About the service
I am a leather craftsman and I work only with small goods: key holders, card cases and covers for documents. Every piece starts from vegetable-tanned hide, cut by hand from the firm part of the back, where the fibre lies straight and a cut edge keeps its shape. This leather is not dyed through; the finish sits on the grain, so the piece darkens slowly from sunlight and from the oil of your hands, and after a year a honey-coloured card case turns deep amber. That patina is the whole point of the material, and I say so before we choose a colour, because it is not a defect to be fixed later.
In small work thickness decides everything. A key holder lives in a pocket next to coins, so I keep the back at 1.8-2.0 mm and leave it solid; a card case has to open freely, so I skive the pockets down to 0.6 mm and set them in steps, otherwise the piece becomes a wooden block that no card will enter. Every fold line is thinned along its whole length. Edges get three or four passes: sanding, gum, burnishing with a heated slicker, sanding again, until the edge is round, glossy and no longer picks up dirt. There is not one machine stitch anywhere. I saddle-stitch with two needles and waxed thread, two independent loops in a single hole, so a cut stitch stays where it is instead of unzipping the whole line.
Hardware is chosen for the object, not from a catalogue: solid rings and swivel clips for keys, line-20 snaps for a strap, a hidden magnet where a visible closure would spoil the front panel. Initials are pressed by hand, either blind, so they read as a shadow, or in foil: gold, silver, matte. Thread colour goes either with the leather or in deliberate contrast, and I always press a proof on an offcut of the same hide and show it to you before the stamp touches the piece. One thing said plainly: a cover is a decorative sleeve. It does not replace or alter the document inside, and I do not make coats of arms or anything that resembles official insignia.
What I make:
— key holders: pocket, loop type or with a ring plate, for four to six keys
— card cases: two to six pockets, flat or with a central slot for folded notes
— decorative covers for passports, driving papers and small notebooks
— gift sets of two or three matched pieces, cut from one hide and sewn with one thread
— blind or foil initials, up to four characters, proofed on an offcut first
— choice of thread colour, edge colour and hardware finish before cutting
— care notes with the piece: a light cream twice a year, no soaking, no radiators
— lead time five to fourteen days; a set of three, about two weeks
In small work thickness decides everything. A key holder lives in a pocket next to coins, so I keep the back at 1.8-2.0 mm and leave it solid; a card case has to open freely, so I skive the pockets down to 0.6 mm and set them in steps, otherwise the piece becomes a wooden block that no card will enter. Every fold line is thinned along its whole length. Edges get three or four passes: sanding, gum, burnishing with a heated slicker, sanding again, until the edge is round, glossy and no longer picks up dirt. There is not one machine stitch anywhere. I saddle-stitch with two needles and waxed thread, two independent loops in a single hole, so a cut stitch stays where it is instead of unzipping the whole line.
Hardware is chosen for the object, not from a catalogue: solid rings and swivel clips for keys, line-20 snaps for a strap, a hidden magnet where a visible closure would spoil the front panel. Initials are pressed by hand, either blind, so they read as a shadow, or in foil: gold, silver, matte. Thread colour goes either with the leather or in deliberate contrast, and I always press a proof on an offcut of the same hide and show it to you before the stamp touches the piece. One thing said plainly: a cover is a decorative sleeve. It does not replace or alter the document inside, and I do not make coats of arms or anything that resembles official insignia.
What I make:
— key holders: pocket, loop type or with a ring plate, for four to six keys
— card cases: two to six pockets, flat or with a central slot for folded notes
— decorative covers for passports, driving papers and small notebooks
— gift sets of two or three matched pieces, cut from one hide and sewn with one thread
— blind or foil initials, up to four characters, proofed on an offcut first
— choice of thread colour, edge colour and hardware finish before cutting
— care notes with the piece: a light cream twice a year, no soaking, no radiators
— lead time five to fourteen days; a set of three, about two weeks
