A Lesson in Leather

Leather is all about luxury. Its not just the association with buttery soft Italian handbags, or gorgeous shoes that only get more beautiful the more you wear them. It's about the moment you touch a piece of leather and you are seduced by how it responds to your own skin.
I haven't worked much with leather...yet. But, lately I've been curious to know more about this incredible material. So I decided to learn.
I signed up for a series of four leather smithing classes at Tandy Leather Factory in Chelmsford. Last Wednesday was my first class! I walked in twenty minutes early, I was so excited. The smell of tanned leather, the feel of swede, the beautiful hides hanging form the ceiling, I was instantly in love.
The first class was learning to carve leather. Yup, that's right, carving leather. It's hard! But I did it. You can see my handy work in the last image. Not bad, right?
I'm excited to try these newly learned techniques on a future line of handbags. It's so exciting to have a new skill and figuring out how to adapt it so it for the things I make. I have some ideas...