Carving Bark In Leather

[canadiancoder]

Good day folks,

I'm new to carving and stamping in leather and I want to carve tree bark into my project. I've seen some good examples but alas I've no idea how to accomplish them. Can any give me some pointers?

Best regards,

Scott

[Northmount]

Pages 13 and 14 of Al Stohlman's Pictorial Carving has some examples. Bark is done with a modeling tool. You can purchase a download this booklet from Tandy.

Page 46 of Al Stohlman's How to Carve Leather has a similar illustration. Also available from Tandy.

Both of these booklets are good reference material and have lots of western figure carving patterns.

Tom

[canadiancoder]

Thanks, Tom! I'll look into that

[HollyNelson]

Also, (because I like accuracy in natural textures and drawings) you might get close-up photos of various kinds of bark, and putz around with tools to approximate different species. Poplar, elm, oak, plum, birch, willow all have very distinct bark.

Your goal on each type is not to achieve perfection, (you're whacking leather with steel tools, for heaven's sake) but to arrive at a series of strokes that visually suggest the particular tree.

Hope that was helpful.

[Tree Reaper]

For a wood grain finish you can wet a piece of plywood to raise the grain, let it dry and then press it into cased leather and the pattern will transfer.