en-Didactic demo

Through this Arts and Crafts wallpaper pattern, ("Trellis" 1862, by the great William Morris), you can see the different stages and renderings, depending on the techniques and products used, all of which beeing possibly mixed together, hence the multiple interpretations for a same visual... 

The original drawing is transferred manually onto damp leather (most often on tracing) ... It is then incised with a special knife. 

Embossing begins when the contours are then lowered with a die or spoon. 

They can also be textured for more relief and shadow effect (which is my preference). 

The colors, as Clint Eastwood could have said in a famous western, are divided into 2 kinds of things: the covering (paints) and the mordants (dyes)... 

Depending on whether the leather is bare, or blocked with varnish (to attenuate the future color), covered with gold leaf, or white primer, the color rendering will be quite different, more or less shiny or saturated... 

Finally, the high-liter will eventually accentuate the textured backgrounds and details to further play on shadows and lights... 

The varnish then blocks the whole (mine is anti-UV) to prevent leather from "tanning" too quickly... 

Each of my decorated leather pieces, from the smallest (like a keychain, or a pair of earrings) to the largest (a painting, a chessboard), as well as each bar, wallet, notebook , bookmark, goes through these cumulative processes... 

You can thus understand the time spent at this work, and the uniqueness and the cost of such pieces...