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Cricut is useful as a knife blade for tooling and cutting leather. It offers a great force while cutting approximately four kilograms. Moreover, it comes with a rotary blade that is an adaptive tool. It helps in cutting heavy materials such as leather.
What does leather engraving involve? Engraving enables you to remove some parts of leather by scraping or cutting. It allows you to personalize gifts of leather in unique ways.
How to engrave leather with Cricut?
At first, you need to choose a top-grain leather that is suitable for the project. Then you will have to cut the leather to the shape and size you require with leather shears.
This smart cutting machine has a host of innovative features to help you create beautiful artwork with minimal effort and skill.
You can then punch holes with the help of a leather chisel or punch. After that, you will have to soak it for twenty to thirty minutes and engrave it with the Cricut engraving tip in order to get the professional results that you want.
In this article, we will talk about all the things that you need to know about how to engrave leather with Cricut. For your convenience, we have also listed certain tips that you need to follow while you learn how to engrave leather with Cricut. Some of them are listed below.
- Ensure that the leather is stuck properly to the mat: After you keep the leather on your mat, you need to make use of a vinyl squeegee and a brayer tool to keep it in its position. Otherwise, it can jam the machine. In the following section, we will tell you how you can stick your leather to the mat with the help of a brayer tool.
- Cut your leather with the inner side up: Cutting your leather with the inner side up is essential. It will prevent the rollers from marring the leather.
- Shift the front bar white rollers to the right end: While you are learning how to engrave leather with Cricut, you will notice four white rollers that are spaced evenly. These rollers allow the mat and the material to move in an even manner while Cricut is functioning. As leather is a thicker material, these rollers can leave an impression while rolling over them.
So, when you are engraving leather, the foremost thing that you need to do is to shift these rollers to the right end. It will help to eliminate any such problems.
- Prep your leather before you start engraving: Prepping the leather is important before you start engraving. Using a clean washcloth, you can moisten the leather. It will help you in achieving better results and making it supple. You can further use warm water and apply it to leather in circular and small movements. However, do not make the leather soaking wet.
- Use the Brayer Tool for securing the leather: We earlier mentioned the use of the brayer tool for securing the leather to the mat. It helps in smoothening out air pockets that may get trapped within the layers. In case the air pockets remain there, it can affect the final results of the engraving process. You can also use the Brayer tool to ensure that the transfer tape is flat even against the leather’s wrong side.
- Make use of the Transfer Tape: When it comes to cleaning, you must cut corners. The leather’s wrong side has a fuzzy appearance. In case you place your leather on the cutting mat directly, it can result in you having to do some unnecessary clean-up. So, you must use transfer tape on the leather’s wrong side and cut the corner. Then you can keep it on your cutting mat.
Hence, now when you peel off the leather, the cutting mat remains clean. You may have to peel your transfer tape from the leather’s wrong side. But you can just throw away the tape.
- Cleaning is essential: Leather often leaves behind some residue. Therefore, you must clean your mat between each and every cut to make sure that the adhesive and the leather can come into contact with each other. For this purpose, you can make use of water.
How much time will it require to make cuts?
Thick materials such as leather need several cut passes along with increasing pressure. It means that Cricut will take more time to cut leather materials in comparison to thinner materials. How often do you need to change Cricut blade?
- After you choose a cut setting and load the mat, you will receive an alert. It will help you know that it is going to take a longer time to cut the leather.
- Once the first cut is complete, Design Space will calculate the time remaining. In addition, it will display the pass that the machine is currently working on and the total expected passes.
What do you need to do after the cut is finished?
- Before you remove the mat, you need to check the cut. For instance, in case the cut is connected to the leather, you will have to press Cricut for an additional cutting pass.
- If the cut leather is connected to the rest of the remaining leather, you will have to use a knife for cutting the connecting fibers.
- In case you are cutting multiple similar images, place them on the other parts of the cutting mat.
- Lastly, you must remove the remaining leather and the tape from the mat.
Final Thoughts
You have to first cut the leather material to the size that you require for your project. Leathers that come with a specialty finish need Cricut Transfer Tape applied to the leather’s rough side. Then you can place the side of the Transfer Tape down upon the mat.
A brayer tool will help you create a strong connection between the leather material and the adhesive surface of the cutting mat.
You will have to ensure that there are no imprints on the material. If any portion of the leather goes under the rollers, it can jam the machine. Following these steps will help you to know how to engrave leather with Cricut.
