Using her award-winning art, Cathy Wiggins takes you step by step through the fundamentals of creating with leather on any sewing machine. Whether you work mainly in leather or in cloth, these helpful new techniques give you new direction for your pieces. The techniques are introduced one by one, each building on the skills from the previous chapters. More than 400 photos lead you through leather selection, marking designs, layering for quilting, inlay, applique, staining, hardware installation, and much more. Cathy explains her signature techniques like "thread tooling" for creating the look of tooled leather, and the quilt-before-quilting technique for three-dimensionality and texture. She shares her journey into leather art-it may surprise you!-along with the practical info you need for expanding your creative path with leather.

Learn one-of-a-kind methods for adding artistic punch to your creations. Through 18 projects with step-by-step instructions, leather artist and gallerist Cathy Wiggins teaches you how to create beautiful and functional art by moulding and sculpting leather. Although intermediate-level leather crafters will find this book especially inspiring, no previous leather experience is required, and this way of artistically using leather is also appealing to anyone ready to try leather as a new art medium. Start by making a leather vase and small bowls to understand the basics about how shaping, moulding, and colour use can deeply impact any leather item. The next projects show how to use those techniques to create more-complex pieces. Each utilizes skills learned in the previous chapters, building your confidence in moulding and sculpting leather as you progress through the book. You'll learn how to select the right leather, use dyes and paints to create depth and dimension, and then use moulds to sculpt the leather into just about any shape you can dream up. Projects include bowls, catchall trays, lighting, table sculptures such as a Rawhide Fish and the artist's popular design the Reading Angel, and dimensional wall art. Plus, an inspiration gallery of Cathy's original art offers you even more ideas to get excited about in your own work.