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Monday, April 25, 2011
The Grimoire
French artist "cortaxCuir" brings us this wonderful leather grimoire. I'm not familiar enough with leatherwork to known how that mottled texture along the edges was created, but it's a wonderful effect.
Mind you I am no leather worker, but I have observed a few techniques over the years. The distressed portions may have been made with stamp work, but the clever thing is that there is no repeating in the pattern. A series of random shaped tools may have been used in groupings to make the marks. It may have been laid face down wet and pliant over something with a texture and then hammered only in select spots to impress a mark. In any case, it makes for a non-repeating pattern and is quite clever and effective. The skull was soft sculpted and then inserted through the hole in the face of the book. The painting and faux patination is pretty good too. A little verdigris in a tube would age up the studs a bit.
I made part of my living as a leather crafter for about 9 years. It looks to be a series of tool stamps - backgrounders, figure stamps and the like. CoastConFan has it mostly right. The crafter either lays out his design on the leather, or trusts his eye and instinct. The leather is "cased" meaning wetted, and the design is embossed using the tool and a mallet. Finer, more detailed decoration is done using a swivel knife and embossing tools. MorganCG - once ShadowCat Leathers
Mind you I am no leather worker, but I have observed a few techniques over the years. The distressed portions may have been made with stamp work, but the clever thing is that there is no repeating in the pattern. A series of random shaped tools may have been used in groupings to make the marks. It may have been laid face down wet and pliant over something with a texture and then hammered only in select spots to impress a mark. In any case, it makes for a non-repeating pattern and is quite clever and effective. The skull was soft sculpted and then inserted through the hole in the face of the book. The painting and faux patination is pretty good too. A little verdigris in a tube would age up the studs a bit.
ReplyDeleteI made part of my living as a leather crafter for about 9 years. It looks to be a series of tool stamps - backgrounders, figure stamps and the like.
ReplyDeleteCoastConFan has it mostly right. The crafter either lays out his design on the leather, or trusts his eye and instinct. The leather is "cased" meaning wetted, and the design is embossed using the tool and a mallet. Finer, more detailed decoration is done using a swivel knife and embossing tools.
MorganCG - once ShadowCat Leathers