For the past 10 years I’ve been juggling my leather work with my office job in Preston. But finally all my hard work of building my leather skills and my leather work business has paid off, so I handed in my notice in July! Hooray!! I’m having to work my 3 months notice, so October …
I’ve been making these simple leather covers for Rite in the Rain notebooks. If you’ve not heard of these world-renowned notebooks then read on! They are coated with a special substance that means they don’t get wet, and can be written on with a biro or pencil in all weather. I’ve been using them for …
I’ve been making quite a few leather covers for Kindles and other e-readers recently. The two main designs are the vertical flap and the side flap. The Kindle is held in place with a strap at the top and corner tabs at the bottom. This allow all buttons and ports to be available for use. …
Earlier this year I had the privilege of making a leather bag from tough-wearing, oak bark tanned bridle leather. It had two zips (the main one and an internal pocket), rolled handles, a shoulder strap and brass stud feet. Here’s a few photos to show the process and the end result…
Here’s a little insight into how I manage to make tool covers fit perfectly, without having the tool in hand (apologies for the double entendres in this post! ) . In this example my customer (a roofing thatcher) has a spar hook that he uses to make the spars that hold the thatching material in …
I had some great fun putting this padded seat together for this piano stool. Using up lots of scrap pieces of leather and laying them out like a jigsaw. I stitched each piece together using a cross stitch to form the top. Then attached the walls. Then padded it out with wool fleece and finally …
A durable shoulder bag made from chunky Oak Bark Tanned “London Colour” bridle leather. This is the leather. It has a beautiful colour and a very unique smell – I can tell by the smell alone that it’s from the tannery in Devon. Before starting this commission i confirmed all the details with the customer …
Last month my wife treated me to a book binding course in Lancaster with Big Leaf Books. It was a great day learning the intricacies of cutting paper, stitching signatures and attaching them to the hard backed cover. I was pretty pleased with the end result: Now I’m keen to use what I learned to …
I was very fortunate to be asked to replace the leather straps on this beautiful old fly-fishing creel basket. It was bought by the owners at a recent auction, complete with the original canvas bag still in good condition. The original leather strap was very brittle and had broken in several places so the owner …
I went into the woods today and peeled some oak. Every year, about this time, as the new growth starts to sprout and the sap is rising, woods people gather in Cumbria to peel oak bark to send to the tannery in Devon (the only one still using oak bark commercially). The happens in a …