I thought I’d have a go at making some puppets. Leather seemed like the obvious choice…which is odd because not only had I never done any leatherwork before but I’ve still never actually seen a puppet made out of leather. Anyway, this is my first attempt at a head.

Based on Axel from ‘The Mermaid in the Tree’ 

The idea is to cover him in tattoos like this…only more of them and better as this is the first time I’ve ever tooled leather. 

See below for ‘making of’ photos

Once the pieces were cut I could dunk them in water and mould them into something vaguely resembling facial features.

Stitching the nose and eyes…plus some cheeky eyebrows floating around the top of the photo.