Adding Color to Leather

Tooling leather comes naked. No color, no finishes.

It's essential to the process of tooling, as the leather has to be able to absorb water freely and evenly and any dyes or finishes impair that ability.
Dyes and color come after all the tooling is done and there are a variety of products and tools for getting naked leather dressed up. I have my favorites -- the ones I find most faithful after years of trial and error.
For making leather black or brown I prefer a penetrating oil-based dye. It gives superior color and evenness, and the colors do not have a tendency to bleed or rub off.
This dye has very hazardous fumes; it's combustible and toxic, so adequate ventilation is essential to your health and well-being. If you don't have a strong exhaust fan specially rated for such things, then I recommend you dye outside whenever possible.
If your yard is 3 feet deep in snow like mine, then open the windows and employ a fan and a protective mask. Seriously! Use gloves, too -- this dye will penetrate your skin as readily as leather.
I like wool daubers for application on small projects. For larger items I prefer a sponge brush. I advise against an air-brush without a special set-up for exhausting the atomized combustible particles. I do 2 coats of color for complete coverage. It's finished off with an edge-coating, an application of a conditioner and a water-resistant beeswax finish.

Sometimes black or brown won't complete the picture -- sometimes a bit of color is required!

I use ceramic-grade acrylic color. It bonds well to the leather -- better than some of the leather-specific acrylics! The variety of colors available is impressive and it's readily available at most craft stores. My preferred brand is prominently displayed in the photo ;-)
It mixes well, thins with water and applies easily with a brush. It has no toxic fumes, which is nice!

Once it dries completely a protective edge-coat is run around the outer beveled edge.

Then a highlighting product is applied generously, taking care to work it into the impressions.

Once the excess is wiped away, the remaining highlighter mellows the background and makes the detail pop! To finish my colored leather I use a coat of conditioner and then a spray silicon sealant.

Don't you just love color?

Holiday Traditions

My family has many Holiday traditions, some new and some that go back through generations.
One of our favorite and longest-standing is the annual yum of Thumbprint Cookies.
I remember helping my mother make them when i was very small, and my children grew up helping me. When my oldest daughter spent the Holiday season in Italy during college, her one request from home was for a tin of these favored treats. My youngest daughter agrees -- it's just not Christmas if there aren't any Thumbprints!
This is an unusual cookie recipe -- It contains equal amounts of ground nuts and flour, giving them a wonderful texture. There isn't much sugar to the recipe, and no eggs or leavening products. Trust me; none of this is a typo!
They bake on low heat and will come out of the oven looking very much like they did when they went in.
But my oh my! Very rich, nutty and flaky; they are sure to become a favorite with anyone who tries them!

So Merry Christmas -- my gift to you is this wonderful family recipe... enjoy!

Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients:

1 Cup all-purpose flour
Dash of salt
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
3 Tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Cup finely ground walnuts or pecans (I use walnuts)

For filling; chocolate chips, apple jelly

Combine and set aside:
Flour
Salt

Cream together in Large Mixing bowl or food processor:
Butter
Powdered sugar
after these are well blended, add vanilla and stir just long enough to mix it in.

Add dry ingredients, 1/2 at a time, mixing well between halves. Add nuts and continue working the batter until you have a firm ball and a clean bowl.
Cover and chill in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.

To Bake:
Preheat oven to 300f

Spoon off teaspoon-sized chunks from the batter ball and roll into small balls, about the size of a large marble. Place on ungreased cookie sheet about 2" apart.
Make an indentation with your thumb and fill with chocolate chips or a small bit of apple jelly. (For a festive holiday look, the apple jelly can be dyed red or green with food coloring -- I'm a purist and prefer the natural gold color.)

Bake for 20 minutes.
Cool for several minutes before removing from cookie sheet with a spatula. Cool completely before eating.

How many you get depends on how big you roll them -- I get about 2 1/2 dozen per batch, and I always make several batches! (Multiple batches should be prepared separately and not combined for 1 larger batch.)

This is a cookie that benefits from being made ahead of time, as they are even better after sitting in a tin or covered container overnight!

Stitching Leather Together

I have nothing against sewing machines. In fact I own 3, each tweaked for different types of materials. When putting cowhide together, however, I usually prefer the low-tech high-strength methods. Here are two of my favorites.

