Leather diary cover with carving

[dewi]

Not to the standard of a craftsmen by any means, but this is one of my first completed projects in leather. A diary holder for my wife, with an elasticated closer and pen holder... there is also a business card holder hidden beneath the elastic on the third photo. Its made of veg tan leather, carved with a design from one of my wife's pots and lined with dyed sheep's leather (not exactly clear on the photo)

 

[Robbi]

Bloody marvellous mate cracking job !

 

[Dreadhead]

Leaps and bounds mate, nice one

Sent from my SM-T230 using Tapatalk

 

[forginhill]

Lovely piece of work! I'll bet you're her favorite...

 

[dewi]

Blimey Thank you very much... still have oodles to learn, but thoroughly enjoying my first attempts at leather working. Long way to go, and it made my wife smile a bit and made up for me taking over the lounge with leather and tools

 

[Arya]

Ooooh, I love it! Beautiful diaries, sketchbooks etc. are like a drug to me, so I collect them.
When I see a nice one I´m like an insect drawn to the light.

Was it difficult to make? What do you need to make one like this?

 

[dewi]

I found it quite difficult, but I am still learning.... getting the right sizes was straight forward enough, but doing the lining was hard, and despite me thinking it would be simple... dying it all was quite a challenge as well.

One thing that was a massive learning experience was the carving... I put far too much water onto the leather, spent too little time on some areas and far too much on others... its not as easy as it looks when you watch others do it.

Stitching, I love stitching... so that to me was the most enjoyable bit. One of my hobbies is making chainmail, so the process of saddle stitching is like a dream. I did find it hard to get a consistent stitch at first, but once I got into the swing of it, I'm quite pleased at how it turned out.

Best bet Arya is to grab some leather and have a lash at it. Its a lot of fun and very rewarding to do... bit frustration with the dying when its not going right, but other than that... thoroughly enjoyable experience.