RERAMIC STUDIO 
27 
The wholesale dealers are the most satisfactory to buy 
from, and calf and cow are the only skins that can be 
wrought. The design being drawn on manilla "paper, the 
leather cut to the required size is dampened thoroughly, and 
when the water is quite absorbed the design is placed on top 
of the leather, the lines gone over with a bone tracer. This 
leaves a distinct impression on the leather which is now ready 
for the tooling. The tools used in wrought leather are simi- 
lar to the reprousse tools, used in beaten metal. Indeed in 
my own work, I use the latter constantly whenever it is de- 
sirable to broaden a line or to get a bolder efTect. I should 
advise the beginner to start with few tools, then as he pro- 
gresses he will see what is needed to bring out the character- 
istics of the leather, in the texture of a leaf, the nobleness of 
a branch, etc., and by having these tools made from his own 
drawings, he will express himself more fully, and the work 
will be less stereotyped and mechanical than if he worked 
with the ready-made ones. 
The tools that are absolutely necessary are outliners, 
small wedge shape, steel tools of different sizes, and two or 
three back-ground tools, a hammer and a stone to work on, a 
piece of marble will do, although a lithographer's stone is 
much better. 
Keeping the leather always damp (a sponge and cup of 
water is convenient for this) one can now begin on the out- 
lining. With the leather flat on the stone, the outline is 
pounded in with the wedge-shaped tools. The blows of the 
hammer must be uniform and of equal force, while the out- 
lining tool is drawn along the line toward the worker with a 
sort of rocking motion. On the character of this outline 
depends in a great measure the effectiveness of one's work. It 
should be perfectly even and deep enough to make a very 
decided depression in the leather. The quality of the 
leather will first be tested here ; unless the skin be a perfect 
one, Russia calf is very apt to show a light streak where it is 
tooled. Cow never does this, and owing to the thickness of 
the hide, can be deeply tooled, and with the background ham- 
mered down gives a much greater relief than one can get in 
calf, although it has not equal beauty of surface. White calf 
makes a very charming material to work on, but it is hard to 
•, designed and executed by Charlotte Howell Biiselc. 
find, and one must be wary of the alum tanned skin which 
curls up and turns yellow as soon as it is touched with water. 
The sumach tanning is, however, perfectly satisfactory. When 
the outline is finished, the forms can be slightly modelled by 
working them up from the back with a steel modelling tool, 
or one of the outlines can be used for this. Then the work is 
Belts, designed by Charlotte Busck, executed by Amabe Busck Deady. 
