My Lincoln Bag and Padula Pomegranates

First of all I'll show you my Lincoln Bag. I have had such a hard time with this bag that I almost had to start over on the leather work. When I FINALLY got it back from the leather place I sent it to, and it took months, I wanted to cry. It was put together with yellow leather. The yellow completely washed out the whole bag and it was awful! After a few days of depression I got some leather dye and started to dye the leather a brown. It took the whole bottle. Then I just put some Neatsfoot oil on it. Well, that wasn't enough of a seal.

At Prairie Rose I had my water in the bag when I was going to class and it leaked. There was dye going everywhere! It was on my hands, my clothes, the floor, my chair...everywhere! I was so disappointed I wanted to throw the whole thing away. When we left Prairie Rose it was raining and even that got more dye on me.

My dear friend Patty Tyrrell got a hold of her neighbor who does beautiful leather work and Patty took my bag home with her for her neighbor to look at. I wanted to have the leather removed and new leather sewn on the bag but the neighbor was a little too nervous to do that. She and Patty did dye a piece of leather and put a sealer over it. They tested three sealers and when they were dry Patty did the water test. One won out.

I bought new dye and the sealer and went to work again. For now I'm pretty happy. Last time I checked I could wipe a little dye off with a wet cloth but nothing like it was. I'm leaving it alone for a while and waiting to see if it cures better with time. If not I'll try adding more sealer.

Yes, I did tell them the color of leather I wanted, and no they didn't do it. Yes I paid $125 for the work and no I didn't say anything to them about it. It took so long to get it back and they were so awful about communication I was afraid to send it back. The bag was sewn beautifully. It has a great canvas lining and pockets and I had a zipper put in the top. If I ever do have it redone I will do it locally where I can pick my own leather out.

I've been working on the background of my Padula Pomegranates. One square has gold sparkle with a spot dye and the other one is silver sparkle with the compliment solid. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with this when it's done. I WAS going to put it on my bedroom floor but now that I have a white background I don't think that's a good idea.