Hi everyone!
I just got interested in leather two or three weeks ago and just made this wet moulded remote cover for a Tru Remote (this remote controls my fiance's welder. The body is plastic and hard to hang onto so the purpose of the case is the 1. Avoid sparks wrecking the remote and 2. Stick the remote to the pipe so he can adjust his heat as he welds).
This was my first attempt at wet moulding anything and the first thing I've created where I didn't buy a template and watch a YouTube tutorial at half speed, trying desperately to keep up lol.
A few notes/observations/opportunities hopefully for advice?
1. I just cut two pieces of Hermann Oak 2.5oz and soaked them then squished them together around the plastic wrapped remote for the wet mould. I thought I'd do the seam halfway up the side of the remote, but in hindsight, I wish I had left the back piece of the cover flat and done the seam against the bottom edge so I would have room on the sides of the remote to do decorative carving. However I worry that this would cause the remote to possibly not mould/contour well to the corners? If that makes sense.
2. I used the butt end plastic butter knife instead of a bone folder to indent the outline of the display and button panel because I didn't have a bone folder. In hindsight I would use a bone folder or something more appropriate there.
3. I had a real problem punching the holes for stitching. For one thing, I'm using a 3.5mm craftool diamond chisel, so the holes are really close together. For another, one of the issues I faced was getting both sides of the pattern to line up. Since the seams are on the side, I didn't want to have to flatten down one half of the cover to punch the two sides at the same time (if that makes sense). My holes ended up being slightly off which ended up making the cover slightly askew?
4. I didn't glue the two pieces together and even though I knew better I decided to try to just basically crackfill and sandwich the seams together by burnishing by beeswax. Bad idea on its own but made even worse by the fact that I did this before I used eco flo gel antique, which then of course did not penetrate the gross amount of beeswax now all over my project.
5. I cannot figure out a better way to design the top that looks better but still keeps the remote body protected.
Any other feedback, criticism and advice I'd be happy to hear! I'm not super pleased with it on one hand, I should have slowed down and thought things through better. But on the other hand, though it may be rough, I'm kind of weirdly proud of it
Thank you!
