I recently took an introductory leatherworking class and decided to make some leather gifts for family for the holidays. This is a cover for field notes for my mother-in-law who is fond of owls.

I wish I could say that I drew this free-hand before burning it in, but I copied it from a template. To do this, I printed out the template, covered it with packing tape and really wetted the leather. Placing the template on the leather, using a dull pencil, I traced out the picture, leaving an impression which can then be followed with a soldering gun (with a tip that hasn’t been used for soldering).