If you have been inspired by reading about the work of the artisans featured in this book, you might want to go further and explore leather craft or even tanning methods yourself. Here is a directory of suppliers and course providers to help you to begin your creative tanning and leather crafting journey.
If you would like to have a go at leather crafting yourself, you may find these descriptions of methods and materials useful.
Carving
Leather is moistened or ‘cased’ with a moistened sponge and then compressed by carving to create an impression. If the leather is too dry, it will crack. If it is too wet, the impressions made will not hold.
Leather workers may use a pattern, traced onto the leather lightly with a stylus before carving. The leather is not cut when it is carved, but the pressure creates instead a decorative indentation in the leather that can also, if required, be painted or stained. A swivel knife is used like a pencil to outline and draw patterns deeply on the leather, up to half the depth of the leather itself.
Camouflage tools or ‘cams’ may also be used. These create an impression like a small scallop seashell. Cams are positioned and then tapped with a wooden mallet to create indentations to give a decorative three-dimensional textured effect. The tool is often tilted different ways to vary the effect created.
Other tools that may be used for the carving technique include a pear shader. These are used for contouring designs, and are held in place and tapped. Bevelers are used to raise designs by lowering the surrounding areas. They are used to compress one side of the cut (usually the outside edge) made by the swivel knife. They come in a variety of sizes and textures.
Veiners are used to create pattern and texture on scrolls, leaves and stems. These are available in a variety of sizes, curves and patterns. Seeders create round shapes, and are used to add definition such as circles at the centre of flowers, or to embellish designs. They once again come in a variety of sizes and may be smooth or textured. Backgrounders may be used to fill space, and increase definition. They come in a variety of shapes and patterns.
Decorative cuts may also be carefully made in the leather at this stage. Any minor mistakes may be addressed with a modelling tool. This spoon-shaped tool is run over the mistake with a light pressure to smooth and polish it out.
Moulding
When undyed vegetable tanned leather is moistened, the fibres expand and the leather can be stretched and moulded. For the moulding process, the leather is first soaked in warm water to make it pliable. How long it is left depends on how much moulding is required; the longer it is left, the stretchier it becomes; too wet though and it may become too flaccid to work properly. Leather can be submerged and left for a few minutes until no new air bubbles form, confirming saturation. The wet leather must be worked quickly before it starts to dry. It should be pressed and shaped around the mould with the hands, pushing and pulling the piece until the leatherworker is satisfied with the result. Thinner leather is easier to work than thicker leather, but thicker leather holds its shape better. The leather should be left to dry completely on the mould. As the leather dries, it stiffens and holds the shape created.
Stamping
Specially shaped metal stamps are used to create an imprint on dampened vegetable tanned leather. A wooden or rayon mallet is used to tap the stamps so that the impression is made. The stamp marks stay in place once the leather dries. The leather is then rubbed with oils and fats to condition it and to help the impressions to stay in place.
Perforation
Punches may be used on leather to create holes or repeatedly to create latticework. The punches are held in place and tapped with a hammer to create holes.
Dyeing
Leather is often dyed with a variety of strong colours to create gorgeous effects. Alcohol-based dyes are absorbed quickly and easily by moistened leather, and strongly pigmented results are possible. These types of alcohol based dyes stiffen leather as it dries. Water based leather dyes are also available. These leave the leather soft and supple, but do not penetrate as deeply as the alcohol based dyes. All leather dyes should be used in a well-ventilated space to guard against any harmful fumes that may be produced. Dye may be applied with a brush, sprayer, sponges or wool daubers. Several coats may be used to deepen of even mix effects. Stains may also be used to add definition to patterns that have been created by other means.
Leather may be dyed using a traditional solution called vinegaroon, or vinegar black. It creates a black permanent dye. This is made by adding rusty objects to warmed white vinegar. Nails, screws, nuts, bolts – anything rusty. The rust, which is caused when iron oxidises in the air to create iron oxide, combines with the vinegar, which is acetic acid. This creates a substance called ferric acetate, which will dye the leather. The mixture should be left in a warm place until the iron dissolves – but it should not have a lid placed upon it during the process as the reaction gives off gases that will cause the container to pop. A warm shed in summer would be a good place to create this solution. The vinegaroon is ready when the vinegar smell is gone. Rusty iron can be added to the solution until no more dissolves.
Once the solution is ready, it can be filtered through kitchen roll or a coffee filter to remove solids. Prepare your leather by soaking it in strong black tea – it needs the tannins in the tea to react with the vinegaroon to dye the leather. Professional tanners would use a solution made with crushed oak bark or logwood chips to provide tannin. The leather item should then be soaked in the vinegaroon for up to thirty minutes. Once removed from the solution, the acid should be neutralised to prevent later deterioration of the leather. This can be achieved by dissolving baking soda in water and saturating the leather in the solution.
Painting
Paint, such as acrylic or latex paint can be used to decorate leather items. Unlike dye, that seeps into the leather, paint lays on the surface. This means that on a particularly flexible piece such as a belt, paint can flake unless flexible latex-based paint is used.
Pyrography
Pyrography uses a heated needle point to draw designs. This can be used on leather as well as on wood surfaces. The heat darkens the leather where the point touches, and it is possible to create complex designs and pictures in this way.