For the joining of multiple layers of heavy leather, as with this axe sheath, I like my stitching awl. It's a heavy duty little tool!

The waxed thread feeds from a center-mounted spool through a groove in the needle.

It's a push-pull operation; push the needle through a prepunched hole, pull back to create a loop, then pass thread through the loop on the other side of the project and pull the needle out. This creates a strong, tight and durable lock-stitch.

The leverage provided by the hand-held awl is very useful when working with heavy leather.

When I put something together, I intend for it to stay together!

Though there are certainly machines that could handle the thickness, the precision and control of hand-stitching creates a finished result that I consider superior.

For lightweight leather, I prefer the two-needle method. One piece of the same heavy waxed thread i use in the awl with needles at both ends. The needles are passed back and forth through the same holes, making fast work of any job. Pulling each stitch ultra tight is key!

The end result is strong and very stable. It's my stitch of choice for my Earth Medallions, as well as for wallets and small leather bags.

There are many other methods of joining leather, including decorative lacing. We'll cover those in a future post!

Tooled Belts

I've spent the last few days working on Tooled belts.

The tooled impressions are much deeper and cleaner if you have an unyielding surface under the leather -- I have this piece of granite that I call Big Block. It works exceptionally well for what I do, but you wouldn't want to drop it on your toes!

Water is used to moisturize, or case, the leather so it will take an impression. Then I choose stamps from the racks you see behind Big Block and start pounding with my 12oz rawhide mallet.

The stamps can be arranged into an almost infinite variety of patterns. Geometric and floral designs are a mainstay in my inventory.

Lots of pounding -- most of my tooled belts are impacted hundreds of times before they're done. I like the flow of a complex design!
Some are a bit more understated, like this flower chain I'm building.

When I'm working on a pattern I can see (in my mind's eye) what it will look like once it's dyed and that often affects the progression of the design.







Two more steps add to the "finished" look of the belt before I let it dry -- a beveling tool is used to take the corner off the edge and then the entire edge is compressed by rubbing it briskly with a hard plastic disk called a slicker.












Last but not least, of course, is color! I use a top-quality professional Oil Dye for the black and brown, usually 2 coats. For the bright color I get great results using ceramic-grade acrylic paint. Some highlighter to enhance the designs, my own secret 3-layer finish and a quick buff with my trusty shoe brush, then holes, snaps and buckles and I now have a pile of belts!

No doubt about it -- there's something very satisfying in any creative endeavor!

Before the Belts...

Even after all these years, I love when my leather shipments arrive.
The smell of fresh leather is overpowering to some; to me it's the aroma of possibilities.
I order my belt leather by the side, which is basically half of a hide. There are other cuts available, but for ease of handling and direction of grain, sides are my preference. Rolled out, this one measures over 7 feet in length, obviously more than I'll need for belts. The first thing I do is determine how much excess length there is and cut it away -- the end piece will go into other projects.

Then I line up and cut a straight edge with simple tools -- a metal straight-edge and a sharp utility knife.

The next tool is a basic manual strap cutter. Today I'm cutting wide belts, so i have it set to 1 1/2" for some of the straps, 1 3/4 for others. A quick pull down my straight edge and a belt strap falls away. Then another and another until there's a pile of straps and no side!

I cut them to length, trim the tips and I'm ready to go!


There are few things more exciting to me than a pile of ready straps waiting to become belts; the equivelent of an artist's blank canvas, I'm sure!


I'll take pictures of some as I go, so be sure to check back in a few days to see what becomes of this former side of cowhide.


Hope your day is as fulfilling as I know mine is going to be!

Polehenge

In the heart of Michigan, alone in a field, stand the mysterious remains of an ancient structure known to many as Polehenge. Though its origins and purpose are lost to time, one can easily imagine this rectangular arrangement of trimmed timbers as the focal point in important ceremonies , perhaps even sacrificial rituals...

Okay... lol... tongue out of cheek. I've driven past this once-started, never-finished structure hundreds of times over the years while driving along Hwy 127, and I've always laughingly referred to it as Polehenge. I was surprised and very amused to find out recently that I'm not the only one who calls it that. In fact, mention "polehenge" to almost anyone who regularly drives that stretch and chances are good they'll know exactly what you're talking about!