Using the Background Stamp

In the previous post I put a note below the carving pattern photo. If you look closely at the right-hand side of the photo you will notice a number “1” just above one of the leaves. I put it there to point out an error that I made when I was transferring the pattern to the leather. Looking at the leaf next to the number you will notice that there is a line going down the center of it. That was not supposed to be there. I let the pattern slip while I was transferring it to the leather. This line is in a pretty obvious place, even if you are not looking for it. See if I was fortunate enough to hide it with the tooling used on the pattern.

Carving pattern on the leather - look at number "1"

The previous example shows that even a seasoned pro can make mistakes if he or she gets into too much of a hurry. You will find that most mistakes, and the most costly ones, are those that you make because you either took a shortcut or tried to go too fast. If you look at the cause of a lot of accidents in almost any industry you will find that people were in too much of a hurry or took a shortcut to get the job done. In this case, I weighted down the left side of the pattern so that I could get a good photo to show. I usually do not do it this way. I find that for me, the best way to keep the pattern aligned is to put the weight on the longer side of the pattern, which would have been at the top.

I decided that it was not necessary to photograph this project after I had gotten the carving complete. You can tell from the following photos that I actually did carve the pattern into the leather. You can look over the carving if you would like but I would like you to look closely at the background that is stamped around the top edges of the flower petal too. Although it is difficult to see, the background on the left is not stamped with the depth or distinction that I like to see. The background on the right is stamped the manner with which I like to see it done.

 I purposely tried to stamp the one on the left light so that you would notice the difference between good background stamping and mediocre stamping. It is pretty difficult to distinguish the difference between the two because of the quality of the photos, but if you had the project in hand you would definitely see the difference. (This particular background stamp is good for the beginner to start with because it is fairly forgiving in that you can go back over lightly stamped areas to fix them up.)

Also, notice that in the background area on the right side of the flower petal that I stamped the perimeter first. I like to do this so that I can be sure that I do not stamp over the top of the pattern itself. I do this by turning the project, keeping the lines right in front of me, which allows me to see exactly where I need to place the stamp.

Background stamping begun - compare the areas

Before beginning to stamp the background make sure that you are stamping the right area. If you stamp even a small area with the background stamp and it was not supposed to be done that way, it is almost impossible to hide or incorporate it into the design. The background stamp is designed to mash down the grain of the leather so that it appears to be below the upper surface of the pattern itself. I have done this more than once and it can be a costly thing if it is as obvious as the nose on your face.

Remember, the background is the area of the pattern that looks as if it should be behind the rest of flower parts. If you purchase a kit to make belt or wallet, there will probably be what some call a “photo-carve” pattern included. Simply put, this is a photograph of a completely stamped/tooled project that will help you to know where to place the different tools that you will be using.

Having done leather work for as long as I have I find that I do not need or want to look at a photo-carve pattern to complete a design. I do use a photo-carve if I notice a certain feature that I would like to incorporate into the design. Otherwise, I like to pretty much do my own thing when I stamp a pattern on the leather. If I am making something that has two separate areas of pattern that is tooled on them I like to look back at how I did the first one so that I can be sure that I am doing them the same.

The photo below shows the background stamping completed. If you look to the upper left side of the flower petal you may be able notice that I went back and re-stamped the background to make it more uniform with the rest. I like the way that stamping the background first sort of makes the pattern jump out at you from the start.

Background stamping completed - look closely at 1 & 2.

This pattern does not have a lot of background, which is nice. The most used stamp that I have is the background. It is one of the smallest in the arsenal of stamps and it can be very tiring to use. The background stamp is also one stamp that will more or less make or break the quality of the tooling on the pattern. If the background is not done well the rest of the pattern will not look good either.

Looking back up at the previous photo of the background you will notice that I superimposed two numbers on the photo of areas I wanted you to notice. The number “1” shows the line that went awry when I was transferring the pattern onto the leather. Number “2” shows the error even farther down into the pattern. Anyway you look at it; I made a mistake on this part of the pattern. Come back again to view the following posts to see if I successfully managed to hide this error or only make it less obvious.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Have fun!