Wet Moulded Remote Cover

[ktmakes]

Hi everyone! 

 

I just got interested in leather two or three weeks ago and just made this wet moulded remote cover for a Tru Remote (this remote controls my fiance's welder. The body is plastic and hard to hang onto so the purpose of the case is the 1. Avoid sparks wrecking the remote and 2. Stick the remote to the pipe so he can adjust his heat as he welds). 

This was my first attempt at wet moulding anything and the first thing I've created where I didn't buy a template and watch a YouTube tutorial at half speed, trying desperately to keep up lol. 

A few notes/observations/opportunities hopefully for advice? 

1. I just cut two pieces of Hermann Oak 2.5oz and soaked them then squished them together around the plastic wrapped remote for the wet mould. I thought I'd do the seam halfway up the side of the remote, but in hindsight, I wish I had left the back piece of the cover flat and done the seam against the bottom edge so I would have room on the sides of the remote to do decorative carving. However I worry that this would cause the remote to possibly not mould/contour well to the corners? If that makes sense. 

2. I used the butt end plastic butter knife instead of a bone folder to indent the outline of the display and button panel because I didn't have a bone folder. In hindsight I would use a bone folder or something more appropriate there. 

3. I had a real problem punching the holes for stitching. For one thing, I'm using a 3.5mm craftool diamond chisel, so the holes are really close together. For another, one of the issues I faced was getting both sides of the pattern to line up. Since the seams are on the side, I didn't want to have to flatten down one half of the cover to punch the two sides at the same time (if that makes sense). My holes ended up being slightly off which ended up making the cover slightly askew? 

4. I didn't glue the two pieces together and even though I knew better I decided to try to just basically crackfill and sandwich the seams together by burnishing by beeswax. Bad idea on its own but made even worse by the fact that I did this before I used eco flo gel antique, which then of course did not penetrate the gross amount of beeswax now all over my project. 

5. I cannot figure out a better way to design the top that looks better but still keeps the remote body protected. 

 

Any other feedback, criticism and advice I'd be happy to hear! I'm not super pleased with it on one hand, I should have slowed down and thought things through better. But on the other hand, though it may be rough, I'm kind of weirdly proud of it

 

Thank you!

[Hardrada]

Something like this might make it easier to punch those holes on projects such as these:

https://www.goodsjapan.com/leathercraft-pricking-iron-leather-stitching-chisel-leather-nippers-2x3mm/a-19392

[fredk]

points, quick answers

2. I've been doing this crazee leatherwork for a long time. I don't own a bone folder. Never have. I use an antler tip and a piece of sheep's rib I found. What ever works works

3. my favourite tool for making stitching holes; these pliers type. You can push the jaws right up close to the enclosed object and punch the holes. On something like your pouch it would take about 10 minutes or less to punch the sewing holes with these. I know cos I've done it.

They can be bought for about £15 per pair if you search them out.

5. With a lot of cases the back extends longer than the front, to fold over the top and attach at the front; Reverse this, extend the front longer than the back, take it over the top to attach at the rear

1. you got the bottom corners good. To do a front only wet mould you'll need a board and to staple or nail the front leather to it until it dries (over the object of course). If you do any tooling the wet moulding will soften the tooling and may even remove it whilst moulding over the object. A way round this is to make a wood copy of the subject, aka a buck, and do the tooling on the leather as it is around the buck

4. I reckon you now realise that glueing the two parts together really helps keep them aligned for punching holes and sewing. An alternative to glue is double sided tape, but in this case glue would be best

of course be proud of it, not many try wet moulding as their first subject.

I sketch things out on paper before I make anything I do not have a pattern for. I spend weeks sketching, the parts, notes on order of assembly until I'm satisfied it will turn out, or nearly, as I have planned.

[ktmakes]

Thank you Fred and Hardrada!! I really appreciate your comments and I will be attempting again and posting my next go at it as well, I hope I have improvements to show!