Leather Purse Pyrography, Greenman Face, Project
Also visit, Leather Purse Pyrography Double-Needle Stitching
Play, practice, experiment, and create … that is our goal!
If I have not been working on a particular craft for a while or have not worked with a certain media, I always start with a practice board.
A practice board can be any scrap piece of the same material from which your project will be made – a small piece of birch plywood, a small gourd for a larger gourd bird house, or even little bits of vegetable-dyed leather that can be turned into earrings.
When Dover Publishing asked me to create the manuscript for the Art of Leather Burning that first thing I wanted to do was a Practice Board – something that I could use to test pen tips, temperature settings, and tonal values.
But I also needed something that I could practice the leather cutting, stitching patterns, and the different weights of leather scrap – basic leather project construction techniques.
How could I bring both pyrography and leather techniques into one project to experiment with what I needed to do, needed to teach, and how I could teach the steps in as easy and clear a manner as possible?
My answer – the Greenman Slop Bag!
Civil War re-enactors often call this type of bag a tack bag, used to carry the wad and power for their muskets. For us it will be a fun, anything goes, shoulder strap bag, created from the scrap bundles you can purchase through leather suppliers.
Our goal, first and foremost, is to have some fun! Since this is a slop bag you do not need to be careful, precise, or pristine with your work.
Experiment by mixing different weights and textures of leather into the project. Try a variety of stitching patterns as you lace the pockets and sides to the purse.
Use this project to practice with how rivets, snaps, and brads are added to your leather work.
Get out all of your pyrography pen tips and do small test burning samples on different areas of the purse. This is a perfect time to set aside “doing it right!” Instead, just have “fun doing it!”
The Art of Leather Burning by Lora Irish
This project will focus on the pyrography steps in creating your own Greenman Slop Bag.
Please refer to the Art of Leather Burning for in-depth steps to the basics to leather crafting and for more detailed instructions in leather pyrography.
Please click on any image in this project for larger photos.
Supplies
Supplies:
vegetable-tanned and tooling leather scrap bag
6 to 7 oz. vegetable-tanned leather piece, 5 sq. ft.
leather hole punch
white or tan nylon leather thread
2 – large dull-point needles
gum tragacanth edge finish
wooden edge slicker
leather awl
flat nose pliers
2 – 1 3/4” brass d-rings
2 – extra-large decorative brads
assorted small brads and decorative rivets
pyrography pen tips – ball, loop, micro writing tip
bench knife or craft knife
1/4” graph paper
#4 – #8 soft pencil for tracing
white artist eraser
satin brush-on leather finish
quilting rotary cutter
quilting transparent rulers
self-healing cutting mat
Basic cutting for leather purse pieces
1 Our project begins with a vegetable-dyed or tooling leather scrap or bundle package that is available through most leather supply outlets. These bundles come in varying weights and usually contain a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and even animal skin varieties.
You will also need at least one large piece of vegetable-dyed leather, measuring around 5 to 6 square feet. This will provide the leather for the front, back, and flap area of the purse.
2 Leather can be cut with your bench knife, a utility knife, or with a quilting rotary cutter. Use a self-healing cutting mat beneath your work to protect your table.
3 The stitching marks for the sewing holes, made with your awl, are marked at 1/4” from the outer edge, and at 1/4” intervals.
4 The leather scrap bundle from which I worked was a ten pound package, which gave me a very large variety of shapes and sizes from which to choose. This same leather scrap bag included several different weights of leather as well as a mix of hog and cow hides.
Some pieces in my bundle had branding marks, old scars, and raw edges that added a rough and tumble look to my finished slop bag. Note the front flap in the photo which shows one raw edge of the leather piece along the right side of the flap.
Have fun picking and choosing which pieces from your scrap package can add flavor and spice to your bag creation.
Planning your purse layout
Your purse dimensions will depend upon the variety and sizes of scraps in your leather bundle.
You will need three large pieces – one each for the back, front, and flap. You will also need three pieces the same width for the sides, and bottom.
The average minimum size of my three largest pieces was 9 1/2” wide by 7 1/2” tall. This set the height and length for the sides and bottom. The average width of those pieces – the sides and bottom – was 2 3/4”.
So, my purse measures 9 1/2” long x 7 1/2” high x 2 3/4” wide. Adjust your measurements to fit your scrap leather pieces.
Cutting Measurements
A Front and back 2 – 9 1/2” x 7 1/2”
B Purse bottom 1 – 9 1/2” x 2 3/4”
C Purse sides 2 – 7 1/2” 2 3/4”
D Side strap holders 2 – 1 1/4” x 7”
E Side pockets 2 – 2 3/4” x 4”
F Front purse flap 1 – 5 1/2” x 9 1/2”
G Back pocket 1 – 8 3/4” x 6”
H Back pocket flap 5” x 8 3/4”
I Inner front pocket 8 3/4” x 5”
J Outer front pocket 8 3/4” x 4”
K Outer pocket flap 8 3/4” x 3”
Cut along the dotted lines of the
cutting guide on pieces F, G, H, and K.
Simple Lay-over Flap
To create a simple, lay-over flap, place the flap leather on top of the pocket leather with the tanned sides up.
Use your rotary cutter or bench knife and a metal ruler to cut the angle of the top edge of the pocket, cutting through both pieces at the same time.
Mark your stitching holes, and use your awl to punch holes through both layers at t he same time. Using the double-needle stitching pattern, stitch the flap to the pocket top.
