Was linked to this community so I figured I should share some of my favourite leather pieces that I’ve made in the last year or so as I’ve been learning. I won’t go into detail but I’ll link each one to post that has more pics and details on it in case there is additional interest. There are a few extras in the thumbnail pic too but I’ve not gone into detail for the sake of brevity.
All my work is done in scrap veg tan leather that I get in bulk. Some of my older pieces use flat, waxed polyester thread but I’m trying to move to a natural ramie (“linen”) thread.
I’m a little obsessed with using contrasting and complementary colours in both the leather as well as my thread, so any more natural looking “brown” leather is kind of rare for me… It may not be visible in just the thumbnails but I do have a “signature” thing in most of my work which is to adjoin two pieces of leather, edge on, with an x-stitch. Sometimes it will be to close a loop but more often than not I will be attaching two dissimilar pieces in order to both create a contrast and to avoid needing really large contiguous pieces of leather (remember I mostly work from scraps).
I also draft all my patterns myself, I usually start on some paper to get an idea or to get rough dimensions before using a 2D CAD to create proper dimensioned drawings then print these out, stick them to card and trace them onto the leather. I can then store them away in case I want to re-use them in the future.
So yeah, I like making stuff from leather, its a really fun hobby and I’m enjoying improving my skills. I had a hiatus for a while but with a few birthdays recently I’ve been enjoying making targeted presents for friends (the top two in the list were both presents).
Needle case (Warning, this one is in a women’s only community so read rules if you plan to comment…)
Lego tool holder
Ginkgo leaf bag charm
Wallet
Tiny purse
You can even just use water. Lots of people swear by Tokonole but I’m not the greatest fan of it personally. I do have some black tokonole I use if I want to do a kind of black edge stain to give more contrast. Edge painting is the other thing I want to try at some point, along with “finished” edges but I’m still working my way up to those.
Gum tragacanth I find gives a really happy medium between water and tokonole burnishing and it has served me well on most of my stuff so far.
I like the look of your stuff. Right now I just give it a light sanding and an edge stain to hide my shit sanding job. I didn’t know we were supposed to use other stuff with the burnisher.
Aaaah right. Well yeah, you will find it makes a huge difference. Water actually has the best result (generally) but it needs a hell of a lot of work put into it. But it results in a really nice, glossy edge. Gum trag is second and needs a bit more work but can help with less wax-heavy leather. Tokonole is the easiest to use and doesn’t need much effort and works well on things like veg re-tan leather which can be hard to burnish.
One thing to take into account is that the ‘heavier’ solutions can mark the leather if you get any overspill and can be really hard to remove (partly why i dont like tokonole much).