Mistborn Belt: Learning Leatherworking
At the very beginning of planning this costume, I decided that I wanted to make a carved leather belt for my unofficial cosplay of Vin Venture from the Misborn Era One books by Brandon Sanderson. I don’t own these symbols from the Misborn Steel Alphabet - Brandon Sanderson does. I made the belt only for myself so it’s wearable fan art!
I spent about 50 hours just learning. Starting from zero, I had to learn about everything: Types of leather, Western leather carving basics, and how to dye and paint leather.
I had a couple leather working friends, who were very helpful and there are a plethora of leatherworking tutorials online. I learned the most about leather carving from saddle makers.
But here were the main steps I took once I had done much tutorial absorbing and many practice pieces on scrap leather. Also it’s good to mention I got all my supplies at Tandy Leather Factory.
First, I had to make the design for my belt. I did this with a good old pencil and paper, then I scanned in my swirling pattern to my computer and mirrored it. In hindsight, I wish I would have chosen a MUCH simpler design for these swirls because this ended up being extremely intricate and difficult for me as a beginner.
From there it was time to transfer the design to my leather. I taped the back of my leather belt blank with blue tape to keep it from warping as I carved it. The kind of leather I used was VegTan about 8oz thickness. VegTan is the garden variety leather for tooling and leather carving.
From there it was time for casing the leather. That’s what it’s called when the leather is the correct moisture level for carving and tooling. I simply spray the leather with water, let it sit a bit, and then I can start tooling. One thing I learned as a beginner is that I needed to keep my swivel knife extremely sharp, so I stropped it frequently.
After the carving cuts were made, it was time for tooling. Tooling is the process of using different metal tools called stamps and a hammer to make indentions in the leather. Different leather working stamps have different designs and are used for different purposes. On this project I used bevelers, background stamps, a little bit of pear shading, and a Mule foot stamp.
At this point I’m about 45 hours of work into this project. I caught up on a lot of shows while working on this belt for sure.
Okay, now it’s time for dye, paint, resist (to protect the paint and dye), then the antique. Antique is a step that makes the cuts and outlines of the designs darker, increasing the contrast. After that it was topcoat, holes for the buckle for sizing the belt, a couple of rivets, and a belt buckle! Hooray!
Learning leather working was slow going. It took me about 100 hours over 6 months from a brand-new beginner to finishing this belt. Dude, it was 2020, so I was definitely in the mood for something new and interesting. But I am proud of the result, as an awesome prop for my Vin Mistborn Cosplay costume. I hope it inspires you too!