Page 5 - Ben Sweeney

LEATHER

Properties How it's made?

• High Tensile strength (8-25 N/nm^2) • The hide of the animal (cow) cut in half
• Resistance to tearing & flexing • Enter to a mixer with; sodium sulphide, water & lime to remove the hair
• Good heat insulator • It is then tanned with acids, vegetable oil, tree bark extracts & a dye
• Resistance to fire, chemicals & fungi -(sciencechannel.com/howitsmade/)

-(saddlesindia.com)

“The next generation of carbon-fiber composites could reduce passenger car weight by 50 “Half of all leather produced is used for shoes. 25% is used in clothing and 15% in upholstery. ”

percent and improve fuel efficiency by about 35 percent without compromising performance -(mooreandgiles.com)

or safety -- an advancement that would save more than $5,000 in fuel over the life of the

car at today’s gasoline prices. ” -(energy.gov)

-5,000 B.C. – Wall paintings -500 B.C. – Ancient Greeks -1768 A.D. – Sulphuric Acid -1854 A.D. -The invention of
in ancient Egypt depict developed a tanning formula added to the tanning pro- the sewing machine com-
leather being used for to help preserve the leather cess by Dr Mc Bride of Dublin pletely revolutionises the
sandals, gloves, buckets and (Tree bark & soaked leaves) leather industry.
military weapons
- (mooreandgiles.com) – (mooreandgiles.com) – (mooreandgiles.com)
– (mooreandgiles.com)

3. I previously unrolled and re rolled
cling film to obtain a messy
pattern. I then pressed it on my
1. To begin the process I used a dark peice with a sponge to ensure no
grey primer so to give the leather a finger prints were transferred. I
darker feel as most leathers have. did this while the paint was wet.

4. Unfortunately many times the
clingfilm removed a lot of the
undercoats and took several
attempts to get right. In the end I
found the best method was to
lightly apply a coat of spray to the
pieces that looked like the image on
2. I lightly coated the piece with a the left.
brown spray, allowed to dry then
resprayed the piece heavely
spraying in some areas to create
pooling for different colouring of
the leather.