There are several different types of leather. Full-grain leather is hide that has not been treated to remove imperfections or faults on the surface of the leather. It is strong and breathable, and develops a beautiful patina over years of use. Full grain leather is a high quality product that is used for footwear, high quality jackets and upholstery.
Top grain leather is the type of leather used for most high end and expensive leather products. Its surface is generally sanded and it has had a coat added to the surface. It is more stainproof than full grain leather, but does not develop a patina over time. Corrected grain leather is cheaper and has had faults and imperfections sanded off and an artificial grain embossed on the surface. It is usually dyed, as this also helps to cover imperfections. Split leather is the grade of leather left behind when a hide has been split to remove the top grain. An artificial layer can be added and this is then embossed with a leather grain. Suede, which is fluffy on both sides can also be made this way.
Nubuck is top grain cattle hide with a velvety surface, created by sanding or buffing. Russia leather high quality bark tanned cow hide, treated in the traditional way where birch oil is applied after tanning. It is highly water resistant.
Exotic leathers are gaining in popularity. Crocodile and reptile leather such as snakeskin and lizard skin has been used since the Victorian era. Victorian and Edwardian handbags and purses often celebrated the ‘exotic’ nature of the skins, keeping the original texture and natural colour shades. Some of these bags included gruesome taxidermied elements such as the head or paws of the animal. American alligators from Louisiana were harvested in great numbers in the early 1800s and the skins were used to make boots, bags and saddles. During the American Civil War, alligator skins were used to make boots and saddles for Confederate soldiers. By the mid twentieth century, the alligators were endangered and a programme of farming and breeding began. A proportion of alligators bred (between 14 and 17 per cent) were released back into the swamps, which repopulated. The alligator was removed from the endangered list in 1987.
Alligator skin leather is soft and flexible. Once tanned, the skin is supple and bends without creasing. It is made with both matte and glossy glazed finishes. The skins are large, and can be used to make upholstered pieces and clothing, but they are expensive.
Fish leather, with its gorgeous scale patterns, is used for making shoes, bags and journal covers. It has about the same strength in application as sheep skin. A wide variety of fish skins have been made into leather. It is tanned in the same way as mammalian leather and the pattern and texture on the skins is made by the ‘scale pocket’ that remains after the scales have been removed.
Salmon creates a beautiful, strong, finely scaled leather that looks a little like snakeskin. Cod skin is similar but its texture is more variable and can sometimes be rough. Tilapia, or Cichlid Fish is a popular fish leather with almost cartoonishly perfect scale patterns. Nile Perch is similar, but with larger scales and a honeycomb effect texture. Wolffish is smooth and scale free, and patterned with spots and stripes. Eel skin is also scale-less and somewhat shiny. Stingray leather, known as shagreen, is tough and durable with a bumpy surface. It is used for motor racing gloves, where its rough surface makes a safe surface that is hard to wear through even in the event of an accident. It is also used traditionally for the handles of Japanese katanas. The skin is covered in minute calcium rich bubbles that make it able to resist scratching and puncturing. It is also difficult to tear as it has fibres that run in different, random directions. It is stain and water resistant and is also hard to cut as a result of these qualities, so it takes longer to create stingray leather products.
Arapaima, a freshwater fish from the Amazon, is also used for leather making. It is one of the world’s largest freshwater fish, and has a unique two-layer skin. This acts like armour to protect the fish in the wild. The top layer is tough, with scales that resist puncture and the bottom layer is soft like a sort of gel. This quality resists and absorbs impact. As a leather, tanned Arapaima is hardwearing and resistant to scrapes and scratches, but it is highly flexible. The skin is expensive, but comes in large panels due to the size of the fish. Carp leather has a large scale pattern and Sea Bass skin is also made into leather which is used for accessories and footwear.
Shark skin is also used to make leather. It is covered in fine scales, called denticles or dermal scales which are like minute hard teeth, which can bristle like fur. It is tough and has a tensile strength five times that of cow hide, but it is difficult to work. At one point it was used as a type of sandpaper and to cap shoes to prevent wear. Shark leather is used to create handbags, wallets, gloves, jackets and upholstery. The skins of Tiger, Lemon, Shortfin Mako, Porbeagle, Nurse, Bull, Hammerhead and Dusky sharks are all used to make leather. The finished product is waterproof and supple. In Morocco, shark leather is used in book binding and to cover jewel boxes. In France, Louis XV had a master leatherworker in his employ, called Jean-Claude Galluchat, who popularised shark leather or shagreen. This luxury leather became popular again in the Art Deco period in the 1930s for high end goods such as jewellery cases, bags, make up cases and compacts. Before fish leather was popular, fish skin was a waste product that was often thrown back into the sea by fisheries and this had the potential to pollute the water.
Bird leather is also becoming popular. Ostrich feathers have been used for centuries and the birds were farmed for their feathers in the nineteenth century. More recently, ostriches have been farmed for meat and their skin has been made into leather as a by-product. Ostrich leather is used for shoes, accessories, designer clothing, and upholstery. The leather has characteristic raised bumps as a result of the large follicles on the skin where the feathers grew.