Cuir Boilli the result of my experiments in imitating leather with metal. The imitation leather is created through chasing, etching, and enameling a copper sheet, and it is displayed against a trophy head mount. Named after the Medieval technique of hardening leather by boiling and stretching the leather, the piece was similarly chased and forged into an elastic form stretched over a vertebrae. Is the brooch more valuable because of the material and handwork, or is it cheapened because of its lack of authenticity?