One question I am frequently asked is how to improve your leather carving skills. People who are just starting out wonder if there is some magic technique that can make your carving stand out. The answer is that there is nothing magical about it. It’s just a matter of practice!
Floral carving in leather.
It turns out you don’t need to sell your soul to the devil or perform any magical rites. You also don’t need to possess any superhuman strengths or skills. An average person can improve their carving skills and become really good with one simple technique: Focused Practice.
Focused Practice
Focused practice is concentrating on one aspect of your leatherwork and repeating it again and again with the goal of improving your work each time. In this case it’s working on your carving skills and self-critiquing your work each time. This was a tip given to me by one of my mentors, noted saddle maker and Hollywood holster reproduction specialist Dusty Johnson. Dusty was a great guy with years and years of experience and he really helped me out when I was starting off.
He made the suggestion that in order to make my leather carving skills better I should take a particular small carving design and repeatedly carve it. So I make this same suggestion to you: Find a small simple design. In my case I found a Tandy Craftaid (something like this) and carved it repeatedly. Dusty recommended carving it five times and after each attempt, take a step back and take a good look at what you have made. Note the parts that you like about it. Note the things that you don’t like so much. Think about those parts and decide what you can do to improve those. Then try the same design again. After you have finished that one critique it again.
Practice pieces
The image above shows the fourth and fifth versions of the floral design I carved back then. They look pretty rough to me these days but I carved these over fifteen years ago! At the time these did represent a significant improvement in my leather carving skills, but over the years I’ve put a lot more effort into my skills and it shows.
Improving your leather carving skills
If you try this exercise I guarantee that by the time you finish the fifth piece if you place it next to your first attempt you are going to see some improvement. You will probably see a lot of improvement! Try it again with a different design. The more you do this the more improvement you will see. This is the core of focused practice. Concentrating on one part of your skills and working on them again and again to improve them. And you don’t have to be repeating a practice piece to make this technique work. Every time you carve something in leather, critique it afterwards to see what you liked and didn’t like and try to improve the stuff you didn’t like next time. This sort of honest critique will quickly improve your skills.
This tutorial will show you step by step how to carve a traditional Northwest style four petal flower in leather. Grab some leather, your tools and follow along!
This flower is different from the one in the first tutorial and different from the kind you normally see in Sheridan Style Carving. Instead of using a flower center stamp the center of this flower is made with a tool called a seeder. The center is much bigger and the flower is viewed at an angle instead of from above like we usually depict them in floral carving. This flower comes from a different style of floral carving called the Northwest Style because it was developed in saddle shops of the US Pacific Northwest.
Be sure to go back and look through the first tutorial in this series that I published previously. I won’t cover all the details I brought up before while discussing the tools this time around but you can find all those details by clicking here.
A note on tools: As I said in the first tutorial it’s more than likely you won’t have all the tools that I show here. For the most part I’m staying away from very specialized tools as much as possible though for doing traditional floral carving there are a couple of fairly specialized tools used to get very specific effects (like a center shader.) If you don’t have all these tools don’t worry. Where possible I’ll point out alternate tools you could use. In almost every case these tools are available at your local brick and mortar leather shop or online at your favorite tool maker. It’s sometimes possible to find these tools used from reputable online sources for very reasonable costs.
Initial carving with the swivel knife
Step 1: Tracing and carving. Again I traced the design onto the damp leather and then carved it in with my swivel knife. A note about how damp your leather should be: let it dry out to the point where it almost comes back to the color it was before you dampened it. Most people start off tooling their leather when it is far too wet and they don’t get burnishing when stamping it. Properly cased leather should darken like a bruise when a tool strikes it hard.
Step 2: Outlining the flower center. Again we’ll start with the flower center even though in this case technically the bottom petal is closer to the viewer. Think of it like you are viewing this flower on edge.
I always start with the center and work on the petals moving out from it. I still use the center shader to outline the flower center like I did before. When I traced the design onto the leather I put a dotted line where the edge of the flower center would be and now I’m using the center shader to bevel that line. Of course if you don’t have a center shader a checkered or lined beveller will work.