A rolled flap is stitched by laying 3/8” of the long flap edge under the top of the pocket with the raw sides of leather together. Punch your stitching holes with an awl 1/4” from the top edge of the pocket, through both layers of leather. Now stitch along the awl line. You can now roll the flap forward to lay over the pocket top.
Fold-over Flapped Pocket
The flap of a fold-over flapped pocket can be cut on the straight, diagonal, or in a centered v-shape. This type of flap is excellent for leather pieces that have uncut, ragged edges.
With the raw leather sides together, place the long edge of the flap under the top edge of the pocket. Overlap the two pieces of leather by 3/8”.
Mark and awl your stitching holes 1/4” from the top edge of the pocket, working through both layers of leather at the same time.
Use the double needle stitching pattern to secure the two pieces of leather together. You can now fold the flap to the front of the pocket, hiding your stitch line.
Adding Variety
You can add small pockets to the front of larger pockets and to the outside of either simple, lay-over flaps or fold-over flaps. In the samples to the left you will see an idea for a small, half-sized added pocket, a small flap pocket, and a half-tall front pocket.
Shoulder Straps & D-Rings
The d-ring that holds the shoulder straps is added to the side pieces of the main purse.
Begin by folding one edge of the shoulder strap holder leather over to create a 1” flap on the raw leather side.
Mark a stitching line 1/4” from the edge of the flap, and open the holes with an awl.
Slide your d-ring into the fold of the flapped area. Stitch the flap to the front of the leather strap holder using the double needle stitching pattern.
This secures the d-ring to the strap, while allowing the ring to move and adjust inside of the flap area.
Center the strap holder over one purse side, sliding the lower edge of the fold down to touch the top edge of the side.
Mark a stitching line 1/4” from the edge of the strap holder, and open the holes with an awl. Stitch the strap holder to the purse side using the double needle stitching pattern.
Key Pocket
I added a small key pocket to my purse sides when I stitched the side pieces to the front and back of the purse. In this section of work, I was stitching through three layers of leather with each stitch.
That small pocket gives me a place to stash my pencil or ink pen, while hiding the bottom edge of the strap holder.
General Construction Layout
Pre-Construction Pyrography Burning
I find that it is much easier to do my pyrography before the entire purse is constructed.
For this project, stitch the purse back, roll over, and front flap together. Use the basic double-needle stitch for the back and roll over seam, and a cross-stitch pattern for the front and roll over seam.
This allows you to work through all of the pyrography steps for the Greenman face while this section of the purse is flat and easy to manipulate.
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.
Shading the Face
4 Begin your leather burning project by testing your temperature settings and pen tip profiles on a scrap of leather left over from the cutting of your main project.
Every piece of leather burns differently. Doing a quick test burn on a scrap will help you determine what temperature setting will give you the most control over your tonal values.
5 For my leather a temperature setting of 3 created a mid-tone value, a setting of 5 created a dark tonal burn.
Using a flat shader and a mid-tone temperature setting begin your face by shading along the side of the nose, the eye pads, the eye lids, the mouth, and along the wrinkle lines in the cheeks.
Add shading along the outside background area surrounding the leaves.
6 Using the mid-tone temperature range and your flat shader, work a shadow line along each of the vein lines in your leaves. Allow the stem veins of the leaves to remain unburned – the white of the unburned leather.
Add some shading lines in the mustache and beard area. Shade along the bottom edge of the nose.
Increase your temperature setting slightly, about one half unit from the setting you used in step 5.
With your flat shader deepen the shadows at the corner of the eyes, along the stem of the eye brow leaf, and along the right side of the nose.
7 Change your burning tip to a looped writing tip or ball tip pen. Using the medium-hot temperature setting shade in the pupils of the eyes, the nostrils, and the mouth.
Work a particle burned line along the lower eyelid. Touch the pen tip at the eye lid corner and pull your stroke towards the center of the eye. Stop the stroke slightly short of center.
When the two corner strokes are done there should be a small gap of unburned line at the center point of the lower eyelid.
The basic shading steps are complete. You can return later and add more shading if necessary after you have worked your detailing lines.
8 Using your looped writing tip, ball-tip, or micro ball-tip pen create very fine lines in the leaves to create the crinkled look of autumn dried leaves.
Add fine line detailing to the wrinkles under the eyes and along the sides of the nose. The mustache hairs are added at this time.
9 Using your flat shader and a medium-hot temperature setting create a textured fill pattern to the background of the pattern. I chose a simple touch-and-lift pattern using my square-end shading tip.
Darken the background areas where it touches the main pattern by working a second layer of fill pattern.
11 Use your looped writing tip, or ball-tip pen on a medium-hot setting to add fine line detailing to the beard and mustache area.
Take time to check your original shading steps, re-enforcing any area that does not give a strong, firm feeling to the shape of the face.
I chose to continue that Greenman pattern into the roll over of my purse by burning an added section of leaves. Eventually I will continue to add more and more small patterns, designs, and fill textures to the back of my purse.
12 Since this entire purse project began as a practice board for my leather burning I continued to use the different sections of the purse to experiment with small fill patterns, shading strokes, and line designs.
On the front of the purse I have used each area of the two pockets as an individual area for more practice.
And since I was just having fun with this purse project I used it to experiment with some of my new leather brads and rivets!
Here’s a preview of my current leather pyrography purse project.
Horned Dragon Pill Box Purse
Hope you enjoyed this tutorial – Lora Irish
