Leatherworking
Experiments with a versatile material.
Leather Tote Bag
This project took a long time to finish. Every seam is glued with contact cement, punched with pricking irons, and saddle stitched by hand. I developed this pattern based loosely on the Madewell tote bag. I'm really proud of this one.
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Material: 4oz golden-tan cowhide
8oz natural veg. tanned base
Golden waxed cotton thread
Shell Cordovan Wallet
I picked up a chip of Horween Color #8 Shell Cordovan from the Tannery Row on my last trip to Chicago. Those initiated will recognize the famous ink stamp. While digging through the scrap bin, I also stumbled upon a Horween horsefront in "moc" color, which I recognized as an Ashland Leather exclusive. This wallet is a big shoutout to both the Ashland "Johnny the Fox" and W. Cambridge Leather Bi-fold, who's designs I used for inspiration.
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For the templates, I translated some critical dimensions from W. Cambridge's free download into Solidworks to slightly customize the size and put it in a laser-cuttable format. I cut the templates out of clear 1/16" acrylic and clicked the leather pieces, using the clear template to avoid any large blemishes.
The leather panels were all saddle stitched by hand with 0.6mm Ritza Tiger Thread in Beige and brown with 4mm pricking irons. The edges were all burnished by hand with Tokonole and cocobolo wood/canvas.
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Yeah, I'm a bit of a leather nerd.
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Material: Horween Color #8 Shell Cordovan
Horween "moc" Horsefront
0.6mm Ritza Tiger Thread Beige/Brown
Bespoke Belts
The best part of making your own belts is that they only need one hole. The tan belt is natural veg. tan and the black belt is water buffalo leather. Both have receive a lot of wear and should last a lifetime. Last picture is a patina shot of the same belt as the left, about 3 years later.
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Material: Natural veg. tanned leather
Water buffalo leather
Solid brass buckles
Camera Strap
I wanted to create a heritage quality camera strap for my friend's vintage film camera. Complete with buckles and rivets this strap is meant to serve as a long-lasting, fashionable safeguard for a prized possession.
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Material: Natural veg. tanned leather
Nickel-plated rivets and buckles
Veg Tan Sandals
First attempt at making some shoes. I measured everything out with my Lady's foot, but made the rest long distance. Unfortunately, they aren't very comfortable. I will definitely be taking another swing at this and hopefully making myself some shoes in the future.
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Material: Natural veg. tan of various thicknesses
Axe Mask
John's truck axe needed some edge protection and weather proofing. I made this mask to protect the bit.
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Material: Pebbled black leather
Café Racer Seat
My friend John (@johnhasturbos) has an awesome Yamaha Virago 750 café racer build that I offered to make a seat for. I ran into a material issue and need to finish the skirting.
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Material: Pebbled black leather
Wood Carving Tool Holder
Made this to organize some carving tools.
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Material: Brown leather
Nickel-plated rivets
Field Notebook
I tried my hand at basic bookbinding.
The Bose edition was given to my manager as a gift. The logo was burned onto the front cover with a wood burner.
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Material: Tan scrap leather
White paper
Black waxed cotton thread
Drink Coaster
An experiment with patina. Picture shows same piece of leather + 1 year of being a coaster.
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Material: 8oz veg. tanned leather
Drawer Pulls
I upgraded the drawer pulls on this dresser.
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Material: Tan scrap leather
Jeans Patches
I'm also a raw denim enthusiast. If the quality of the patch doesn't match that of the denim, I'll replace it with a piece of veg tan. The jeans on the right are Unbranded UB201s with about 6 years of hard wear. Two repairs, one darned and one sashiko on the back pocket.
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Material: 8oz veg. tanned leather
Sunglasses Lanyard
A necessity around the water.
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Material: Black and tan scrap leather
Cruise Control Covers
My 1997 Ford Explorer cruise control covers had worn out leaving the PCBs exposed. I created new covers from leather.
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Material: Black scrap leather
White paint
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