Techniques in Leather Craft

By Ethan O. Tanner

Leather craft is a captivating hobby and many artists have taken this way beyond carving initials or embossing a logo. Leather craft requires special tools and specific types of leather. Many craft workers have taken leather craft beyond a hobby into a half-time or regular business.

Embossing is art of creating a three-dimensional image onto leather. The only type of leather you want to try this on is vegetable tanned leather, which may be described as tooling leather. With leather craft embossing, you do not need extensive training since all that is required are some special tools, embossing plates or wheels, and some basic leather craft knowledge, which can be learned in a class or even on the Internet.

With stamping, pressure is created from underneath the leather item or from on top. For de-stamping, this is when the design is backward, created from the upper side of the leather, which would produce a sunken look upon the other side.

The beauty of embossing is that you don't need extended training or costly tools to produce a extraordinary leather craft piece. The commonest method of embossing involves purchasing an embossing wheel. These wheels do range in size but the one used most often is one-inch wide made of metal. On the metal wheel are various types of designs that protrude, which is what will set the image into the leather.

You can find embossing wheels with every type of design imaginable. There are flowers, animals, scrolling, geometric designs, and so on. These embossing wheels are very inexpensive and easy to find at any craft, hobby, or leather store. Just keep in mind that if you plan to emboss leather on a regular basis, it would be best to buy the better quality wheel.

This type of leather work involves getting the leather wet so the design of the embossing will dry stiff and stand out more. If you do not have a special embossing wheel, you can use stencils like you would have used in elementary school to trace your initials. Most hobby stores have a huge selection of stencils to choose from, giving you a good variety. Then, using a hammer made specially for embossing, you would tap out the design in the stencil, producing the embossed design on the other side of the hide.

To generate a theme of what leather craft embossing looks like, if you've ever seen a notary public stamp on an authoritative document defined a marriage license or birth certificate, that advanced design is embossed. Hold on in mind that the quality of the embossing is hooked on the skill of the person swaying that hammer. The more detailing you see in each of embossed leather, numerous time and effort it went for achieve it.

Blind stamping is a reference to embossing surfaces that are not colored. On occasion, pigmentation may be added or gold leafing added to enhance the leather craft work. With stamping, a special press is used that looks like a rubber stamp to create the design. Additionally with leather craft stamping, the design is often not three-dimensional but contrasting colors. The results are very nice but do not have the raised effect you get with embossed leather.

Tooling is an art form that takes time to learn. This type of leather craft involves hand tools like a chisel and hammer to create intricate designs. Look up our article on "Classes" through the link below for more information on where to find quality training for this amazing style of leather craft. - 33381

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