Nocturne Report post Posted February 8, 2008 After seeing Clay's embossed lion over in the monthly figure carving thread, the topic of discussion around the shop has been embossing. (I work at the Orlando Tandy Leather with Froghunter) So after a week or so of talking about it, I decided this week to give it a try. Forgive me if the embossing doesn't translate well through the pictures, I'm still figuring out new camera I bought, since my last one died on me a month ago. The first one was a random flower (since I'd just finished the monthly floral carving) that I sketched up and went to town on Monday or Tuesday night. The second one I decided I could do much better at something a little more my style of carving, so I picked out a baby dragon bursting from an egg, and started on Wednesday... finished up about a half hour ago. Let me know what y'all think! And for the heck of it, a dragon head and skull I did off of a Craftaid to hang up as a store display, still in progress. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kagekeeper Report post Posted February 8, 2008 im gonna use the dragon for the top piece for my 1st bracer so will need some help on mine...lol Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ClayB Report post Posted February 8, 2008 I've never thought about trying to emboss a floral carving, so now you've given me something to think about. As for the dragon, it looks like you did a nice job on him. I have a couple questions. First, what weight leather did you use? And second, after embossing, did you fill the cavity on the back with anything? Al used leather plugs as a backing, more often these days people use leather dust mixed with rubber cement. If you fill in the cavity like that and even build the back up a little extra, once it dries awhile, you can then go back over your tooled areas and get even more stretch and definition. It's hard to tell how much depth you have from the picture, but just from the way the cuts look, I think you could re bevel them and get even more depth. The idea behind the monthly challenge was to get people to try something they normally might not do. I'm glad you did that and I hope you had fun with it. Your dragon head carving is really looking awesome too! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CitizenKate Report post Posted February 8, 2008 ... First, what weight leather did you use? And second, after embossing, did you fill the cavity on the back with anything? Al used leather plugs as a backing, more often these days people use leather dust mixed with rubber cement. Double-splits also make great embossing plugs, which I have in great abundance as a by-product of my bench splitter. I also get the splits from the sides I order from W&C (which they will send you free if you ask for them), in anticipation of one day doing more embossing. However, I have more than I could possibly use in decades, so if anyone would like some, PM me and I'll gladly send a few square feet of it. Kate Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nocturne Report post Posted February 8, 2008 I've never thought about trying to emboss a floral carving, so now you've given me something to think about.As for the dragon, it looks like you did a nice job on him. I have a couple questions. First, what weight leather did you use? And second, after embossing, did you fill the cavity on the back with anything? Al used leather plugs as a backing, more often these days people use leather dust mixed with rubber cement. If you fill in the cavity like that and even build the back up a little extra, once it dries awhile, you can then go back over your tooled areas and get even more stretch and definition. It's hard to tell how much depth you have from the picture, but just from the way the cuts look, I think you could re bevel them and get even more depth. The idea behind the monthly challenge was to get people to try something they normally might not do. I'm glad you did that and I hope you had fun with it. Your dragon head carving is really looking awesome too! Both the floral and dragon embossing are filled with the leather shaving/glue method... not quite leather dust, but more so a bunch of little bits I skived off the back of a piece of 8-10 oz veg tan scrap. I'm looking into getting a small sander with bag attachment to make the dust much easier. Since it wasn't quite dust, I couldn't get the fill to be the right amounts in the areas I wanted, but I'm working on that. As for the embossing leather itself, it's about a 3-5 oz or less, didn't check. Definitely liking the idea of embossing leather, so I'll be doing more projects like this to refine and update. Thanks for the compliments! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
