Print PDF
Favorite
Email
Step 2Leather moulding
Now we need to mould the leather.
Firstly cut two pieces of leather to rough shapes, leave about 20mm round each edge to give you lots of working room.
Place down some sheets of paper, or a tea towel to absorb excess water.
Take your two pieces of leather, and soak them in water, you will know when they are wet through as the leather changers colour.
Place one piece of leather with the rough side up wards onto the table, No place your cardboard familiar, into the centre of the peice. Take the second piece, and lay it on top, gently press down around the edges with your fingers.
Now take a nice round blunt object, most things will work, i used an old fitting of a tunneling machine i had laying around. Use this to press all around the edge of your case. The wet leather should be easy to work with.
As an addition, you could try your hand at embossing, basically take an interesting metal shape, and press it into the back of the leather while its still wet.
Leave the whole thing to dry naturally. Mine took about a day. (make sure to leave your mould familiar in place)
Firstly cut two pieces of leather to rough shapes, leave about 20mm round each edge to give you lots of working room.
Place down some sheets of paper, or a tea towel to absorb excess water.
Take your two pieces of leather, and soak them in water, you will know when they are wet through as the leather changers colour.
Place one piece of leather with the rough side up wards onto the table, No place your cardboard familiar, into the centre of the peice. Take the second piece, and lay it on top, gently press down around the edges with your fingers.
Now take a nice round blunt object, most things will work, i used an old fitting of a tunneling machine i had laying around. Use this to press all around the edge of your case. The wet leather should be easy to work with.
As an addition, you could try your hand at embossing, basically take an interesting metal shape, and press it into the back of the leather while its still wet.
Leave the whole thing to dry naturally. Mine took about a day. (make sure to leave your mould familiar in place)
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
I made a wallet the other day using some really good leather. I found that the embossing I'd made with pressure stretched itself to disappearance. A bit disappointed, I tried water. It didn't come out too well. The metal shape was a letter and it wasn't really very clear at all.
The next attempt, I tried wetting the leather and using a hot metal piece. The leather would sizzle on contact with the piece but ultimately, I ended up with a sort of blunt look. There weren't any details. Didn't look very nice. Especially for a Celtic design.
My most successful attempt at this was using dry leather and embossing it with a really hot metal piece. The details are sharp and the leather wont warp the design.
However this is only for embossing. The water technique overnight works awesome for moulding the shape.
My experience with leather xD