stamping leather

New Online Leather Floral Carving Course in the Academy!

If you follow us on social media and/or our YouTube Channel, then you have heard us talking about building a new course for the DG LeatherCraft Academy. After months of gathering information, photos, and videos we have finally completed what we think is the most comprehensive online course on Floral Carving and Tooling that is available.

I will first say, there is no in person or online course that is going to make you a Master Floral Carver over night. Becoming efficient and proficient with leather floral tooling takes practice and study over a long period of time. What I wanted to do with this new course was to consolidate all the information in one place that is easy to follow and offers the best information possible. Along with this information, we created patterns and exercises that help to develop the skills and techniques needed to begin to build a quality skill set.

Our First Floral Carving and Tooling Course is Open for Enrollment!

We have put a lot of information on the internet and our our website on the topic of tooling and floral carving. This course takes that scattered information, consolidates it into one package, and builds upon it going into further detail.

The course has over 6.5 hours of new footage covering topics like tools, work surfaces, lighting, casing, preparation, carving, sharpening, leather selection and of course the entire tooling process. There are some worksheets and lists that can be printed out for quick reference at the bench as well as all the tooling patterns for the course.

The patterns in the course are in PDF format so that you can download them and print them on your own printer and then transfer to your leather to follow along in the tooling. Your leather needs to be cut into 5.5″ x 8″ panels for this. We will be tooling 5 of these panels through the course.

The focus of this course is on the entire tooling and carving process. Tooling is the same, for the most part, no matter the size and shape of the piece you are tooling. But since belts are a popular product that we all tool, we do touch on tooling belts. Tooling a belt is only slightly different than anything else but we do talk about some of the differences. We have also included 8 new belt patterns available only within this course.

Information is valuable, it’s even more valuable with implementation and practice… it’s most valuable with feedback and guidance.

That’s why we have added the “Final Critique of all 5 Tooling Panels” session to the course after the tooling of your first pattern. This is a coaching session of sorts that is only available to students enrolled in this course. This allows you to send me a photo of each pattern after you finish tooling them for review and critique. This is done right from within the course platform. I will study your work and offer my critiques and advice on how to improve on your current skill set.

You will have 30 day access to this critique session of the course (you will have lifetime access to the course itself). I think if you are serious about improving your tooling skills, then focusing 30 days on getting all five panels tooled then receiving feedback on those pieces will be most impactful to your improvement.

*Lifetime access to all the course material in this course. 30 Day access to the Critiquing session within the course.

Whether you are a beginner tooling leather, or you have experience but want to step up your artwork, I hope that you will consider going through this online floral carving course. This class is completely online and you can go through it at your own pace in your own home or shop. You can go back through the course as many times as you like to refresh yourself.

Leather Floral Carving and Tooling: Beginner online course is open for enrollment and we hope to see you in there. Click the image below if you are ready to sign up and get started!

Complete DG LeatherCraft March Tooling Series

Our “Tooling Series” videos are back in March!  In this tooling series video, i go through my entire tooling process.  In each video we will work through a certain number of stamping tools to complete the pattern shown in the video.  In March, we are tooling a much requested skull… with a twist… this one is wear an indian headdress.

This series will show techniques for not only floral tooling, but also detail work of tooling a skull as well as getting realistic feathers.  When this pattern is completed, we will do a video showing the paint and dye work on a piece like this.

Take a moment and click the link below to grab your FREE copy of this pattern in a PDF format.  Just enter your email address and you can download and print your copy of this pattern and then tool along with us through this series.  Here is that link to grab the digital pattern for FREE:   https://dgsaddlery.com/marchtoolingseries/ Continue reading

How to Figure Carving a Horse Head into Leather

Here is a much requested video from your suggestions both here and on our facebook page!  For the July Leather Tooling Series we are showing how to figure carve a horse’s head into leather.  I am not the greatest figure carver out there and I still have a lot to learn on the subject, but I will attempt to show you what I do know.  After that, you can seek out guidance from some of the greats out there… and there are many amazing figure carvers that you can learn from.  Jim Linnell would be one that I would highly recommend checking out if you haven’t already.

If you would like to tool along with us in this tooling series, Click Here to get a FREE copy of this pattern.

Just enter your email address and we will shoot that out to you.  It is a PDF file that you can download and print on your own printer.

 

Tools used in this video:

-CS Osbourne push beveler

-Barry King Lifters (or undercuts)

-Barry King Crowners (checkered)

-Bevelers (BK and craft tool)

If you haven’t, I would suggest going through our First Tooling Series where we explain in a little more depth the different tools used in these series videos.

Here is a full run down on my Stamp Tool Roll.

The model for this project is an unknown Bay Gelding that resided on a place that borders us.  I just liked the way the horse looked and took many photos of him for artwork reference.  Not sure what happened to him, but we haven’t seen him in a long time… I like to think that he is somewhere on the rodeo trail or maybe just retired and moved to Florida.

How to Tool Leather Tooling Patterns – Video #1

In this video series, we will show you the complete tooling of floral leather tooling patterns.  The goal of these videos is to show you my complete tooling process when stamping leather tooling patterns.

This video covers the following tools and the order that I use them in:

-push beveler

-flower centers

-flower center liner

-undercuts (4 different tool sizes- small to large)

-crowners (2 different tool sizes)

There is a FREE PDF for this pattern that you are welcome to download using this link, just enter your email address to confirm access to download a copy to use so that you can follow along with us! Continue reading