Leather tooling and stamping is a craft that uses metal stamps and a mallet.
Leather stamping and tooling crafts usually require a mallet and metal stamps. Metal stamps are pounded onto moistened leather, creating indentations in the shape of the stamp. These indentations are considered decorations. This is process is called stamping. Tooling refers to the process of altering the leather using stamping tools. A wide range of leather crafts can be decorated using tooling methods.
Leather Purses
Traditional leather purse designs incorporate pieces of leather lashed together with leather thread. Today, they are machine sewn, as well. You can decorate a homemade leather purse or a store-bought leather purse by using stamping. You can stamp the entire surface of the purse using various stamp patterns or you can stamp just the flap or edges of the purse for a more-understated look.
Leather Briefcase
Like leather purses, leather briefcases can be customized with stamping. Briefcases give the crafter a large canvas to work on, so you can create a large design as opposed to small, simple patterns. For example, you could make a landscape design. To do this, you could use a Sun-shaped stamp for the sky. Add grass with a crescent shell stamp. Make sure the lines of the stamp are turned toward the sky so that the image looks like grass and not a shell.
Belts
Customized belts can be expensive, but you can add interest to an inexpensive leather belt by adding stamping patterns. The trick to this craft is choosing stamps that are smaller than the width of the belt. This insures that the entire design is stamped onto the belt. You can use the same stamp all the way across the belt or you can create a pattern by alternating two or three different stamps. For example, if you had an X-shaped stamp and a shell-shaped stamp you could start the pattern with the X-shaped stamp, followed by a shell-shaped stamp. The pattern would begin again with another X-shaped stamp.
Leather Sandals
Another store-bought item you can alter with stamp crafting is leather sandals. Purchase sandals that have no embellishments, especially beads or studs. Beads and studs can be crushed during the stamping process. Stamping the straps of sandals will require using small stamps that will fit within the dimensions of the strap. A crescent-shaped tool would be a good choice for this craft because it is narrow like the straps of a sandal.
Tags: leather purse, X-shaped stamp, metal stamps, purse using, shell-shaped stamp
