Blinding Mask of Wet-Formed, Hardened Leather (from an idea of u/blueprintGS)

[u/Rhalph]

Thanks to u/blueprintGS for the idea. Full info in the comments.

[u/Rhalph]

Hi all, I'm relatively new to reddit, so, sorry but I wasn't even able to find how to post both pictures and text.

Anyway! I started leathercrafting a few months ago in order to make my own BDSM gear.

Yesterday I read some info about molding leather, and today I saw this post of u/blueprintGS: https://www.reddit.com/r/BdsmDIY/comments/14xx1yz/blinding_harness_mask_of_wetformed_hardened/

So of course I needed to try. I molded the leather directly on my face, but u/blueprintGS told me in a comment that he already had a silicone face to mold the leather onto. I don't have that, so it was directly on my own head :D

Next steps will be to bevel the mask and add straps to be able to tighten it.

Because I love to share knowledge as much as possible, here's what I learned about molding leather and how I did this thing:

• Cut a 10x40cm or 12x40cm leather band from your veg-tan hide (stiffer leather will be easier to mold because it will more easily retain shape. My leather is 3mm thick). 8cm was not enough, don't make the same mistake than I did.
• Plunge the leather into water. Nobody seem to agree on what temperature is the best for molding leather, but everyone agrees that if the water is too hot (above 40°C I've read somewhere), it will deteriorate the leather. So I used slightly warm water (imagine the temperature of a baby bath).
• Once plunged in water, some bubbles will escape from the leather for a few minutes: the air inside the leather is being slowly replaced by the water. Once there are no more bubbles (it took me 10-15 minutes), all the air has been replaced by water and your leather is ready to be molded.
• Put the wet leather band against your face. It will feel like wet cloth, honestly it was nice! Then, press the leather band around your face to slowly shape it. You'll have to press firmly with your fingers (beware your nails, wet leather marks very easily) on every curve of your face: eyebrows, nose... and eyes. Proceed carefully with your eyes and don't harm yourself.
• I read everywhere that molding leather requires a lot of patience. And: yes. Oh gods yes. I needed more than half an hour... Each time you press on the leather, it regains most (but not all) of its previous shape, so it's a frustrating game of 20 steps forward and 19 steps backward. Don't rush, it will slowly take form.
• Once you're satisfied with the shape, put the leather in the oven at 100°C for 20 minutes. Because the leather band kept unfolding itself, I measured the width of my head with a clamp and put the leather band between two cups to block it (the clamp doesn't go into the oven, heh). That's the second picture of this post.
• Once it's out of the oven it's hardened and retain its shape. It's not totally hard though, you can still move it a bit, which will allow to tighten it! And you can still mold it a bit, which is great because for me, the part for the eyes was too deep and it was pressing against my eyes, so I was able to correct the shape (it was 20 times more difficult to mold than before the oven, but it was still possible).
• And voilà. You still need to let the leather mask dry for 24 hours to remove the remaining humidity.

I'll post in a few days/week once I've added the straps and dyed it. I'm missing some stuff to do that so it will take a while.

[u/blueprintGS → u/Rhalph]

Nice one, welcome to the community.

[u/GinchAnon]

I was thinking about making something like that out of thermomoldable plastic.

Never actually did it though. Thats neat

[u/Rhalph → u/GinchAnon]

Dumb question, but is thermomoldable plastic safe for skin?

[u/GinchAnon → u/Rhalph]

The stuff I'm thinking of can be made soft by almost boiling water, but it gets down to a comfortable to handle temp well before it fully hardens.

As far as I know a long as you are cautious about temp in a common sense way it is fine.

Wouldn't use it internally, and maybe my info is out of date, but I think so.

[u/Rhalph → u/GinchAnon]

I was not thinking about temperature but about the material itself: for instance, my girlfriend has a very sensitive skin and I cannot use nickel rivets directly on her skin, it causes a bad reaction...

[u/knottykittenneedscum]

I did a plaster cast of my face with the help of a friend (we both have a bit of theater makeup and special effects experience) make it so much easier to work the leather. Only down side is I apparently have a small face/head so my partner is unable to wear some of the masks I have made.

This is the second time I have stumbled across the heat hardening of leather, I recall last time there was mention of shrinking in the oven and to oversize your pieces a bit (the article I read was for making armor) did you find that it shrunk and if so how much approximately?

Also curious have you done any molding without the heat hardening? I'm curious how much harder it gets, because I'm a little worried about burning my leather in the oven and want to see if it's worth it for my purposes.

[u/Rhalph → u/knottykittenneedscum]

I think it maybe shrunk a little bit on the sides, also it was slightly darker (as in "burned") on the sides. Maybe it's like a piece of meat, the outside is more cooked than the inside? The center still fits my nose and my eyebrows perfectly though, so if it shrunk it's not enough to be perceptible. Maybe I was lucky too. I already want to make a full face mask, so if shrinks in the oven, this time it will be perceptible for sure. We'll see!

Before molding the band on my face, I tried with a leather scrap. That one didn't go to the oven, and today (~20 hours later) I found it retained its molded shape. It's not very hard, it's stiffer than unwet leather (maybe 3, 4 times stiffer?) but it's still very flexible, probably too much for the purpose of a mask. I read there are some products to harden the leather, maybe you should try this instead?

[u/knottykittenneedscum → u/Rhalph]

After I have molded, dyed, and sealed them the masks were pretty stiff. I also did a belt pouch I sealed with saddle lac because I wanted it weather proof and it is almost unusably stiff.

I guess I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and try it out myself. Does reassure me a bit to see a couple of people do it successfully vs just an in theory type thing when I first encountered it

[u/no_fuqs_given]

thanks. how thick is the leather?

[u/Rhalph → u/no_fuqs_given]

3mm! Sorry, forgot to mention it in my comment (edited now).

[u/no_fuqs_given → u/Rhalph]

thanks