Great Leather Crafting Supplies Make Great Leather Projects

Human civilization had discovered and developed a lot of craft over the years

. One of the earliest is leather crafting. Early existence of this wonderful craft is proven by ancient artefacts made from leather that dates as early as 1300 BC. It must have been difficult for our ancestors to create bags, clothes, shoes and collars out of leather since leather tools during those times were limited. However, this limitation did not stop them from creating leather products of good quality. Over the years, experience taught us how to make the most out of leather by creating different leather tools. Today, we can turn a piece of leather not just into something that functions, but into a wonderful piece of artwork as well.

Leather carving is one way of turning leather into a wonderful artwork. To do this, all you need is a piece of moist vegetable tanned leather, a set of leather tools and a creative imagination. Choose the right tool depending on how you want your design to look like. In leather crafting, you carve the chosen design on to the leather while keeping in mind that the design needs to appear as if it is real. The proper choice and proper use of leather working tools to create various depths and shadows are essential to bring the design to life.

Here are some of the basic leather craft supplies: the rotary cutter, polymer mallet, ballpoint stylus and the adjustable swivel knife. Before you can start working on your leather carve project, first select a design you want on your leather. Moisten your vegetable tanned leather but make sure that it is not soggy. Using a pencil, trace the design on tracing paper. To transfer the outline to your leather you will have to place the tracing paper on the leather then use a ballpoint stylus to retrace the design. Make sure that the design is completely visible on the leather.

From the list of basic leather tools we mentioned earlier, the swivel knife is the one that requires more craftsmanship. When using this amazing tool, three things happen at the same time. You are going to press down the knife on to your leather while you slide it along your outline as you rotated it to follow the curves of your design. Some practice using this tool will help. Next, use the pear shader to press down the leather with the help of a polymer mallet. This adds the shapes, the texture and contour of your design. Other variations of the shader are the camouflage tool, the veiner and the seeder.

Finally, there are two more necessary leather working tools to finish your artwork. These are the beveller and the backgrounder. The beveller gives your design a chiselled look thus giving it more edge. It is best used on the outline of your design. The backgrounder works exactly the opposite way. It presses down the background of your design, giving it more life. It is best used on areas of your artwork that are not really relevant. It makes the design pop out. The key to a beautiful leather craft is to use your imagination to select the right leather tool and use it properly.

by: Keith Goodger

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