Making a Mercer Briefcase Part 3. Custom Colors.

Custom Colors

Making a Mercer Briefcase Part 3.

This is the part of the story where I get to tell you this isn’t an ordinary Mercer.

I’ve started offering custom color options with made-to-order items. Maybe I’m stodgy but I didn’t think there would be that much demand for it. Which is strange since I’ve built my business around hand dyeing.

I’ve only done a few in custom colors but I love what people are coming up with. It’s a challenge for me as a maker. Helping decide what parts should be changed so the result is different but still looks like my work. I don’t want the colors to look gimmicky and including them in a way that makes sense is a new challenge.

It’s fun too. I think of all of my work as collaborative. I make the raw material, but in my mind the finished product is years old and worn in. So anything I make is a project between me and the person I am making it for. This is just taking that one step closer to direct collaboration.

On this Mercer the owner has chosen sapphire blue for the handle and d-ring attachments. It think it’s going to look stunning. The kind of thing that gets you to stop and take a second glance.

Freshly dyed, sapphire blue leather. Drying on the corner of my workbench.