Leather Bracelet With Tooled Deer

Leather bracelet with tooled deer

I’ll be showing you how to expertly craft a leather bracelet. Keep in mind that I am only 11 years old, and my mom let me use her tools. I found the antlers and the deer in books, they are not my own. Let’s get started making it! So, you will need:

Tools:

· Craft tool beveling stamp (wide)

· Craft tool beveling stamp (small)

· Swivel knife

· Scissors

Materials:

· Fiebings Hi-liter dye

· Fiebings Light brown dye

· Fiebings Walnut Oil Dye

· A design to cut into the leather

· Rubbing alcohol

· Piece of 5oz vegtan leather 2-3 inches wide by 10 inches long (depending on wrist size)

· Tandy Super Shene

· Lace, ribbon, or snap

· Hole puncher

· Mallet

· Paper towels

· Tracing paper

· Burnishing tool

Step 1: Choosing the Leather, Shaping

To make sure you make your bracelet is the right size, find a piece of leather and wrap it around you wrist. It should go all the way around, and about 1-1 ½ inch extra should stick out. This part sticking out is where the holes for lace go (but if you want, you can use ribbon or a snap).

Next, you make it the shape you want. It can be a rectangle, or you can cut it like mine with pointy ends. (It can be any shape, but don’t forget to make sure the drawing you chose fit!) Just cut the leather with scissors, but don’t hurry because you want to make it look good! Also, don’t forget to get it wet before any carving or stamping.

Step 2: Burnishing

You can have any type of burnishing tool; it doesn’t have to be a wood burnishing tool like mine. Burnish the edges, make it look pretty, and get onto cutting the design!

Step 3: Cutting the Design and Stamping

Here comes the hardest step, in my opinion. Cutting the leather, and making the designs.

You can have anything on your bracelet, don’t limit yourself. It can be the exact same design as mine; it doesn’t matter, so long as it looks amazing. In the pictures, I have a piece of tracing paper (semi-transparent paper that you use to copy pictures from books) over the leather. I lightly pressed the paper with an inkless pen and indented the leather, so I could cut it freehanded with a swivel knife. (I am assuming that you know how to cut it, so I won’t explain that if you don’t mind.) Then, I stamped it with a beveling tool, which made the lines darker, and prettier.

Step 4: Finishing

For the colors I have, the background is Fiebings Walnut Oil Dye, and first, I dyed the background. I did this using a paintbrush.

The antlers + deer are one drop of Fiebings Light Brown dye mixed with about one teaspoon rubbing alcohol. I repeat, only one drop of light brown dye! It does not need any more than that, if you want to achieve the color I have. I used another paintbrush to get inside the small spaces on this, too.

Next, I put the Tandy Super Shene once the dye dried. (It acted as a resister, so when I put hi-liter on, it wouldn’t change the color) I let this dry for a while, and then put the hi-liter on with a sponge. After that, I wiped off the excess dye with a paper towel. It seeped into the creases and made them pop out.

Step 5: Hole Punching, Adding Lace

For this step, I grabbed a hole puncher, like shown in the picture, and the size can vary because of the lace you use. I hammered two corresponding holes next to each other on each side of the bracelet. I picked out some lace, and tied it. Voilà! A flawless bracelet, perfectly described just for you!