Tooling Pattern Techniques

[Hayes]

Hey folks, 

I am curious how you all prefer to put your tooling patterns onto your leathers, especially when it comes to floral or other intricate designs. Do you draw the design out on paper and trace it onto cased leather, or do you prefer to draw it directly on the leather? Also how do you go about making your designs and styles? I'm interested to pick your brains, so any tips or tricks are welcome! 

Thanks everyone,

[garypl]

Folks with artistic talent can probably draw a pattern right on the leather, but I trace a pattern onto vellum or tracing paper, then transfer to the moistened leather with a stylus.  I have also used graphite paper (not carbon paper) with good success.  Lay the graphite paper on the dry leather, place pattern on top and trace the pattern so the graphite transfers to the leather.

Gary

[Handstitched]

G'Day, I use tracing paper  onto moistened leather. There are times when I modify a pattern to suit a particular  project,  mostly drawing in extra bits freehand . 

If I drew them straight on to leather, knowing my luck, I'll make a boo boo.....on expensive leather ' doh!!  

Theres also ' craft aids' .  I've used those as well to save a bit of time. 

HS

[DJole]

I use various design programs on the computer to compose and place designs. Then I print them onto paper.
I then do one of two things:
1) lay tracing film over the paper, and trace the design onto the film. Then I carefully fasten the film onto the cased leather, leaving enough space to tape on the back side of the leather, and transfer the design with a stylus or a ball point pen.
2) I lay the paper pattern directly over the cased leather, and continue as in (1).
How do I make designs and styles? Well, that's a complicated question, since I don't really do Sheridan or Western floral work. Instead, a lot of my work comes from medieval woodcuts. Woodcuts work very well for leather, since the techniques for both are so similar. I also have a few pattern books for designs, like the easy to find Dover pattern books. I have George Bain's Celtic Art text, and a couple books which contain line drawings of actual Celtic art (not the knotwork stuff) from museums.

[AndrewChung]

I'm not artistic enough to draw the designs freehand, so I tend to use designs copied from books and found online. I clean up the image with Gimp, scaling as needed to fit the project, and then print on transparencies with a laser printer.  Also I find with the tracing paper I have, it tends to crinkle up with the moisture from the leather/pressure from the stylus, so that sometimes lines don't meet up. The transparencies don't have this problem.  

[Stetson912]

There are a lot of ways to do it. Dustin loftis and Don gonzales draw in pencil straight to the leather. I cant do that.

For me it depends. Usually I get velum or thick tracing paper to trace what I want to tool. Then I cover my cased piece in plastic wrap and then trace the pattern on the leather with a stylus. The plastic wrap keeps the tracing from getting damp and tearing and curling. 

Sometimes I print something to size on regular printer paper. Then I use clear shipping tape and the both sides trying to minimize tape overlap. Then I can just set that on the cased leather and trace.