Carving on white leather

[Sling]

hello everyone;
I am breaking my head on : HOW TO CARVE INTO WHITE LEATHER?
I want to make a handbag which is black and white. The bag shall be white. I can either use soft white leather which has a good finish already on it no not get dirty and then sew carved parts on it.

or there is a option of white vegetable leather, where i could carve in it. But it will get for sure very easy dirty with not enough protection.
Your advice??

thank you, lg Teresa

[chuck123wapati]

paint the veg tan white or whatever color you want after tooling with acrylics then seal it.

[Sling]

thank you, but it will maybe crack after acrylic paint ?`dont you think? the carving part shall be black

[Mablung]

9 minutes ago, Sling said:

thank you, but it will maybe crack after acrylic paint ?`dont you think? the carving part shall be black

Not unless you go way overboard with the paint.  Just don't put way too much and you should be fine.

[BlackDragon]

The trick to painting with acrylic on leather is to thin it way down and apply many coats. It'll allow the paint to set into the leather and reduce cracking.

[Sling]

Thank you all for nice comments. Is there a way to carve direct into white vegetable leather?

[Mablung]

19 hours ago, Sling said:

Thank you all for nice comments. Is there a way to carve direct into white vegetable leather?

Are you finding white, rather than just a light tan, veg-tan leather somewhere? I don't think veg tan that hasn't been treated or finished in some way shows up a pure white. But I also may not understand what you mean.

If the leather is already white and will absorb water readily like any other veg tan, then you should be able to carve it like usual.