It’s a great feeling that you finally see a ready-made product that we dreamed for so long. In order to catch up with this project, to get rid of the fear of failure and to find the right materials, I needed several years. I have to admit that the fear of making a mistake was the main reason why we hesitated to carry out this project faster. However, I believe that this time the hesitation came in handy, which allowed me to be completely prepared for this work.
Hand dyed leather
For a while we have been testing different leather colors and how they change over time. The most beautiful and natural look of the leather over time, is left on naturally colored leather, so we chose to use unpainted vegetable tanned leather, which we painted by hand. We used “Fiebings” oil for painting, then treated the leather with beeswax and oils. Overall, this process took two days. So we achieved a natural, fresh leather color that is unlike any other leather.
Attention to details
In order to make the bag more durable, we have already designed it so that less stitches are used in its production. The leather parts are left as large as possible, for example, the entire bottom of the bag, including the side edges, is made of a single piece of leather. Additional durability consists of high-quality, thick polyester thread. By using large leather pieces, we achieve durability, but at the same time make the manufacturing process more difficult and costly. In large pieces it is more difficult to hide leather defects and we should be very careful when cutting parts – carefully choose the cutting point for a beautiful piece of leather – no defects, scratches, etc.
All brass, copper metal parts and polyester thread used in the bag are made in the UK. Vegetable tanned leather comes from Italy, but leather paint from the US.
Satisfaction with what was done was felt long after the bag was given to the new owner. We are proud! This was our first big project, where we gained valuable knowledge and new skills that will help us achieve new goals in the future.
