Kid leather is, and has been used for a number of purposes other than gloves and footwear. Early flexible
hair rollers were sometimes made from kidskin, giving a very tight curl.
Papermaking While
vellum is often made using calfskin, kidskin can also be used and in some cases, was preferred.
David Laurent de Lara, describing himself as
illuminating artist to
Queen Victoria, favoured Italian kid vellum for his work. A form of early medieval parchment, called
carta lustra, acting as
tracing paper was made using kidskin.
Dolls Kid was particularly widely used in doll-making during the nineteenth and early twentieth century as a popular material for both French and German doll bodies, particularly
fashion dolls.
Musical instruments Kid-leather is often used in the construction of musical instruments such as the bag of the
tsampouna, a form of Greek
bagpipes. It was also an option for
drumheads such as those on
tambourines, and specifically, on the Bulgarian
daire. In the early days of
woodwind instruments, it was used as padding for keys.
Industrial uses The
Dalén light, used in lighthouses, uses a paraffin-wax saturated kidskin
diaphragm in its construction. ==Types==