Step 3: Seeding the center. Here we introduce a new tool, the seeder. They come in different shapes and sizes but most of them make a small round ‘seed’ that we will use to fill in the flower center. I will stamp them in rows as neatly as I can, starting with the outer edge and working my way towards the center.
Step 3A: After the first row I add another behind it, trying not to stamp over any of the seeds I already placed of the edge of the center. It takes some skill to place these all in nice evenly spaced rows, a skill I am still trying to master.
Step 4: Beveling the petal in front of the seeds. Once I’m done with the center I start on the petal directly below the line of seeds. This represents a petal the viewer is seeing edge on, and I’m beveling the line that runs along the base of the flower center seeds into the petals on either side of the center.
You want to bevel this line on the side that is TOWARDS the flower center because this petal is supposed to look like it’s opening from the center. Beveling the other side of the cut would make it look like it’s below or behind the flower center, which would just look weird.
One reason I do the center before beveling this line is because you can get some seed marks on this petal and I’ll clean them off either with the beveling or with a little work from a modeling spoon.
Step 5: Stamping veiner marks on the petals. Next I’m ready to add texture to the petals with the veiner.
See the first tutorial for more details on this. I’m doing the same thing here that I did on that flower. The only differences on this one is that the long narrow petal just below the seeds doesn’t get any veiner marks. Also I did put them on the petal at the very bottom, but I added them after I took this picture. But you can see them in the next step.
Step 6: Shading the petals. Just like the last flower I am using my thumbprint or pear shader tool along the petal edges to add relief to the petals. I start at the tips and walk the tool back toward the center making lighter impressions as I go..
Notice on this flower I started the thumbprint right at the very edge of the petal. I’m actually extending the tip of the tool just a bit past my knife cut. This is another part of the Northwest style of carving. The shader goes all the way to the edge of the petal. Traditionally in Sheridan Style carving (which is the most common style these days) the shader or thumbprint mark stops just short of the edge of the petal. Take a look at the flower in the first tutorial to see an example of the Sheridan style.
Step 7: Starting to bevel the petals. First I’m going to bevel the bottom of that petal we’re seeing on edge. This time we want to bevel the side of the cut line that is away from the flower center.
Step 8: Next I’m going to use my undercut beveller in all the small scallops on these petals. There are a lot more of these scalloped areas on this flower and it will end up with a lot more depth and movement than the flower in the first tutorial.
Step 8A: All of the places I needed to lift up with the undercut beveller have been tooled now. You are beginning to see the ripple effect along the edge that this flower is going to develop.
Step 9: Beveling the tips of the bottom petal. Now I’ve switched to my small standard beveller (see step 8 in the first flower carving tutorial) to bevel the small rounded tips of the petal.
It takes small movements of the beveller to follow the tight curve here and not leave tool marks in the leather and get a smooth bevel.
Step 10: Looking at the bottom petal I thought it looked kind of plain where it met the petal above it, so I decided to come back with my thumbprint tool and add some shading from the center towards the thumbprint marks I had already made on the petal tips. I made the new marks so they lined up with the ones from the tips.
Step 10A: This shows what the marks I added look like on the petal.
Step 11: Now to bevel the two petals on either side of the flower center. I did this the same way as the bottom petal using my small beveller.
Step 12: Beveling the edge of the top petal. Since it is the ‘farthest’ part from the viewer and parts of it lie behind the two side petals it gets beveled last.
Step 13: Decorative cuts. I finished the flower off with some decorative cuts on the petals.
Note I actually skipped a few steps on this one. I didn’t matte down the beveling ridges on the flower petals like I did in step 9 of the first flower carving tutorial, and I didn’t background around the flower either. This was mostly because I got in a hurry and forgot. But if you want to see those steps done properly, check out the first tutorial.
Northwest Style Flower Carving Tutorial – In a nutshell.
There you have it! Another complete and simple flower carving tutorial. Feel free to ask questions and I will do my best to answer all of them.
This is a step by step process showing how I take a blank piece of leather and create a floral carving on it. In this particular case it is a simple flower but the same techniques work for any kind of carving in leather.
This picture shows a piece of leather to be carved and some of the tools to get started including a swivel knife.
