First Week of February

First Week In Feb

January was spent squeezing in projects around making bags.

As far as bags go I'm well into making this Mercer I'm working on. I'd say I'm about half way through this one.

This past week I cut all the big parts out from un-dyed, vegetable tanned leather. I spent a day dyeing, slicking down the backs, and then oiling everything. Then the wet leather has to dry for 48 hours before I cut the panels down to the actual shapes I'll use to make the bags.

I snuck in a little Millstream drop earlier in the month. I was doing a lot of planning and book keeping and I just needed a break from looking at a computer screen. I’ve wanted to try doing some in chestnut and teal. It was good to take a break and work with my hands.

My experiments this week have been around learning to make these wet molded trays.

I see a lot of potential in them. I think the skills I’ve picked up in hand dyeing will really shine with a display surface like these. I've also been looking into some other forms my leather working can take. People only need so many wallets.

So I'm hoping to either translate these into some form of home good or maybe just take the plunge and make actual art objects out of them. I'm not really sure yet but I've got a lot of ideas scribbled down.