Background patterns

[DG Leather]

I am new here and leatherwork....

I am playing with many tools I have, some i bought some I got given to me by an old client. I am playing with them trying to find good backgrounder textures.....can you give me some examples of out comes and what tools were used and a short description of how you did it....

[DG Leather]

please help!!!

[ClayB]

If you look at my oak leaf tutorial here it shows a few different basic background patterns. When you background, your leather should be fairly dry, usually when the rest of the tooling is finished. I try to turn the tool constantly while hitting it so it makes a real random pattern. I dont want individual tools impressions to be visible. You can go over the area several times if you need too to get good even looking background. You need to practice striking the tool with failry constant pressure to avoid areas that are deep and areas that are not. Also be careful with really small tools as you can pound them right through the leather. And one final tip. It's usually a good idea to have your leather backed with packing tape, or rubber cemented to cardboard or plexi glass or something when tooling. Especially projects where you have a lot of background. Otherwise, your leather can stretch out of shape when you compress areas with the tooling. Hope this helps a little.

[TomSwede]

This a background pattern I use alot. I use crafttols E-294 for this type. The leather is almost dry when I apply the backgrounder and after I've gone over the whole surface to be covered I smack down the backgrounder tilted here and there with a good whack to make few extra deep impressions to further enhance the texture.

Tom

[DG Leather]

TOm:

Has it only been bevelled around the image or has the whole background been pushed down then textured?

Clay:

With the surface for tooling io got a tandy type cutting board (oops i could have used one from walmart)

I also use 3/4 inch of steal underneath that in order to use stiffness.....is that on right track?

Or should I just use my work bench I made 1/2 inch plywood covered with those cheap plastic floor tiles....

Or just do what you said"

A) put packing tape on back of my leather i am tooling (just one layer)

rubber cement my leather to card board or put rubber cement like an 1/8 or 1/16 thick on the back of cardboard and use that for pading under tooling?

This a background pattern I use alot. I use crafttols E-294 for this type. The leather is almost dry when I apply the backgrounder and after I've gone over the whole surface to be covered I smack down the backgrounder tilted here and there with a good whack to make few extra deep impressions to further enhance the texture.

Tom

Edited March 18, 2009 by ganonymous

[Tkleather1]

You will probably want to invest in a peice of marble. I use a chunk of headstone material.

[TomSwede]

TOm:

Has it only been bevelled around the image or has the whole background been pushed down then textured?

The whole background has been textured/pushed down. As you may see I have used a beveler around all edges/conours prior to backgrounding and in the narow part in the symbol I used the small dropshaped A-104 to push down the background. E-294 is a bit big to go in there but main reason is that I think another type of texture there will make the symbol "pop out" better.

Attached images shows a complete image of this job but with a better ovierview of how it turns out when not viewing in a blown up pic that is high in detail.

Tom

[ClayB]

Cardboard is to prevent stretching while tooling. I use pieces cut off cereal boxes because I have an abundance of cereal boxes. Other people use things like X ray film, or packing tape. They say packing tape doesn't leave glue residue like rubber cement will. That can be a problem if your project wont be lined. There have been several discussions on the forum about this, you can probably find them by doing a search.

When it comes to carving, you want a solid surface. Most people use marble or granite. Your steel plate will work as it is solid, but steel has a big dissadvantage. Wet leather reacts with steel causing it to turn black. Sometimes the black marks can be removed with lemon juice, sometimes not. It would be better to not let the leather come in contact with it.

I think you are going to get better definition in your stamping with something really solid like the marble or granite than you are with the plastic floor tiles over plywood. If you have the time, go through some of the topics here on the forum, starting out with the "how do I do that" portion. I think you will find some lengthy discussions on a lot of the questions you have. If you don't find your answers, just ask.