An indoor shot of the hand tooled winged dragon on the front of the wallet.

The leather takes on a subtly different tone depending on the lighting. This image was taken indoors.

Two winged dragons are tooled into the outer cash pocket, forming a mirror image of each other on the front and back.

The reverse shows the second dragon hand tooled into the cash pocket, forming a mirror image of the front.

When open, both hand tooled winged dragons make their presence known. Their tails overlap one another.

The interior of the wallet provides two large pockets for papers and a total of four card pockets. All of these are hand-tooled with a "dragon scale" motif.

An indoor shot of the back of the wallet, showing the second dragon tooled into the cash pocket.

This closeup of the spines and fins along the wings and bodies of the dragons shows the incredible detail achieved with a filigree blade and several very small tools.

This closeup of the wings and neck of a dragon display the greatest attention to detail. Even the backgrounding in the holes of the wings were not forgotten.

This closeup of a dragon's face shows the incredible detail achieved around the eyes, tongue and fangs. The dragon's horns are tooled as well.

Each pocket is hand tooled in a dragon scale theme. Even the covered portions of the pockets, which are difficult to photograph but can be felt when you slide a card in, have been tooled.

The spine of the wallet where the tails of the two dragons intersect.

The exterior body of the wallet is black leather hand-tooled in a dragon scale motif. The tooling extends over the entire body, even the portions that would be covered up by the cash pocket.

Close-up of the interior tooling along the edge of the wallet, and of the hand-stitched and burnished edges of the wallet.

In this close-up of the scale pattern you can see that each scale was hand-tooled and each joint between them was stamped to emphasize its depth. Each scale was beveled and then shaped with a modeling spoon to give it a sleek, smooth look and feel.

Another shot of the hand tooled dragon scale-themed card pockets on the interior of the wallet.

Another shot of the wallet in its opened state, showing the two dragons hand tooled across the outer cash pocket.

Hand Tooled 2-Dragon Bifold Wallet with Dragon Scale Interior

Name: Hand Tooled 2-Dragon Bifold Wallet with Dragon Scale Interior
Brand: D20 Creations
SKU: W8C2PDRAGON
Price: 439.0 USD
Availability: InStock

Description

Two hand-tooled winged dragons and a Celtic knot border were meticulously carved, tooled, colored and sealed into the outer cash pocket on this premium Buttero leather wallet. The body and interior of the wallet are also hand-tooled, featuring a unique Dragon Scale design in keeping with the overall theme of the wallet.

This wallet is completely hand made, starting with a paper sketch of the dragons which was then copied onto leather using a stylus. After transfer, a variety of swivel knives were used to carefully cut the lines of the drawing. Finally a specialized set of beveling and stamping tools were used to create the relief, a few millimeters at a time.

Color was applied with a combination of airbrushing and brush painting. The black background was applied with a paint brush. After color was applied, an antiquing pass was performed to highlight all of the fine details in the image. The horns and spines were first given a "resist" using a paintbrush, so that they would stand out brighter than the rest of the image after antiquing. Finally, a glossy surface finish was applied to protect the image.

Then this process began again as the dragon scales were tooled on the interior pockets of the wallet.

Finally, all of the pieces were hand stitched together using robust polyester thread, and the edges were sanded and burnished until smooth, painted black, and protected with beeswax.

The wallet took approximately 18 hours to construct, not counting the initial design phase. Photographs of the work-in-progress can be seen in a photo album on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1268025027013119&type=3

The leather used was premium Buttero leather from Conceria Walpier in Italy.

This wallet measures approximately 4-1/4" wide by 5-1/4" high when closed. It is about 1/2" deep when empty. It has a large outer cash pocket accessible from the top, 8 card pockets in the interior, and two more large pockets which are accessible inside the wallet behind the cards.