Tree Bark Effect

[Highlands858]

Hey all. I'd like to make a notebook with a rough "tree bark" look to it, but I don't have any experience tooling or carving leather. I'd like to get my leather texture to look something like the picture I attached. Any tips?

Edited December 20, 2013 by Highlands858

[Stewart]

Well That's a project out of the Box with few options. So here is what came to mind. knock off a piece

of bark,seal it to keep from braking apart. Wet /case a piece of leather and add pressure.

See what happens. it will be mirrored I think. May have some depth.

Joe

[Sona]

So well, if you are interested in this special "tree bark" look, this person might be interesting for you: http://obsidian-sun.deviantart.com/art/A-S-Bowie-Sheath-and-Monofold-Wallet-295725258

I don´t know him, but i gues he used some bark to create this surface. Maybe you could just send him a note and see if he is willing to help you out

Another option might be this technique: http://sarnthaler.it/sarnthaler_katalog.pdf

I know its mainly in German but with some english lines, too

The plant-thing was discussed in this forum at least on or two times I think. For the wooden "stamps" I think he used some rough grained boards of ash or Oak and "brushed" them. That´s a technique where you use a brass-brush (or one of different plastic devices for a power drill which are available, but no iron! It´s the same like with leather... it´ll stain the wood and lateron maybe the leather...) to "brush down" the softer tree rings (the lighter ones) to get a really 3-D surface (which can feel great, btw.) like this you might get a really nice impression if you use that. But I think it should be slightly bigger that your piece of leather, so you can avoid markings of the "stamp-edge"

The guy from this homepage might have form cast in urethan or sth similar, but it should work out just fine... maybe you´ll give it a try.

Hope that might help you.

greetings

Sona

[shtoink]

Another member here by the name Samar has some truly amazing work. One of their more recent projects included some really cool look texture on a belt that made me think of those deep crags found in bark like the image you included above.

As for how... I can only guess. I'd imagine that it involved something along the lines of some cuts with a swivel knife followed up with some shaping and coloring.

You'd need to see if Samar is willing to share the technique or analyze the pictures in the linked post and experiment until you have what you like. I know this isn't the most complete answer, but I hope you find it helpful.

[Ember]

Answer is in his pictures most likely. The texture is most likely done by hammering the wet leather onto the stucco. That is my guess anyways.