James
Can you tell us or show us how you did the figure?
As always, very clean and crisp.
Thanks
Fleener
This is an old leather technique called embossing which is similar to repousse work on metal. It seems to have been in use in leather in Europe at least by the the early Renaissance. There are leather covered wooden powder flasks, trunks, and all other sorts of items done with this technique.
The portion to be raised is formed with a stylus from the flesh side and then fine modeled from the grain side. The cavity created from raising the shape is filled with leather shavings and hide glue to retain the height.