When I got into leatherworking, I came across a beginner's guide that saved me from plenty of mistakes. The first thing to understand is the leather itself: depending on the part of the animal (neck, butt, flank) and the thickness, it works differently. For a wallet, a thin 1.2 mm leather is enough; for a sturdy belt, you go up to 3.5 or 4.5 mm.
Cutting calls for the right tool: special shears for thin leathers, a utility knife or a trapezoid-blade knife for thick ones, and even a rotary cutter for curves. Then come dyeing (I use Fiebing's dyes) and gluing, after roughing up the surface so the glue grips well.
The step that makes all the difference is the edges. You bevel them with an edge beveler, apply tokonole or gum tragacanth, then burnish with a wooden slicker until the edge is smooth and glossy. A well-finished edge is the calling card of any leather piece.
For hand stitching, you first punch the holes with pricking irons (diamond or French style), then sew a saddle stitch with blunt-tip needles and waxed thread. The most important thing is still to start with a small, simple project — and to accept that the first one won't be perfect.
Source: CraftPoint
I read a record by someone who has been doing leathercraft for about three years, in which they asked ChatGPT to draft a pattern and actually made a pen case for one pen. Spending a long time on pattern-making is a worry familiar to anyone who makes things themselves.
The requests were in the form of conditions: “a pen case that holds one pen”, “an A5-size book cover”. They also tried giving a link to a video they wanted to use as reference and asking it to think from there. A rough shape came out quickly, but the first pattern could not be used as it was. The state with the lid closed had not been considered, the stopper that holds the lid was too short to be comfortable, and the pattern was not set up to be printed at actual size at home.
They asked for several revisions to change the shape of the lid and the length of the stopper until the pattern could be printed. The finished item was almost what they had imagined, but the tip of the lid had to be reshaped by hand during work, and because the thickness and overlap of the leather had not been calculated, some pens did not fit well.
The author’s conclusion is that AI is good for quickly building the base of a pattern, but that it is important not to assume “the AI made it, so it must be right” and to check it yourself. Before cutting, the points to check are the finished dimensions, whether the contents fit, the thickness of the leather, the overlapping parts, the movement of the lid and stopper, and whether it prints at actual size. They also recommend cutting the pattern out in paper and assembling it first. The realistic distance they keep from AI as a tool was a useful reference.
Source: note
Weaver Leather Supply posted a short video in its leathercrafting series about installing a spring (facile) purse frame in a leather clutch, demonstrated by Chuck Dorsett.
The video covers the parts that tend to trip people up with frames: measuring for the frame, positioning the hinges, installing the frame itself, and choosing the right rivet to assemble it. The project uses Illusion Leather and the shop's spring frames from its purse frame collection.
The page lists the hardware used: a Snapper Rivet Ring, a Snapper Rivet, a guide pin and a peening tool. It doesn't give sizes or a written step list, so this is really a post to watch rather than read. Still, seeing the hinge placement and the rivet choice done by someone experienced is useful if you've been putting off your first framed clutch.
I like that frame work is shown as a normal, learnable step rather than something reserved for specialists. If you're collecting bag-making references, it's worth bookmarking alongside the shop's other hardware how-tos.
Source: Weaver Leather Supply
Right after the Obon holidays, I came across an article rounding up leather and leathercraft courses and events for people who want to start something new this autumn. Most of the listings are in Japan, so I'm jotting down the key points here.
In Namba, Osaka, a beginner seminar is held on August 23. It's hands-on: the differences between leather types, trying tools such as the diamond chisel (hishime-uchi), hammer and snaps, hand-stitching and finishing thread ends, and when to use which adhesive. What caught my eye is the article's advice that beginners skip the leather knife, since it needs a whetstone, and learn to use a cutter properly instead.
In Kuramae, Tokyo, a tool try-out and sale runs on August 28 and 29. There are also leather courses by a Leather Sommelier (in Aichi and Sapporo), a free seminar at the Tokyo Metropolitan Leather Technology Center's Taito branch on September 4 (men's shoe construction, lasts and more), and a leather consultation in Urawa, Saitama, on September 4 and 5, where you can talk directly with manufacturers and retailers.
The National Leather Craft Promotion Association's leathercraft class is also expected to open applications for its October basic course in late August. The class has been running since 1966. Choosing tools and learning basic stitching are easy to get stuck on when studying alone, so it's good that there are so many chances to check these things hands-on. Schedules and fees can change, so please check each organizer's announcement before you sign up.
Source: note (belllens tokyo)
Here is some news that really lifted my spirits: Li Wan-ling, a leather carving artist from the Changhua County "Craft House," entered two works in the UK's Future Art & Design Award and took home a Platinum Award and a Gold Award.
