Basic Leather Carving - The Western Coaster

Here is the pattern for the coaster. Feel free to right click and save it to your hard drive to practice.

In Order to complete your coaster, you will need a total of 8 tools.
These tools include 6 stamps,

Camouflage C431, Backgrounder A104, Mulesfoot U858, V407 Viener, B200 Smooth Beveler, S722 Seeder.

1 swivel knife, and 1 mallet.

The swivel knife is one of the most difficult leather working tools you will need to master. Once a technique is developed, it will be the basis for all of your future carving.

How the swivel knife is used varies for the users comfort. The only rule that one should follow is how you hold the knife. The pictures below show the correct and incorrect ways of holding the knife when carving.

The knife should be held in such a fashon that the full face of the blade does not actually touch the leather, but only one corner. This means the knife blade should be at approximately 30° to the
workpiece.

Case the leather by using water or a carving solution such as dish washing detergent and water.

Once cased, transfer pattern onto the leather using pattern.

Using prescribed methods, carve the design into the leather.

Make sure the leather has an adequate moisture content.

Keep the knife stropped and sharp!

Using the A104 Backgrounding tool, stamp the areas needing backgrounding.

This step is much debated among leather crafters as to when to do it.

I have put this here, as doing it right after carving is my personal preference.

Begin beveling all of the lines you have previously cut using the B200 Beveler.

After the beveling, this is a good time to do the seeding on the seed pod (S722)

Now use your viener and camo tools to add life to the leaves of the flower.

Keep the tool angled when stamping to prevent getting the full impression of the stamp.

Use the mulesfoot tool to add accents to the flower stems.

Using the swivel knife make your decorative cuts into the flower.

Decorative cuts show the flowers character. They should be light, and not stop abruptly.

Further explained below.