Creating Leather Bookmarks with a Harry Potter Twist
Last Modified: June 2024
Toward the end of 2022, I rediscovered how much I love to read, specifically physical books. Unfortunately, I kept losing my place anytime I was interrupted, so I needed to solve that problem.
Honestly, my motivation to make things had been low all year as well. When I posted about it online, my friend Ethan Carter suggested doing a small, quick project to re-kick my motivation, which is fantastic advice that I’m going to take.
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Tools Used
Sharp Knife (a ceramic box cutter blade worked well)
Chisel (optional for small cuts)
Sanding Pad / Sand Paper
Stitching Pony (or hand screw clamp)
* All of these are also available in this leather starter kit
Materials
Scrap Paper (for layout)
1 - Cut Out Pieces
Before cutting any leather, it can be helpful to draw and cut out some paper templates. Paper is much less expensive than leather, so you can take your time to get the bookmarks to look precisely how you want.
For mine, I wanted one bookmark that would sit on the corner of the page and another that would “clip” on the side and point to the last read line. Once I cut both templates out, I moved on to the leather.
Lay the templates on the leather. One method is to use a light pen like a silver Sharpie to mark around the template, then cut on the inside of the Sharpie line. Another method is to tape the template to the leather and cut along the template line. I used both methods and marked the main leather piece to cut out the pieces.
Use a sharp knife to cut out the leather, using a metal straight edge for the straight cuts. Take your time and be careful with the curved cuts. For all of the cuts, take multiple, shallow passes to get through the leather. It will take a little extra time, but it should result in a clean cut.
Instead of a knife, I used a sharp chisel with the template taped to the piece to partially cut the lightning bolt. This method allowed me to not mark up the piece while also keeping the cuts precise to the design.
2 - Laser Engraving
Now, here is where I cheated just a little bit. I wanted to theme the bookmarks to Harry Potter, but I am terrible at applying small details by hand. Since I have a laser, I engraved the bookmarks with my two designs, leaving me a guide for the painting.
If you don’t have a laser but have a tool like a Cricut cutter, you could cut the design out on some vinyl and use that as a template for the leather pieces.
3 - Apply Paint
With my engraved leather, I grabbed my smallest brush and some gold leather paint. Having a guide engraved was incredibly helpful. I didn’t have to be as careful with the paint as I initially thought and could flood the engraving with paint, wiping off the excess from the surface. As long as you do this quickly with each piece, there shouldn’t any residual paint on the surface and the engraving will pop a little more. The same should work by painting with a vinyl template.
4 - Glue Up
The corner bookmark has two pieces that need the ends glued together. Mark where the two sides should join and tape off where you don’t want glue. Leather glues are available, but contact cement seemed to work just as well. Apply the glue to each side on the backside of the leather, give the glue a few minutes to tack up, and then carefully squeeze the pieces together. To ensure the glue cures, clamp the pieces together for a bit.
If I were to make the bookmarks again, I would apply some leather finish to the non-glue inside before applying the glue, which would have been much more accessible than waiting to apply the finish and burnishing it after the pieces are glued and stitched.
Before stitching, I used sandpaper to even the edges of the curved piece, ensuring both pieces were even.
5 - Stitch Seams
We need to stitch the glued seams to add some strength, but stitched edges also look cleaner, so we’ll stitch the edges of the square lightning bolt and the curved edges. We’ll need to sew both sides of the open curve without connecting them to the curved piece.
Start with some calipers to mark the stitch line you want to keep along the edges of each piece. Using the stitching prong punches, mark out the holes. My set had a few different punches with varying prong counts. I used at least two prongs as much as possible to keep the spacing consistent. The two prongs were suitable for staying on the curve, but more prongs were better for the square piece. The single prong can help if you need to adjust the spacing to be more even when finishing a row out as well.
Since this was my first time stitching leather, I’ll leave the tips on stitching to more seasoned makers. However, I will say to take your time. It can be helpful to watch someone’s video, stitch a scrap piece, and re-watch it, looking for more information. I wish I had done this, but my scrap piece was part of the curved bookmark. My square bookmark stitching wasn’t perfect, but it looked much better.
6 - Apply Finish
We need to condition the leather before we can call it finished. The edges get a light layer of Tokonole Burnishing Gum. Once it partially dries, a leather burnishing tool can be rubbed quickly along the edges to burnish the edges.
I’m unsure if it’s the “correct” method, but I also applied the burnishing gum to the unfinished sides of the leather bookmarks, eliminating the fuzzies and making the whole thing feel slick and finished.
On the surface, I also applied some waterproofing wax, applying it and then buffing it off with a rag or shop towel once it dries a bit. We don’t need the leather to be waterproof, but the finish helped darken the leather a little, which made the gold paint pop a little more.
Overall, I’m happy with how the bookmarks turned out. The stitching wasn’t bad for my first attempt, but there is definitely room for improvement. If I were to make these again, I would also use a different font that was less thin for the engraving. The idea is promising, but the words don’t pop as much as I wanted them to.
These will be just for my use as I continue to read more books this year. If I were to make these as gifts for friends who also love reading and Harry Potter, I would learn from the shortcomings of these initial ones and work to make the next ones even better.
