Well - Christmas and New Years was here and gone and winter has definately set in here on the mountain. Cathy and I been hunkered down for the most part dodging cold and rain, not so much snow, yet. I had a few days work helping construct a 24' x 48' storage barn which kept me out from under Cathy's feet but now I'm home again full time. We're both coming down with cronic cabin fever. Cathy has started crocheting afghans, her usual winter keep-me-busy thing and I took up an old hobby of leather tooling. In fact, the gal we built the barn for commissioned me to tool a leather chair bottem for her. I'm still working on that but thought both Cathy and I would share some pics of our hobbies. Here goes.
This first pic shows me carving a pattern of a
wild rose on a piece of leather. You can free hand draw a pic onto tracing paper and transfer it on to the leather or trace an existing pic. I've done it both ways. You have to wet the leather first and let it partially dry for the knife to cut right.
This shows the pattern after it has been cut into the leather and is now ready to be tooled. The leather has to be dampened again and allowed to partially dry before the tooling process begins. This process continues throughout the tooling. I only used 10 tools for this pattern. You have to hammer the leather down around the design to make it look embossed. This process also burnishes the leather around the pattern making it standout even more.
This shows the final product and the pattern that I
that I used. The knife you see in the lower left is the swivel knife used to cut the leather. Of course there's more to it than just hammering, you have to learn what and how to shade, what to cut and what not to cut, and lastly are the freehand cuts that you make with the knife to make the object look realistic. The edges of the leaves are an example. I tooled Cathy a purse and wallet for Christmas. I transferred a pic I found of Jim our old horse onto leather for her. I'll post a pic of that next. I also want to get Cathy making herafghans. She's super fast and watches TV whiledoing it. She was thinking of having the neighbors in for a quilting bee while she crochets her afghans. I thought it would be a super idea .
wild rose on a piece of leather. You can free hand draw a pic onto tracing paper and transfer it on to the leather or trace an existing pic. I've done it both ways. You have to wet the leather first and let it partially dry for the knife to cut right.
that I used. The knife you see in the lower left is the swivel knife used to cut the leather. Of course there's more to it than just hammering, you have to learn what and how to shade, what to cut and what not to cut, and lastly are the freehand cuts that you make with the knife to make the object look realistic. The edges of the leaves are an example. I tooled Cathy a purse and wallet for Christmas. I transferred a pic I found of Jim our old horse onto leather for her. I'll post a pic of that next. I also want to get Cathy making herafghans. She's super fast and watches TV whiledoing it. She was thinking of having the neighbors in for a quilting bee while she crochets her afghans. I thought it would be a super idea . 
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