February 2017

To often I am so serious about our pyrography work, carefully planning each layer of burning, examining every stroke for even thickness and tonal value, trying to create as perfect as possible a realistic reproduction.

But once in a while I just ‘wanna have fun’.  And this is the perfect, just have fun project.  Because this was created as a text run for my new book, The Art of Leather Burning, I wasn’t concerned about absolutely matching ever corner or seam, or carefully measuring the distance between every stitching awl hole, or even about how the fill patterns I chose matched the ones I had already burned.  The entire idea behind this leather burned purse was to just see what I could do, and how I could do it.

I am a strong advocate of practice boards.  Usually this is a small scrap of the same material from which you will work your main project upon which you can experiment with your temperature settings, pen tips, and fill patterns.

Well, this time, when I began my work with pyrography on leather, my practice board got a touch out of hand.  I began my text project with a 10 lb. scrap bag of vegetable-dyed leather from Springfield Leather Co.  which contained a variety of weights, textures, and species of leather pieces.

What came out of this practice session was a Greenman Slop Bag!  This rough and rugged purse measures 7 1/2″ high, 9 1/2″ wide, and 2 3/4″ thick.  The front of my purse has a double pocket and the back has one large pocket with a hidden pocket inside of it.  Its constructed using an awl to create the stitching holes and the simple double-needle stitching pattern.

I’m not done with this purse yet.  To date I have only gotten the front flap, top roll over, and front of the purse body burned.  So I still have the entire back, the sides, and the should strap on which to play, and experiment with more fill textures, shading ideas, and even miniature patterns.

Play, practice, experiment, and create … that is our goal!