Ah, I've used a hairdryer a few times, but have been even wary of that. Now that I know there's not a problem with cracking or making the leather brittle, I'm going to go for it! I tried boiling a scrap of leather once to see what would happen, as I know that leather armour is made that way, and wow! the result was rock solid - the shrinkage was about 20% though and there was very little time to work it into a shape before it hardened. Strangely, I'm not sure what weight leather I use - in the UK it's sold by thickness. I tend to buy shoulder, and use about 1.6-2mm for moulding the more complex masks with beaks and things, and 3-4mm leather for tooling and simpler shapes.
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I tried boiling a scrap of leather once to see what would happen, as I know that leather armour is made that way, and wow! the result was rock solid - the shrinkage was about 20% though and there was very little time to work it into a shape before it hardened.
Strangely, I'm not sure what weight leather I use - in the UK it's sold by thickness. I tend to buy shoulder, and use about 1.6-2mm for moulding the more complex masks with beaks and things, and 3-4mm leather for tooling and simpler shapes.