What's interesting is that these two pieces did not do well in last year's domestic competitions. One was rejected, and the other earned only an honorable mention. She only learned about the UK competition in late February this year, with just seven days left before the deadline. Since the organizers did not limit the number of entries, she photographed her two older works, asked a friend to translate her creative statements and the leather carving techniques she developed herself, and sent everything by email. She received a reply on March 30, and only after asking another friend to translate it did she learn she had won.
The Platinum Award piece, "A Place in My Heart," carves the crumbling adobe house where she grew up, the banana tree that helped support her family, her father who worked tirelessly like a water buffalo, and the moon that tried to take her home but never could. The Gold Award piece, "Blue-Bellied Pheasant with Chick," shows the Formosan blue-bellied pheasant, a bird found only in Taiwan, along with yushan ladybell and moonflower. The chicks in the composition are always three, because she has three children.
What I found most compelling was her insistence on realistic leather carving. She says realistic technique must keep the texture of the leather itself: pores must be clearly visible, and even the fine hairs of a water buffalo or its eyelashes must still reveal the grain of the leather after many layers of color. She also stresses that dyed leather tends to fade over time, so the color has to stay stable for years. In her view, if leather carving loses the qualities of leather, it loses its value as an art.
After more than 30 years of leather carving, she says the hardest part is not the carving itself but gathering a large number of real photographs and blending them with her own ideas to create a new image. For anyone who loves leather craft, this is a good reminder that the language of the material itself is often what gives a work its greatest power.
Source: 聯合新聞網
I read an article in which a craftsman who runs a leather workshop in Nakameguro writes about what leathercraft is, from the perspective of 26 years in the craft. The theme of the first part is the joy of making itself.
The basics are cutting leather, punching holes, and stitching it into wallets or bags. But the author sees it as “the time when something is born from your own hands.” The first pleasure, according to the article, is watching flat leather gradually become your own work.
People who come to workshops often worry, “I’m clumsy, can I really do this?” Yet if you go step by step, the article says, there will always be a moment when you think, “It’s surprisingly doable.” The idea that small misalignments and mistakes can later become proof that you made it yourself, something you can say years on, “this is where I first went wrong,” is a lovely one.
The piece also touches on hand-sewing. It isn’t fast, but since you step away from your phone and social media and focus on the needle point, it becomes a time that quiets the mind, something like a digital detox. And because each piece of leather differs in softness, wrinkles and scratches, and especially vegetable-tanned leather changes colour and character the more it is used, the author says the day you finish is the real beginning. That point stayed with me.
Even if you don’t start with a wallet, the article recommends beginning with something small, such as a key holder or card case: just cut the leather and sew one stitch. It is a piece of writing that nudges you forward before you have gathered your tools, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to start. The second part is said to be about why the things we make become special, so I look forward to reading on.
Source: note
Garut has long been known as a centre of leather craft, and there is news from there that leather artisans should read. Cooperatives Minister Ferry Juliantono has pledged to support the modernisation of Garut's leather industry, from waste treatment technology to funding through LPDB (the Revolving Fund Management Institute), so that the quality of Garut leather can match Italy's.
The pledge came after he visited the Piazza Firenze MSME centre in Garut on Thursday, 15 January 2026. According to the reports, the centre is considered to have brought local leather quality up to international standards. On tanning waste, the long-standing problem of this industry, the government plans to help finance waste treatment machines and to encourage cooperatives to modernise their tanning machines with LPDB revolving funds.
Piazza Firenze is run by the Koperasi Kulit Artisan Indonesia (Indonesian Artisan Leather Cooperative). It combines Garut leather products with Italian-style architecture, along with food tenants, workshops and training. Designer Poppy Dharsono, one of its founders, welcomed the support and stressed that the large domestic market should be the priority, even though exports are challenging. The cooperative keeps training Garut's craftspeople.
Garut's deputy regent, Luthfianisa Putri Karlina, said the centre is changing the face of local tourism and attracting visitors, especially from Jakarta, who are looking for quality products. She also urged that Garut leather products be packaged more premium. Piazza Firenze itself only turned one year old on 15 January.
What I like about this news is that the focus is not only on selling products but also on the chain behind them: tanning, waste, craftsperson training and packaging. The article does not mention the value of the funds or the number of machines, so I want to see how it plays out.
Source: ANTARA News
The 26th edition of Fenearte, the largest craft fair in Latin America, ran from July 8 to 19, 2026, at the Pernambuco Convention Center in Olinda, and dedicated this year's theme to leather: "Seleiros de Pernambuco: Ofício que Transforma" (Saddlers of Pernambuco: A Craft That Transforms). For anyone who loves leatherwork, it's great to see the tradition get this kind of spotlight.
