Advise for large size carving

[troy]

Over the years I have had the odd crazy urge to do large pictorial carvings (A3 to A1 size). During doing them I have tried a variety of ways to keep the leather moist in some areas but slightly dry in others to enable carving - this has ended up with a odd assortment of results.

On the recent 30 inch shield I did, I carved seperate designs so just kept thos I was'nt working on covered by a plastic bag. On a 1m x .6m picture I did of a huge pictish stone, I did the stone first (which was in the middle) and then the scene after (from the middle to edges), this way did not work out to well and the carving was'nt as good as I'd hoped.

Most carvings I have tried to do like the shield but where I allow the whole area to dry, then re-wet as I come to carve it - this has minimal results as the leather is totally dry and does'nt carve great towards the end.

Have got the urge to carve another pictorial but this one is quite big again, probably 1.1m x .8m - does any body else do crasy things like this and if so, how have they found it best to keep different areas of the leather moist and dry at the same time.

cheers

And another thing - when it comes to embossing, I tend to just push the leather out from the back (use thickish leather most of the time not thin) and perhaps apply some grated leather on the back if the area pushed out is large - I find this the easiest way again with large carvings - how does everybody else do it?

[Tina]

Over the years I have had the odd crazy urge to do large pictorial carvings (A3 to A1 size). During doing them I have tried a variety of ways to keep the leather moist in some areas but slightly dry in others to enable carving - this has ended up with a odd assortment of results.

On the recent 30 inch shield I did, I carved seperate designs so just kept thos I was'nt working on covered by a plastic bag. On a 1m x .6m picture I did of a huge pictish stone, I did the stone first (which was in the middle) and then the scene after (from the middle to edges), this way did not work out to well and the carving was'nt as good as I'd hoped.

Most carvings I have tried to do like the shield but where I allow the whole area to dry, then re-wet as I come to carve it - this has minimal results as the leather is totally dry and does'nt carve great towards the end.

Have got the urge to carve another pictorial but this one is quite big again, probably 1.1m x .8m - does any body else do crasy things like this and if so, how have they found it best to keep different areas of the leather moist and dry at the same time.

cheers

And another thing - when it comes to embossing, I tend to just push the leather out from the back (use thickish leather most of the time not thin) and perhaps apply some grated leather on the back if the area pushed out is large - I find this the easiest way again with large carvings - how does everybody else do it?

Hi,

I do bigger/or patterns with lots of stuff happening the total oposite from you.

I always start out at the edges, they're going to dry first anyway. The middle of the piece is going to keep the moist the longest, therefor I do that bit the last. To me this have been a simpler way of working, a more natural flow.

I use a spray bottle to keep the rest moist and the fine mist from that one don't leave a watermark line (so far), it seams to work.

[hidepounder]

Troy,

I do large pieces fairly frequently. Because 99% of my tooling is floral, separating different areas may ba a little simpiler than when figure carving is involved, however, what works for me is using different layers of plastic wrap. I determine the different areas I will be tooling in stages and cover them with the plastic wrap and then adding packing tape over the edge of the plastic wrap to hold it down close to the leather. I don't let the packing tape touch the leather, it just runs along the free edge. I cover the last stage first working baclwards, so that as I finish one section, I can remove the plastic wrap from the next successive section and so. So when I begin tooling, I may have two or three sections with overlapping plastic wrap, ready to be removed in sequence. This works very well...when I remove a section of wrap, the leather is moist and cased the way I like it and is ready to tool.

Hope this helps,

Bob

[troy]

Thanks for your advise, hidepounder and Tina - Carving the edge first and working your way to the middle is probably the best method, Ive found this when especially carving celtic patterns - also good for scenic carvings but sometimes the order of carving confuses things for me, i.e carving herd of horses where those in front are carved first etc etc. But this next one should work out OK with the edge method and using layers of plastic to keep the inner moist.

Cheers for your advise.

Troy

[ClayB]

For the moisture part, I do the same as Tina. I keep a fine mist spray bottle on my bench and as I work, I'll add moisture to the edges with the spray bottle as they dry out. If the leather isn't cemented to cardboard when I'm tooling, I'll also add water to the back once in a while. Whenever I take a break, I'll give the whole piece a light spray and then cover it with plastic until I come back to it. I'm not as organized as Bob. Figuring out where all that plastic would go would be a little too complicated for me, but it sure sounds like it would work well.

For embossing, I also push out the leather from the back, then fill in the cavity with leather dust mixed with rubber cement. To push the leather out, there are several things you can use. Some people like setting a marble under the leather and rolling the leather over it to start the embossing. I found a set of tools off of Ebay that have different sized metal balls attached to handles that work really well to work the leather from the back side. Wooden dowels or deer antlers can be shaped to make tools that work too, or you can just use the back end of a stamping tool to push the leather out. The thicker the leather, the harder it is to stretch, but with enough moisture and pressure, you can do it.