Wet Shaping And Stamping Question

[Sioranth]

I'm going to be making a little leather harness with dragon's wings for my bearded dragon. Ideally, I'd like to do a little stamping on the wings to give them texture (like, say, Craftool E294) and then wet shape them over a (yet to be made) form to give them a more 3D effect with the webbing being depressed and "ribs" being elevated.

I've never done wet shaping before and the tutorials I've looked up online all show smooth leather being shaped and finished. So, my questions are: 1) Can you do both stamping and wet shaping on the same piece? and 2) If so, in what order should you do them?

I feel like I should shape first and then stamp because the stamping might get stretched and misshapen if you did it first. Anyone have any input on this?

[Northmount]

Any time you dampen leather any amount that has been tooled/carved, you will lose some of the definition and crispness from your tooling.

There are a number of threads about this problem. Saddle builders (and others) often tool after the leather has been molded to the shape you want it. Some saddle builders do the tooling right on the saddle. If you are making a bag or something like that, fit a block of wood or other hard object inside to give you a hard tooling surface and support. You will still need to properly case the leather before tooling.

Tom

[Sioranth]

Thanks very much for the input! I'll try a few test wings with molding first and then stamping while on and off the mold.