According to the Folha de Pernambuco, the fair expected to bring together more than 5,000 artisans, folk artists and exhibitors across roughly 700 commercial spaces, with an investment of R$ 16 million, the largest in the fair's history. The previous edition generated R$ 163 million in economic activity and drew around 340,000 visitors. For the first time, the fair also hosted a group of ten international buyers, in partnership with ApexBrasil.
The tribute to leather recalls important names in the craft: Zé Venceslau, linked to the Exu Leather Cycle; Irineu do Mestre, from Salgueiro, known for the "bonéus" worn by singer João Gomes; and Fafá Belém, from Petrolândia, a pioneer in the handcrafted use of tilapia leather. The report also highlights Cachoeirinha, a national reference in saddle and harness making, and the presence of leather in Pernambuco's independent fashion.
What interested me most was seeing saddles and harnesses treated as cultural heritage, not just products. Leather has been used for centuries in clothing, tools and accessories in the Northeast, and the fair puts that knowledge at the center of its program, alongside workshops, fashion shows and debates. For anyone who follows leather craft, it's a good example of how a regional tradition can connect with contemporary design and new markets.
Source: Folha de Pernambuco
A small piece of news, but one that pleased me: during Expoacre 2026 in Acre, the FAEAC/SENAR/Unions System included a leather craft course at the Casa do Produtor in its program. The training took place on Wednesday, August 5, and focused on making a muladeiro belt, the traditional leather belt of rural life.
The course was led by instructor Pedro Pereira, who brought practical experience to the participants. According to him, the goal was to broaden the students' knowledge and add something to each person's résumé. One of his remarks sums up the spirit of the activity well: for some people crafting works as therapy, and for others it can become an important source of income.
Among the participants was Thayane Raulino, a student in the SENAR-AC Agricultural Technician course, who heard about the workshop through her class group and said she wanted to keep learning and maybe turn leather into extra income. Jarlany Raulino, a graduate of the Animal Husbandry Technician course, was also there, looking for new skills, especially making belts.
I like seeing leather work become an entry point for anyone who wants to learn a trade with their hands. A belt is simple to describe, yet it brings together basic steps of the craft, such as cutting, finishing, and assembly, which makes it a good first piece. The message is that short, accessible courses at agricultural fairs can draw many people into leather craft.
Source: Portal CNA Brasil
Gold tooling is one of those leather techniques I find hard to look away from: you heat the metal face of a small brass tool, lay gold leaf over the leather, and press a pattern into the surface. A recent post from the V&A's National Art Library blog looks at exactly that craft, through the tools rather than the finished books.
The cataloguer writes that she has recorded 171 binding tools so far, mostly belonging to three binders: Sarah Prideaux, Charles Ricketts and Sybil Pye. Thirty-five of them were Prideaux's own, signed and donated by her to the library between 1911 and 1917. All of them were used for gold tooling, so they are a rare chance to see the stamps that made the impressions we usually only see on the covers.
Prideaux's story is the part that stayed with me. Born in London in 1853, she taught English until 1888 and then turned professional as a bookbinder. Her first bindings were reviewed unkindly in 1891 as "quaint but not pretty", yet she went on to make well over 300 of them. She was careful about materials, choosing only the finest leathers and marbled endpapers, and in the late 1800s she designed large tools inspired by Turkish and Syrian tiles in the V&A collection. One of them appears on her 1902 binding of the Vale Press Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
The post also mentions that she employed a skilled finisher, Lucien Broca, from the mid-1890s to 1900, and did not credit him, which was common at the time. She called herself the first woman to make a career in bookbinding and to teach it.
For anyone who works with leather, it is a nice reminder that a stamp, a bit of heat and a steady hand can carry a whole design. I would love to see more of these tools photographed next to the impressions they left.
Source: V&A Blog
For European Heritage Days, the Cité du cuir in Saint-Junien, in the Haute-Vienne department, offered glove cutting and sewing demonstrations on 19 and 20 September 2026. What delighted me is that the museum did not just show gloves behind glass: professionals worked live.
The demonstrations ran from 3 to 6 p.m. on both days, in a reconstructed workshop in the heart of the permanent exhibition. Visitors could see the work of the cutter and the stitcher, and follow the steps of making a leather glove, from cutting the skin to final assembly.
Entry to the Cité du cuir was exceptionally free on those two days, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., as part of European Heritage Days. A good chance to get close to a craft that built the region's reputation.
For anyone who works leather as a hobby, watching a glover handle the cutting, the direction of the grain and the stitching is a real lesson in humility: a glove demands a very different precision from a wallet or a bag. The event is over, but the museum remains open and its details are on its website, citeducuir.fr. I hope there will be more gatherings like this.
Source: OpenAgenda / Ministère de la culture (JEP 2026 Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
