My boyfriend has an old banjo strap with name of his original band on it (like fifteen year ago..), while he's been playing in our current band for more than four years. I wanted a present for him, but this task wanted much more skills than I'd had..
So I bought some necessary stuff and learned on a few small projects. Then I ordered beef 6cm leather.
I measured the old strap and cut it to length pointed on both sides. I made the edges round with a scalpel. Two punched holes on each side. And two lines around the edges, that were originally just pressed to wet leather, but I finally made them deep with my swivel knife.
Everyone knows how expensive these alphabet stamps are! I finally found two western fonts I liked and combined them together for hand carved letters. The outline is done on wet leather with swivel knife and the crosshathing as well, but with very shallow cuts.
I found a flower pattern and made two mirrored drawings of it (drawing was unbelievably the most challenging part of this project). The pattern was then transferred with a ballpoint tool, pressing the lines over the paper to wet leather.
Then a lot of work with swivel knife. I even worked in office after work so that my fiance doesn't see it at home :-D
Then I learned how to stamp leather. I couldn't use hammer, as I live in a flat. So I made myself a leather thimble and pressed all with just my strength. I felt like I have been to gym..
First step is just flat smooth stamp - at every cut I made a groove from one side - like at the petals, I pressed on the outside, so that the petal stands out.
Then I used the dotted stamp to make the background.
Finally, there were details inside the petals and leaves that were made using the pear shaped stamp.
Everything has to be done on pretty wet leather. I also highlighted the inner edge line with a smooth stamp and outlines of each letter with a dotted one.
So this is the status of the strap before any dyeing.
I used to dye with a dye for wood, so I dyed here the whole strap with light brown.
But at the large smooth parts around the letters, I was afraid it would make stains, so I bought a real dye for leather to be sure. Anyway, dyeing to wet surface is the best way to prevent stains. After some hesitation, I added a second layer which gave it even more uniform color.
For the blossom background I used a really thin brush.
I applied one layer of resolene with woolen ball and wiped off the excess.
Drying in the bathroom behind the doors, he won't see it until he goes to bath or peeks behind the open door :-D Hiding the present all the time was quite an adventure!
When it was dry, I put a lot of antique and tried to remove it from the surface, while leaving it in the grooves. It's like mud. Resolene helped the light brown leather not to get dark.
Another coat of Resolene to finish the work. It should be waterproof now.
I don't know how, but I made it on time just before his birthday :-)
Beautiful leatherwork. I love how much I learned here.
