Leather Onlay

When Erin Fletcher contacted me this past fall about laser cutting 44 unique leather and paper onlay flowers for an edition binding she was creating for The Grolier Club (right) I almost couldn't contain myself with how excited I was to see the final piece.

Since 2011 Erin has incorporated embroidery into her design bindings. While tedious and time-consuming, the results of this unique combination of materials create a luxurious tactile design with varying textures and depth.

In this post I share with you how the onlay pieces were laser cut and Erin's process for creating this stunning binding.

Erin Fletcher - 500 Years of Women’s Work — Erin Fletcher - *500 Years of Women’s Work*

Step 1: Prepare Leather

Pasting off the leather by applying tissue or Japanese paper helps flatten and stabilize the leather. By stabilizing the leather it is less likely to flex or distort with the heat of the laser. It also helps protect the surface from vapor residue, which is particularly important for light colored leather.

Step 2: Laser Cut

The leather was laser cut face down. Even though the leather was pared down (thinned) there is still a slight angle to the cut making the face up side slightly smaller. Cutting the leather face down creates a cleaner edge that transitions more smoothly onto the final substrate.

Step 3: The Magic!

In Erin's own words:

Once I received the materials back from Sarah, I moved forward with layering the onlay pieces onto the base leather, which is a tan buffalo skin. The onlays are attached one at a time and pressed firmly between acrylic boards. The buffalo skin then needs to be pared down from the backside to allow the onlay pieces to sit more flush to the surface of the leather. When the leather is fully prepped, then I can embroider.

The bindings are heavily embellished with embroidery to reflect a medium commonly associated with women’s work and is a technique that I use often in my binding work. To do this accurately through leather, I use tracing paper templates to pre-punch holes into and alongside each onlay piece. On this binding, I used just two types of stitches (plus variants of each): back stitch (whipped back stitch) and French knots (with tails).