Which Comes First? Carving Or Molding?

[AmandaM]

If you need to do both on the same piece of leather, which is better to start with? Tooling?

[electrathon]

You will need to carve/tool first. Otherwise there will be no firm surface area to pound on.

Aaron

[DaveJohnson]

If you need to do both on the same piece of leather, which is better to start with? Tooling?

Hi AmandaM

It would depend on the design and complexity of the wet form mould, but remember that wet forming a carved piece will result in a loss of much of the definition as it is stretched over the mold - it is also difficult to get a straight edge or confine the carving to the desired area on the form when stretching it.

The ALS Book on Cases Vol 3 showns the procdure by which the leather is formed over a wooden blank and then carved using the blank as support - the harder the wood the better support.

Good Luck

Dave