop, then pass thread through the loop on the other side of the project and pull the needle out. This creates a strong, tight and durable lock-stitch.

The leverage provided by the hand-held awl is very useful when working with heavy leather.

When I put something together, I intend for it to stay together!

Though there are certainly machines that could handle the thickness, the precision and control of hand-stitching creates a finished result that I consider superior.

For lightweight leather, I prefer the two-needle method. One piece of the same heavy waxed thread i use in the awl with needles at both ends. The needles are passed back and forth through the same holes, making fast work of any job. Pulling each stitch ultra tight is key!

The end result is strong and very stable. It's my stitch of choice for my Earth Medallions, as well as for wallets and small leather bags.

There are many other methods of joining leather, including decorative lacing. We'll cover those in a future post!

Tooled Belts

I've spent the last few days working on Tooled belts.

The tooled impressions are much deeper and cleaner if you have an unyielding surface under the leather -- I have this piece of granite that I call Big Block. It works exceptionally well for what I do, but you wouldn't want to drop it on your toes!

Water is used to moisturize, or case, the leather so it will take an impression. Then I choose stamps from the racks you see behind Big Block and start pounding with my 12oz rawhide mallet.

The stamps can be arranged into an almost infinite variety of patterns. Geometric and floral designs are a mainstay in my inventory.

Lots of pounding -- most of my tooled belts are impacted hundreds of times before they're done. I like the flow of a complex design!
Some are a bit more understated, like this flower chain I'm building.

When I'm working on a pattern I can see (in my mind's eye) what it will look like once it's dyed and that often affects the progression of the design.







Two more steps add to the "finished" look of the belt before I let it dry -- a beveling tool is used to take the corner off the edge and then the entire edge is compressed by rubbing it briskly with a hard plastic disk called a slicker.












Last but not least, of course, is color! I use a top-quality professional Oil Dye for the black and brown, usually 2 coats. For the bright color I get great results using ceramic-grade acrylic paint. Some highlighter to enhance the designs, my own secret 3-layer finish and a quick buff with my trusty shoe brush, then holes, snaps and buckles and I now have a pile of belts!

No doubt about it -- there's something very satisfying in any creative endeavor!

Before the Belts...

Even after all these years, I love when my leather shipments arrive.
The smell of fresh leather is overpowering to some; to me it's the aroma of possibilities.
I order my belt leather by the side, which is basically half of a hide. There are other cuts available, but for ease of handling and direction of grain, sides are my preference. Rolled out, this one measures over 7 feet in length, obviously more than I'll need for belts. The first thing I do is determine how much excess length there is and cut it away -- the end piece will go into other projects.

Then I line up and cut a straight edge with simple tools -- a metal straight-edge and a sharp utility knife.

The next tool is a basic manual strap cutter. Today I'm cutting wide belts, so i have it set to 1 1/2" for some of the straps, 1 3/4 for others. A quick pull down my straight edge and a belt strap falls away. Then another and another until there's a pile of straps and no side!

I cut them to length, trim the tips and I'm ready to go!


There are few things more exciting to me than a pile of ready straps waiting to become belts; the equivelent of an artist's blank canvas, I'm sure!


I'll take pictures of some as I go, so be sure to check back in a few days to see what becomes of this former side of cowhide.


Hope your day is as fulfilling as I know mine is going to be!

Polehenge

In the heart of Michigan, alone in a field, stand the mysterious remains of an ancient structure known to many as Polehenge. Though its origins and purpose are lost to time, one can easily imagine this rectangular arrangement of trimmed timbers as the focal point in important ceremonies , perhaps even sacrificial rituals...

Okay... lol... tongue out of cheek. I've driven past this once-started, never-finished structure hundreds of times over the years while driving along Hwy 127, and I've always laughingly referred to it as Polehenge. I was surprised and very amused to find out recently that I'm not the only one who calls it that. In fact, mention "polehenge" to almost anyone who regularly drives that stretch and chances are good they'll know exactly what you're talking about!

The Function of Fringe

In fashion Fringe comes and goes.
On a jacket or a bag, sometimes adorned with beads, it brings to mind images of hippies or frontier folk and Native Americans. Since people have been wearing leather, leather has been wearing fringe. The reason is more than decorative, it's elemental; fringe wicks water. It will pull moisture away from the wearer and facilitate drying.

In modern times this has become less critical. Most of us, if caught in a downpour, will open an umbrella or dash for shelter. Most of us would go to great lengths to protect our leather from getting wet enough to require wicking.

Personal preference is the determining factor now -- my preference is fringe and lots of it! The fuller and more flowing, the better!

Process Leads to Product

One of the questions I hear most often is, "How long did it take to make that?"


Not an easy question to answer. Every project has its own demands, and each is a creation unto itself. I rarely work a piece from start to finish in one burst; there are waiting periods for drying at different stages along the way, and I usually have several pieces going at the same time. Work on one while another is drying... First is drawing and cutting.

Next I add texture.
















Then it is carved in...

Final steps are painting by hand for brilliant color, then several different steps of finishing products to enhance detail and add protection and background color.
The whole process took many hours, but I think it was worth every minute!