How to deep emboss leather with a mold.
How I made a leather Gizmo fridge magnet using a mold. I start with clay I get called Sculpey. It’s a PVC based polymer or something along those lines. When it's baked it gets hard like plastic. It’s available through most craft and art stores. You may also want to pick up some baby powder since the clay can get a bit sticky when you're making a mold of something. It will help tremendously, especially if there's a lot of little grooves and things. I've done a few now and they work pretty good. I thought I'd share what I figured out.
I suggest taking a look at the pictures below first. Revisit them every now and then while you’re reading also.
Start by grabbing a chunk of clay. You'll need to work it a bit to soften it. However, I found if I work it too much it gets overly soft and sticky. I work it until it gets just soft enough to press something into it for a mold.
With some trial and error you’ll figure out what things work well and what things might be too much to make a mold from.
Form the clay into a shape big enough to cover your item. You may need to add some clay if it’s not thick enough.
Next, you’ll need to give your item a good dusting with baby powder or something similar. Flip it over and tap it a couple times to get the excess off. Then gently push it into your clay pressing all around slowly working it in. You may want to press a the clay up around on the sides to get it to cover all the edges. While you do this you also want to press the back down onto a flat surface so when you pull it apart and set it down to bake it will naturally want to stay in that shape. Gently pull the clay off and lay it back flat.
Bake it according to the directions on the package and let it cool. Case a piece of 4oz veg tan leather. It can be a little thinner than that but I would try to avoid going any thicker. It can also help if you use a piece that has a bit more stretch to it. Something cut from the belly area usually works pretty good. Push it into the mold with just your fingers slowly working it into shape for a couple minutes. It helps to hold it in place with one hand at a time. Then press the deeper groves with a modeling spoon or something small but not sharp. If the tool you’re using is sharp in some way there’s a good chance you could cut through the leather. The trick is to work it in slowly moving around to different areas frequently. Once it’s formed as much as it can be take it out of the mold and let it dry. If you want to get more detail you can put it back in the mold after a few minutes of drying and form it a bit more. Once you’re happy with the results leave it out of the mold to completely dry.
Mix some leather dust and rubber cement together to fill in the back. Make sure not to fill it up all the way. Just enough to help the deep embossing hold. After that dries trim some of the excess off and work on getting the outside to lay flat on the table. Spray around the edges a little to make it easier. What we’re trying to do is get a flat parameter with enough room to stitch it to a secondary back piece.
Next, spray over the front a little and use a modeling spoon to refine all the details. Then let it dry.
Cut a piece of leather for the back and glue a couple magnets to it on the inside away from where the stitches will go through (it’s a good idea to check the polarity of your magnets beforehand). Glue the embossed part down to the back panel. If you want to fill it in more with leather dust and glue, you could do that first. When the glue dries, punch your stitching holes and sew the two parts together. Trim the edges, burnish and seal.
Thanks for reading,
Tony Allen Bernier
