The Making of a Leather Money Clip: Part One

I made this money clip a few weeks back as a commission for a friend. She wanted a floral tooling with a nutty brown finish. Throughout the tooling I decided to document the process, as the most asked question I get when I say I tool leather is, "How do you do it?" This is how!

I'm splitting this post up into two parts to keep it from getting too long and taking forever to load up.

The secret to tooling leather is water. Water is what makes the leather malleable, and allows to tools to make an impression in the leather rather than a small dent.

The first step to tooling leather is to trace the impression into the leather with a ball stylus.

Next I use a swivel knife to cut out the design.

After using the swivel knife, I use a beveler to give the design depth. the beveler is similar to shading in a drawing, it brings certain places forward and brings certain places back.

Next I use a backgrounder, which also helps push certain places back.

Now that I have the basic pattern blocked out, I start on the detailing of the leather. I use a pear shader and a modeling spoon to give the petals depth.

Part two will be up soon!