Datong Shadow carving is very particular about raw materials. Leather should not be too thin or too thick. Plateau yellow cow in June and July is the best. After ten to fifteen days soaking and cooling, scrape and shovel it, and finally shovel the leather to the ribs on both sides, and then get it cool with a special wooden frame. The carving instruments are blades, cutters, oblique knives, round knives, half chisels, small hammers, wooden pallets, wooden liner, brick and other tools. Then comes the sculpture, coloring, iron, and sewing. Techniques are used on the sculpturing, branching, carving and digging .

The next is the carving. First, press the pattern in the leather, and then use the needle to draw contour lines, and then use the knife to carve small holes in the graphics, and finally carve the rest lines and contours. Then, a shadow is about to come out.