I recently finished a commissioned order for leather wrap bracelets with a saying. I used 1/2” strips of tooling leather, which were a little fuzzier on the back side than I’m used to, so I trimmed the “fuzz” as a first step.

Next I wet and smoothed the edges of each strip round with a slicker. I found a wooden slicker tool awhile back, but am not impressed with it in the raw state. I think I will give it a good sanding and glossy finish before using it again.

I have multiple options on making the saying on the leather: I have stamps, leather tools, and my pyrography kit. I haven’t done pyrography on leather, so really wanted to see how it might work. I took a scrap piece of tooling leather and did some experiments.

I found that the heat of the pyrography pen, when at about 5 and a half, would burn into the leather and make a mark like stamping, but also darkened the leather. This was what I was hoping for! I could do the sentence free hand. I also found that it was better to dye the leather first, then burn it, then seal it.

Once the pyrography was done, I cut in the button hole and sealed the bracelets. When the sealant was dry, I punched holes for the button and used waxed linen to sew on the button. The leather had become stiff, so some bending and moving freed up the form some.

I do really enjoy pyrography, so this was a fun project and discovery!