For this leather carving tutorial I’m just going to carve and tool a simple flower with seven petals. The picture above shows the piece of leather with the flower outline already carved into it with my swivel knife. I’ll go step by step over each tooling step that I make to get the final flower. Feel free to grab a small piece of vegtan leather and follow along. Though it looks like there are a lot of steps and details here, it really doesn’t take too long to do each of these. Stay with me through this whole post and I guarantee you will pick up something useful!
A note on tools: It’s more than likely you won’t have all of the tools that I show here. For the most part I’m staying away from very specialized tools as much as possible but for doing traditional floral carving there are a couple of fairly specialized tools that are used to get very specific effects (like a center shader.) If you don’t have all these tools don’t worry. Where possible I’ll point out alternate tools you could use. In almost every case these tools are available at your local brick and mortar leather shop or online at your favorite tool maker. It’s sometimes possible to find these tools used from reputable online sources for very reasonable costs.
Leather Carving Tutorial: Step by Step
Step 1: Trace the flower outline onto your leather and carve it with your swivel knife. The picture at the beginning of this leather carving tutorial shows this step. I transfer my carvings to tracing paper but I’ve also taken the paper drawing and traced it directly to the damp leather by putting a layer of kitchen plastic wrap over the leather to protect my paper. Also, this first picture shows the design carved in with the swivel knife.
Step 2: Work from the foreground to the background! There are a lot of good reasons for this but the main one is to keep from having to redo any areas you have already tooled.
Flower Center stamped.
When looking at a flower like this, we treat the center as the closest part to the viewer and stamp that first. It also helps to guide the beveling of the flower petals that will come next. We want the impression that the petals (or more correctly their edges) come down to the flower center.
My flower center in this case is a stamp, but you can do something similar if you have a seeder and can stamp the seeds in a small circular area. In one of the later tutorials we’ll actually use a seeder to make a more complex flower center.
Step 3: Center shading. This was one of the first ‘Sheridan Style’ tools I got once I could get more professional tools. When I saw how this tool changes the look of the flower center I had to have one.
Center Shader used on the flower center.
It’s a lined tool designed to work around the flower center stamp and matte it down, making it look like a cone shape. It really enhances the depth the flower center has and makes it look like center is deep down in the center of a real flower. You can’t really tell from the picture but this stamp has a slightly curved heel to help it fit around the center stamp and press the leather down right up to the edge of the center. The lines on the stamp help to enhance the illusion of depth and will capture antique later (if you antique the piece.)
If you don’t have a center shader, a small beveler used carefully around the center can get a similar effect.
Step 4: Using a veiner on the petals. Floral carvers do this to add a visual texture to the petals as well as enhance the appearance of roundness and depth in the flower.
Using the veiner on flower petals.
You can use either a veiner or a camouflage tool for this. Originally the camouflage tool was the tool of choice for this but as Sheridan Style developed using a veiner for this job became more common. It’s a matter or your preference and style as to which you prefer. I usually use a small veiner like the one shown here.
Step 4A: Petals after all the veiner lines have been stamped. I usually try to have my veiner marks line up around each petal though I’m not very precise about this.
All petals lined with veiner.
Also, I try to put the marks a little closer together near the center and have them gradually space farther apart as I get closer to the edge. I think this enhances the visual illusion that you are looking at a 3D cone shape that gradually opens up and flattens out as you get close to the petal tips.
Step 5: Thumbprint or pear shader on the petal tips. This is one of the steps that is very stylized for floral carving and doesn’t really represent a feature in a real flower. We do it to give texture to the petals and more visual impact.
Thumprint tool shading flower petals
This tool goes by several names. Typically in Tandy Craftool catalogs it is referred to as a Pear Shader. Most Sheridan Style carvers will call this a thumbprint, and the two do have some differences. Pear Shaders are actually ‘pear’ or teardrop shaped and often smooth. Thumbprints are usually longer, shaped more like a loaf of French bread and they are usually lined. Thumbprints also are designed so that the inner end is narrower that the outer end, giving the user two sizes of thumbprint in one tool. That is a nice benefit!
This particular tool is a thumbprint. Notice how I start at the outer edge of the petal and walk it back toward the center, hitting it a little lighter as I go.
