The Leather Nativity Panel

 

This is the panel in its first stages. I have cut the design into the leather with my swivel knife.
After the tooling is finished, the panel looks like this. I love the folds on Mary's dress!

Here is some dye and paint work. Here are the dyes:

1) Fiebing USMC black for the night sky;
2) Angelus purple and Angelus blue for Mary's coat and dress respectively;
3) Fiebeing Mahogany for the wooden beams;
4) Fiebing Brown for Joseph's pouch and the ox;
5) A rare appearance of Fiebing's white dye for the donkey (White dye doesn't make a bright, solid white);
6) Gold and white acrylic for eyes, halos and stars.

And here is the final stage, with all the dye work done.

1) Angelus green for Joseph's robe;
2) Angelus pink for Mary's lips;
3) Angelus yellow for the manger and the ox horns (plus more white for swaddling clothes).
4) Fiebing Antique Black for the interior of the stable.
5) I don't remember what I used for Joseph's hair and shoes! I did choose to not make him a silver-haired old man.
6) Angelus Oxblood for the frame. I don't why, but I love that color of red. I have some other Angelus reds (Wine Tone, Brandy) that I haven't used yet.

I left the visible skin the natural leather color. These folks wouldn't be pasty Caucasian white.

Here's the image of the woodcut which I modified.

Woodcut works so well as a source for leather art!