Thunder Chunky

If you’ve been following the recent action over at The Renmen Project, you’ll know that Imperial Wolf Leather (AKA Seth Daniels) has donated a one-of-a-kind leather chequebook / clutch purse for auction. The tan leather piece has been beautifully inscribed with a heart motif and the phrase “All you need… is love” which was famously coined by the Beatles. We were intrigued by the engraving / embossing technique so we caught up with Seth to ask him how he sets about creating a piece of unique leather art!

The process begins by lightly transferring the image to the leather then using a “swivel knife” to cut the thick outline necessary to tool the image (picture 1).

Then with many, many different tools (pics 2 and 3) and the help of my trusty mallet (pic 4) the image is brought to life with texture and relief (pic 5).

Time to stain! “Antique paste” is applied by hand and rubbed into all cuts and impressions to highlight the carving and bring out all the shading (pic 6).

Seal it up with a nice, shiny lacquer finish, sew everything together (if necessary) and… voila! A beautiful leather work of art! (pic 7)

If you’d like to own a truly rare piece of art and raise money for charity, you can bid on the Renmen special charity auction for the purse

.