Ed, I took apart and old pr of leather mittens and kinda went from there, Took me awhile to figure out the thumb, inside out and right side out stuff. I had a pair of sheep skin xxlg mittens when I was a young and they were my favorite go to trapping mitten, wet hands still slid right in and oh so warm after ice cold trap session. Your mittens look great and I bet they are super warm. Most of our beaver here in Pa. run this dark color, once and awhile we get a pale one. I got a couple of muskrats tanned that I may try next. Ben still cold here but least amount of snow in years, I think we got less than 50" total and usually have 150" by now. It's okay by me, alittle snow can go a long ways. Bob