Sailing ship
Production: MÆNUS
Materials: Vegetable tanned leather
Techniques: Leather carving and tooling
Finished: 2018
I got interested in leather working firstly because of the amazing designs that can be tooled 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 sailing ship was the second project I set out to make in order to master this skill. Given the size of the design and the amount of details within it was no easy feat and a major challenge for my skill level at the time.
Steps taken
Since for me it was about learning the technique of stamping images into leather I looked for a suitable design and finally decided to go for this design of a sailing ship. Given the size of the design and the amount of details within it was no easy feat and a major challenge for my skill level at the time. On the other hand, the combination of straight lines of the ship itself and the natural curves of the water, the sails and the flags, meant I could practice the many different tooling techniques that were needed.
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 tooling 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. I started with the outline of the sails first.
Then I continued with adding the outlines and details to the flags. Adding shading around the sails and flags allowed these details to pop out even more.
End result
The last step was to add the details into the water surrounding the ship. The end result is a detailed design of a sailing ship 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.
