Natural patterns in the environment and their potential use as motifs for decorating ghanaian indigenous veg-tanned leather surfaces

Leather producers in Ghana often do plain dyeing, they however, lack patterns that are attractive to enhance the surface appearance. As a result, when the leather is being used to make artefacts they apply stamping, carving, embossing, scorching, applique or printing just to register designs on themin order to enhance their aesthetic value, and these are only meant to be attracted to those who use the leather.It is for this reason that this research seeks to investigate into natural patterns as decorative motifs. The descriptive experimental research approach was used for the study. Simple random sampling technique was adopted to select suitable natural patterns as population for the study. Moreover, observation was the main tool for collecting data for this study. Findings from this study revealed that natural patterns may be grouped into organic (living things) and inorganic (non-living things) respectively. Zebra possesses bold and simple stripes (black and white) patterns which can be captured and manipulated with CorelDraw software to form a motif for printing on leather surface. With regards to tiger body pattern, it was found to have texture which can be converted to bitmap and further manipulate it. The body pattern of genet cat was identified to possess black and white pattern which can be converted to bitmaps and reorganized to form suitable motif for screen development.African Python has an intricate interwoven design arrangement which can be captured and used directly as motif without manipulation. The skin pattern of Crocodile was also found to possess a protruding rough texture which creates a feeling of an embossed surface.Findings from the selected wing insect patterns through critical observation revealed that butterfly wing possesses simple organization of parts that could easily be converted to bitmap. Tree barks have rough textured surfaces with fascinating cracks. Findings from selected leaves possess interesting shapes and veins with very fine textured surface. This study concludes that natural patterns in the environment can be developed to enhance the surface appearance of Ghanaian indigenous veg-tanned leathers.