Step 6: The undercut or undershot beveler. This tool makes it easy to bevel those round concave areas on the flower petal. Also, because of the way it is shaped, it pushes the leather up above the cut line, giving a lift to that part of the petal. That is why these tools are often called ‘petal lifters.’ This was another one of those floral carving tools that I had to have once I saw how it was used. To me this was the key tool that made professional carver’s work stand out.
Petal lifter for the petal edges
I’ll use this tool inside the slight inward curve on each flower petal to lift that part of the tip up. Compared to the areas on either side of the lifted area where I’ve already used the thumbprint, that center part of the petal will really look like it’s standing up above the leather surface.
Showing how the tool fits at the petal’s edge
Step 6A: After stamping in all the scalloped areas of the petals. I do this as the first step in the beveling process.
All petals lifted
Step 7: Beveling the petals. First I focus on the long cuts to the flower center. I use a wider beveller for this because you get smoother beveling when you can use a wide beveller. The smaller the width of your tool the easier it gets to have uneven beveling and to leave undesirable tool marks. You always want to use the widest tool you can. The beveller in this picture is a ¼ inch wide.
Starting the petal beveling
Flower center beveled all around.
Step 8: Beveling around the petal tips. To do the more rounded petal tips my larger beveler is too big to easily do the job, so I switch to a 1/8 wide beveller. This makes it easier to go around the curves but you do have to take more care to use an even amount of force so you get an even and smooth beveling line.
A smaller beveler is used for the flower tips.
Step 8A: Petal beveling complete! The flower is almost done at this point.
Beveling complete!
Step 9: Matting down the beveling ridges. Notice that there is a very pronounced ridge on the flower petals where I beveled the petal edges that lead down to the flower center. I want to smooth out that ridge so the petals look more flat and I’m going to use the figure beveller at the top of the picture to do it.
A figure beveler to knock down the beveling ridges
Figure bevellers were specifically designed to matte down leather in figure carving and are great at removing ridges like this. I stamped an impression of the tool next to it so you could clearly see the shape of the tool. If you don’t have one of these tools a modeling spoon will do the same job for you. Really any smooth rounded tool could be used like a modeling spoon to smooth the leather out.
Step 9A: Everything smoothed down. The petals now have a much smoother and more natural looking surface.
Beveling ridges smoothed out.
Step 10: The same kind of ridge exists around the outer edge of the flower thanks to our beveller and the carving will look better if we matte that down too. Since this will be the background of the flower, we usually want this surface to be textured to make the flower stand out from it. The texturing will capture antique when you antique your piece making it much darker than the flower, but even if you don’t antique your work the texture itself will separate the background from the floral carving.
Backgrounding the flower.
First, I’m going to start with a small pointed checkered backgrounder to matte down the small pointed areas between the petals. For this carving I’m going to use a checkered backgrounding tool. You can see an impression of the mark this backgrounder leaves next to the tool. It is true that some floral carving experts will say that the only ‘professional’ backgrounding tool for floral work is a bargrounder but I say use whatever you are comfortable with. I’ll have an example using bargrounders in a later tutorial.
Step 11: Once I matte down the tight spaces I’ll switch to a larger tool so I can cover more area. I stamped the larger tool next to the smaller one for comparison and I’ve started matting down the area along the top of the flower so you could see the difference.
Expanding the backgrounded area.
Step 11A: Here I’ve matted all the way around the flower. Please note for this leather caring tutorial I wasn’t taking the time to do my best to matte this area down evenly and fade the edge out as smoothly as I could. As a result, the matting on this background looks choppy. If this was something I was making for a customer I would spend more time making the matting look smooth.
Backgrounding completed.
Note how the backgrounding makes the flower stand out, like it’s actually above or separate from the leather. Because of the texturing in the background if you antique this leather it will make the flower stand out even more.
Closer view of the backgrounding around the flower.
Step 12: Decorative cuts. Typically this is the last step in the project. I usually finish all the carving before I come back and do this step. Decorative or ‘dress’ cuts are intended to give extra detail to the flower and are another stylized effect for floral carving that doesn’t quite match a part on a real flower. I for one think the flower looks much better with the cuts than without.
Decorative cuts on the flower petals.
There are lots of different styles and ways to do these cuts. Each carver usually find one that he likes and can do well and sticks with them. I’ve never felt I was very good with these cuts and I stick to these basic ones most of the time.
