The leather work book - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1875 Excerpt: ...and foliage are placed. This must not be cut in strips, but in a very exact line, the size and shape of the blotter, and bin. wide. It must be taken from the best part of the leather, so that it shall have no flaw or wrinkle on its surface; it must then be plunged in the hot salt water, dried, and the straight lines drawn on it and dotted over with the stiletto as described for the back. It must be glued and placed with great exactitude on the blotter, round the edge; where the outer line of the border meets that of the piece of leather forming the back, another slip of leather, about in. wide, must be laid over the join, or a very narrow strip of worm pattern would have a very pretty effect. This little bit of masking must not be laid with its edges equi-distant from the join, as that would interfere with the pattern of the border, but it must be placed more on the slip of leather which forms the back of the blotter, and with its extreme edge only overlapping the foundation of the border pattern. We would suggest that the border ornamentation should be cut quite three sizes larger than the design. If, however, any of our readers should not be artistic enough to enlarge the pattern, the whole design in the size given repeated inside as a double border would have a very good effect. The group of leaves should be cut all from one piece, and where the leaves appear to overlap the stalk, the effect must be given with the stiletto, which will mark the line of the leaf on the wet leather. The small enlargement of the stalk where it joins the circles must be cut about double the length it appears, so that it will be well under the circles. The circles must be made as we described in the directions for working out the border pattern of the jardiniere (Chapter VI.),...