Let us suppose we are working on a card case. The design is traced in the manner described in the last chapter, that is, by tracing over the dampened leather.
Fig. 90. A case of tools
After the design has been traced remove the paper and holding the nut pick firmly in your right hand as you would a pencil, proceed to deepen the lines. The leather must be kept moist or the tool is apt to scratch and break the outer skin. It is a work over which you may become fatigued, but you can just lay it aside till the next day and then proceed again. The deeper the tooled line the handsomer the piece. It will take several hours to tool a card case.
Another form of decorating leather is with the little geometrical die that was used so much in past winters for decorating the background of etched copper articles ([Figure 91]). The little die is placed on the leather with its raised or embossed side downward and one knock from a steel hammer is sufficient to make an imprint on the leather. The entire background is filled out in this manner. Hammer with an even pressure otherwise the background will be bumpy.
Fig. 91. The dies for backgrounds
Sometimes you may prefer to have your background pressed or modelled and the design to stand out in relief. In that case take the bowl or thick part of the nut pick or modeller and press the background in flat. If the leather wrinkles when rubbing it change the direction of working. When the work is completed it will be noticed that the modelled part of the leather is darker and quite shiny.