Tracing the Pattern
In traditional leather-crafting you lightly dampen the tanned surface of the leather before you do your tracing step. This softens the surface of the leather and allows your pen or pencil point to create a fine lined indent into the leather.
For pyrography that fine indented line will cause your pen tip to skip or slide as you pull your burning strokes. Also, that indented line is permanent, allowing your original tracing to show through your burning.
I find that the best tracing technique is done with graphite paper on the dry leather surface. This leaves the pale gray line of the graphite without doing damage to the smooth finish of the leather.
Click on any image in this free tutorial for a full-sized photo.
1 Print a copy of the Greenman pattern.
2 Position the pattern, face up, onto the front flap of your purse. Allow the leaf area of the pattern to fall into the roll over area of leather.
Slide a piece of graphite tracing pattern under the printed pattern. Use an ink pen to trace along the pattern lines.
3 With a #4 – #8 pencil strengthen any light tracing lines. Both the pencil lines and graphite lines can be removed later in this project using a white, artist-quality eraser.
