Luke Byrd - Leather Working Book for Beginners: A Leather Crafting Starter Handbook of 15 Leather Craft Projects Plus Tips, Tools and Techniques to Get You Started

Leather Working Book for Beginners

A Leather Crafting Starter Handbook of 15 Leather Craft Projects Plus Tips, Tools and Techniques to Get You Started

By

Luke Byrd

Copyright 2021 Luke Byrd

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Disclaimer

This publication is designed to provide competent and reliable information regarding the subject matter covered. However, the views expressed in this publication are those of the author alone, and should not be taken as expert instruction or professional advice. The reader is responsible for his or her own actions.

The author hereby disclaims any responsibility or liability whatsoever that is incurred from the use or application of the contents of this publication by the purchaser or reader. The purchaser or reader is hereby responsible for his or her own actions.

Introduction

L eather is one of the oldest and most valuable materials in the world today, as it helped solved a lot of issues in the past, and even now. Its general-purpose setting was what made it sail through the realms of time, and you would agree with me that both men and women can rock with leather. You could make leather shoes, books, jewelry, gloves, and even garments! Before you wonder how ludicrous it would be to put on leather, take a minute to think about your leather coats and how warm they keep you in the cold weather. In fact, this leather was that the early men used to protect themselves from the coldness of the weather and protect the soles of their feet as they roamed the earth.

Leather can be obtained naturally from the skin and hides of animals, and most times, they are tanned to become actual leather. So, now, to craft this leather into beautiful and artistic projects, you would need to be guided to prevent errors and general wastage of material. That is why this book, Leather Working Book for Beginners, was written, with every necessary detail that will guide you into making those brilliant projects. The good thing is that the details were penned down with so much carefulness that you'd almost feel like the book was some kind of physical teacher.

In this book are safety precautions, tips, techniques, and important project descriptions that will make your journey into the art of leather crafting a big bliss. You will learn how to mold, shape, embellish, lace, stitch, glue, sew, color, and finish leather strips in this outline, and that will lead you to the prime of what leather crafting actually is. You will also learn of other basic techniques like burnishing, stitching, sanding, and braiding. And you can be sure that all of these things will last you till forever and beyond. All you need do is just to exercise a lot of patience, and see how you can fuse your creativity into the work you do.

So, let's begin, crafters.

Chapter 1

Essentials of Leather Crafting

What is Leather Crafting?

L eather crafting is an art that deals with the cutting, stamping, folding, and decoration of leather. The art makes maximum use of scrap pieces of leather that are sourced from torn leather jackets, discarded leather purses, worn billfolds, kid's gloves, etc. And after several useful techniques, you end up getting even more beautiful finished leather products. Leather is a natural material that mostly comes from the bodies of animals like buffaloes, goats, pigs, and some other rare animals like alligators and kangaroos. However, getting this leather means that some animals have to be killed, cowhides have been processed into so many forms that mimic the quality of the skins of other animals. You would be using cowhide for the majority of the leather crafting projects. Examples of the projects you can make with leather include belts, footwear, horse gear, armor, sheaths, drums, and pouches. The art also employs techniques like hand-stitching, lacing, and braiding in the construction of leatherwork projects. The other techniques include the actualization of shaping techniques, coloring techniquesdyeing and paintingcarving, stamping, molding, shaping, etching, perforation of holes, and even pyrography.

History of Leather Crafting

T he use of leather dates back to more than five hundred thousand years ago, and the story guarding its advent was tied to the absence of technology in the stone age. The early men majorly fed on animals, and one issue was that they didn't have any means of preserving the bodies of their kills. Worms would have their share of the meat the longer it stayed on the ground, and that was one big issue for them. So, because the meat got unfit for consumption rather quickly, they had to kill a lot of animals day after day. And as expected, it led to a lot of meat getting wasted.