Leather.

A legend in the wood/leather crafting industry presents 12 simple projects, accompanied by full-color illustrations. Detailed instructions for making key chains, jewelry, wallets, journals, belts, and more include practice exercises and safety tips.

• The must-have guide for working with leather. • Great book for beginning leather crafters. • Comprehensive presentation of essential techniques. • Handy tips from leather crafting experts. • Well-illustrated with color photos. • Traditional floral carving step-by-step project.

More than 470 color photos bring in-depth detail to this comprehensive look at the almost forgotten decorative art of leather inlay and overlay. Leather is an often-overlooked textile, with very little documentation on its tools and techniques; this guide fills a crucial gap for the aspiring leather worker. Inlay and overlay skills have historically been passed along orally, and the book begins with a brief introduction of the cowboy boot, since this is the discipline that's become a repository for the art of leather inlay and overlay. Learn what these decorative methods can bring to your work with details on the tools and machinery needed, and clear explanations of the techniques. Also covered are the history of leather inlay and overlay, choosing the best leather, how to pattern and create leather art, and basic sewing machine maintenance. The book finishes with an illustrated, step-by-step guide to three leather projects.

This vintage book contains a comprehensive guide to decorating leather, with information on staining, painting, modelling, tools and equipment, and many other related aspects. Written in simple plain language and full of handy tips, this book is ideal for the beginner, and is not to be missed by collectors of classic leatherworking literature. Contents include: “The Charm of Artistic Leatherwork”, “Drawing the Design”, “Tracing”, “Incising”, “Opening”, “Modelling”, “Punching Backgrounds”, “Embossing”, “Colouring”, “Painting Leather with Oil Colour”, “Painting Leather with Water Colours”, “Gilding”, etc. Many vintage books like this are becoming increasingly hard-to-come-by and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, high-quality addition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on leatherworking. A helpful workshop companion for anybody interested in working with leather either for fun or for profit.

"The guide for leathercrafters who want a clearly traditional focus, who believe quality matters, and who want to learn traditional techniques to use in modern ways."--back cover