Old World Wedding Decanter

[CZoc]

Last January 2018 - I posted a request for some info on these Old World Leather wrapped decanter / bottles and didnt get any feedback. Kinda specific category I suppose. They are pretty common in Italy and Spain using very thin leather. (Goat skin I think)

Long story short - My Grandparents had one from Italy for their 50th anniversary and my daughter loved it. She married in October of 2018 and I was ready. Let me know if you want to know the process I went thru. I may be able to save some time if interested.

6oz Veg tan, wet mold.

4 Panels, with seam trim

Leaher Turks head

conchos

.....Names, date, Italian toast, wedding bells, gold leaf and some sheridan carving.

[kiwican]

That looks awesome! Can you explain the process a bit?

[Mattsbagger]

That is pretty cool looking!

[CZoc]

4 minutes ago, kiwican said:

That looks awesome! Can you explain the process a bit?

I wet mold around the bottle 4 panels with plenty of extra material. I had to cover the leather with plastic wrap while wet and used painters tape to really keep it in place. It took much longer to dry but they all came out pretty close. They were even still wet a little and I allowed to dry even more once off the bottle and plastic.

Finding the right shape for all 4 panels was difficult. I used a kind of chalk line approach on the bottle to identify the shape of each panel. Mock ups revealed gaps. This is when I had to change my original plan from lacing the panels together and went to a seam trim piece (Black Strips in picture) . I just couldnt get the panels to match perfectly. Too many curves. I got them within 1/8 to 3/16 gaps and kept moving.

I had to create a concrete mold of the bottle to use for carving / stamping. Shoe box size cardboard box - fill with concrete - wrap bottle in plastic and set in concrete at least half way. Let that set up and remove bottle. Then - line that mold with plastic and pour concrete in that. What I ended up with is a half concrete bottle pretty close to the original. This gave me something to hammer on.

Once finished on all 4 panels, assembly was pretty easy. I used Contact cement, applied the thin strips to cover my gaps, and tied the turks head on the neck. The bottom is a simple round piece applied directly to the bottle. That gap was easy to close. I sanded the bottom to get a flat surface and cemented the leather bottom.

If I had to do it again, I would pick a more symetrical bottle shape but this was as close to my grandparents bottle as I could find. This bottle was very delicate and thin Thus the concrete mold to avoid breaking. A thicker bottle may be able to withstand the stamping process - But one would have to figure out how to hold it still?

[kiwican]

Wow that was an involved process but for a very special occasion. Great job!

[Peter Darby]

Great looking.  I like the concrete mold idea.  that would work with a lot of odd surfaces.

 

[VYO]

Very nice and a great idea. Lots of planning and hard work and it turned out great.

[Tinkerton]

Another way to make the pattern is to wrap the bottle in a layer of plastic, then a couple layers of masking tape. Then cut it off and divide into the desired number of panels

[bikermutt07]

What an awesome idea. Thanks for sharing.

[ScoobyNewbie]

Beautiful! Congratulations!