Lion skull
Production: MÆNUS
Materials: Vegetable tanned leather
Techniques: Leather carving and tooling
Finished: 2017
I got interested in leather working firstly because of the amazing designs that can be stamped into the leather by hand using a variety of leather stamping tools in all kinds of shapes and sizes. This process really intrigued me and I wanted to see if I could master this technique. And I was curious about how detailed the designs could get by using this technique.
After following multiple tutorials online, reading a lot of information about it and tooling a couple of tryout designs, this lion skull was the first project I set out to make in order to master this skill.
Steps taken
Since for me it was about learning the technique of tooling images into leather I looked for a suitable design and finally decided to go for this design of a lion skull. Given the fairly small size and not that many details it was an ideal design to test and hone my skills.
After tracing the design on transfer paper I transferred the design onto the leather. The next step was to carve the transferred outlines of the design into the leather using a swivel knife. These carved outlines serve as guides while stamping the leather and allow me to create more depth into the design. Once the outlines were carved into the leather it was time to start adding details, depth and color by using leather stamping tools like bevelers, seeders, edgers and shaders.
End result
The end result is an A3 sized design of a lion skull on natural vegetable tanned leather. Meanwhile I practiced the techniques needed and learned a lot about how to create specific effects and add a certain level of detail.
