Leather Book

This book was made as a birthday present for a pen & paper role player and offers the opportunity to exchange the pages in it. That's why it can be used for a long time.

You need some materials and lots of tools for leathercrafting.

But the first thing needed is an idea! You need to know, which design your book should have.

Also you need:

leather in the correct format. Mine is a little bit bigger than a sheet of Paper.

• water
• sponge
• swivel knife
• leather beveler stamp
• leather mallet
• background stamp
• leather slicker
• whool brushes
• leather dyes, finish, antique gel
• towel
• books or a lot of papers
• punch pliers
• leather band
• rubber bands

Now we can start!

Just water your leather with a sponge and wait some minutes. The leather have to be darker than before, but not too wet. Take the swifel knife, remember, how your design should look at the end of the work and then cut out your lines. You don't need to work from memory, like me. It is also good to put a printed lineart on the leather and trace all lines with a stylus.

The swivel knife has to be sharp and if this is your first leather work, it is better to practice on another piece of leather. Cut all your lines out but be careful not to cut through your leather.

Don't forget to wet your leather if it is too dry.

The next step is to use your beveler. I only have one, but there are many stamps in different sizes. You have to know, which lines on which sides you want to process.

Your leather needs to be wet. Place the beveler on the cutted line and hit gently with the mallet on the top. Run along the line while you hit constantly. Try to hit smoothly with the same pressure.

Do the same as before, but use a backround stamp and work away from the lines to expand the bottom layer of your design. Don't forget to hit gently and try to rotate while you move on.

So that the edges are not frayed, move the slicker along it. The edges become smooth.

The next step is to colour the leather. Use different leather colours. I didn't colour the part around the circles, but the choice is yours. You can use a pencil or whool brushes. Be careful and try not to spread! After your colouring use a leather finish.

The last step of colouring is using an antique gel in your prefered colour. Dip a sponge or the whool brush in the gel and work it into the leather. Wipe down the excess with a towel.

Now your book is almost finished! Use the punch pliers and punch one hole in the middle of the spine. Pull a leather band through the hole and knot it on the inner side.

You need 4 more holes. Two on each end. In eách case pull one rubber band through two holes and knot it. Remove the covers of two books and insert them into the rubber bands.

You are done! I hope you will enjoy your book and don't forget: You can exchange the pages at any time!