Leather Workshop by Maketh Project at Naiise

I enjoyed my experience making leather coin pouch, cardholder, key tab and bracelet earlier this year and decided to try my hands at another workshop. This time, it was to make a leather notebook and passport holder. Instead of signing up with Bynd Artisan, I chose a Naiise and Maketh Project collaboration held at the former's The Cathay branch. The instructors were late and came in with toolkits containing all the tools and materials needed. There were three shades of leather and several thread colours for us to choose. Papers with pre-punched holes were also provided for the notebook. Instead of drawing on the insides of the leather using pen and plastic templates, we drew on the outside of the leather with pencil (so the markings could be erased after) and cardboard templates. A metal ruler was used to guide the cutting with a penknife and I realised it was easier to cut the leather I chose for my notebook than the one I chose for my passport holder with card slot.

Hammering the curving tool twice to make round corners (instead of cutting with scissors) was definitely less tricky though I still had to cut the curved line, which the instructor drew freehand, for the passport holder. As the tool provided for punching holes was different from that provided by Bynd Artisan, I no longer love this step at all. Strength is required especially for the passport holder as we were punching holes through two pieces of leather that had been glued together. And there were many holes to punch! With neither break in between nor food and drinks provided. Folding lines were not skived and we proceeded to sewing – the notebook with its pages, the three pieces that made up the passport holder. Debossing was optional, easy to do though not easy to get the letters of the alphabet evenly spaced in a straight line with the same depth. Went home tired after three hours with two handmade leather products that I was not satisfied enough with, to gift them as originally planned.