Leather is a durable, embossable and paintable material, but it's also extremely rigid and doesn't make for the most user friendly sculpting medium.
But those artisans who choose leather as their medium of choice have figured out ways to crease, bend, and otherwise shape leather in a sculptural way, creating spectacular and wearable works of skin art.
New Zealand's creepiest hidecrafter Alle Ziele creates nightmarish leather masks that bring out the wearer's wild side- and scare the crap out of anyone who sees them wearing Alle's terrifying creations.
The German-born craftsman and "travelling science artist" had this to say about his works:
My objects sometimes take hundreds of hours to create due to fact that I use hand tools only. No machinery takes part in the process, every stitch is done by hand and there are thousands of it in every project.
Due to the fact that I am a traveller I focused on crafting leather items, because I don’t need to carry too many tools on my one-year journey. My leather items are all 100% hand-made, means: I use awl, needle and rivets instead of a sewing machine.
With a background of having studied Biology I find my inspiration in nature where I have fallen in love with organic shapes and structures.
The character design consists of my leather work combined with bodypainting, costume, props, basically whatever tells the story.
-Via Bored Panda