Whooops, I’m talking all biblical.
I’m always interested in how stitching changes inlay and overlay, but usually it’s an obvious aesthetic difference. The stitching seemed to add a layer of gravity to this piece, as if it were just random bits of leather trying to imitate a photograph before, but now it’s become both a reference to the original AND its own separate piece as well.
Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker 
I noticed before that the pitchfork looked like it was a body piercing, but thought maybe that was just because I was looking at a two-dimensional photo and cancelled the thought. With the stitching, I can see the hands holding it. Is it the same when you look at the three dimensional leather?
Are you asking if you can see the hands stitching on the actual piece? That answer would be yes.
No – I guess I didn’t make myself clear. In the photo without the added stitching I don’t see the hands, so it looks like the handle of the pitchfork is just held by being pierced under the skin. I was going to write a comment about that and make the (obviously unnecessary) suggestion that you use some stitching to bring out the arm and hand. I kept quiet because I thought that perhaps when the piece was viewed live the arm and hand would show up well enough without the extra emphasis (and, hey, you’re an artist – I just make stuff that works!). It looks great with the stitching in the photo. I guess the question might be how much the stitching was needed when you could see the thickness of the leather. Or, in other words, did it look like Old Scratch was into body piercing before the stitching was added when viewed live, or was it just an artifact of my viewing a fairly flat-lighted two dimensional image?
No, it really didn’t appear to be body piercing without stitching, at least to me. The red edge were skived, so the red and the brown were level; there wasn’t a depth variation. I’m very guilty of often not seeing what others see on unfinished work, because I KNOW what comes next and so I “see” it with that vision in mind.