Pages

#143: Tooled Leather Spider

Several years ago, my dad gave me his leather tools that he'd had since the 70s, and last week I went to Michaels and bought a bag of leather scraps to give it a go. I had to watch a few YouTube tutorials because although you might think you can just whip out a piece of leather and start hammering away on it, there are some preparatory things that need to be done. Casing the leather involves getting it just wet enough to work with--done. Cutting your design into the leather--nah, skipped it. When I tried to do this with such a small working area, I wasn't successful. Plus, I couldn't find any simple designs online using my basic tools. What you see is what you get. I won't be tooling a horse saddle any time soon, let's just say! Oh, and I even used my Biker Paste to season the leather. Next time, I'll see if it makes the leather more supple for working with before I start.

Materials: leather piece, leather lace, green glass beads, dark red glass bugle beads, purple and brass seed beads, rusted wire