Thanks, everyone, for your kind comments. I had great fun making this and learnt a bit along the way. I must admit that as it progressed, I had the feeling that it was going to turn out well. I needed the grain to be reasonably well balanced and was lucky that there was just enough feature in it to keep it looking good, but to retain the understated effect that I was after.
...I wonder if you thought about adding more cabochon's at 3,6 and 9 o'clock positions?....
Definitely not....there was a plan in my mind, from the very outset, to add simple, but effective embellishment to this beautiful piece of wood; the stone and the leather are there to support the wood, any more and I feel that they would have taken over.
Les