Today, I attended a very special event that I've been looking forward to for the past 2 weeks. I have a friend who is into handcrafted products. He's even handcrafting his own guitar, which is crazy when you think that he's been working on that for more than 2 years now. Lately, he's become interested in leather crafting and come across an ad for a leather crafting workshop on Instagram. Looking for someone to accompany him, he texted me if I would be interested to join him. Even though I'm not into handcrafted products and the price of the workshop was a bit expensive for me, I still said yes. Novel experiences are the things that I have difficulty turning down, so this workshop was hard for me to resist. I had no experience handcrafting anything in my life before, and this workshop seemed like a perfect ice-breaker.
At the end of the workshop
A few days before the workshop, we needed to inform the instructor about what product we wanted to make and which color of leather we preferred. I chose to make a mini clutch. The other options were passport cover, pen box, cardholder, and a clutch. My friend chose to make a pen box. He actually wanted to handcraft the most complicated one, but later it turned out that the pen box was one of the easiest. I would say the most difficult ones were clutch and card holder, which I wasn't quite happy with 😃 I mean, I would prefer the one that would cause me the least amount of stress in the making, but I also wanted to make something that I liked and would use in my daily life, so I went with the mini clutch. However, it wasn't the ideal choice in terms of difficulty. It had a lot of subtle twists and components that required extra work compared to other products.
My finished mini clutch
Apparently, there are different kinds of leathers, and the one we worked with was called "Crazy Horse". A later Google search revealed that it is the highest quality leather in the world. It is best known for its toughness and durability. It can last for more than 20 years. Because "Crazy Horse" is full-grain leather, it also becomes more beautiful with use and time.
My friend's finished pen box
We first started by drawing the lines of patterns on the lather and cutting them. After that, we did things like holing, sewing, coloring, and rubbing. The most difficult part for me was sewing. I guess my struggle with that part had a lot to do with the fact that I have very little prior experience in sewing, as the rest of the group didn't suffer as much as I did. Also, the model of clutch required the most sewing, so that was another reason why it took me so long and so many tears to sew! Thankfully, the instructor was supportive, so she sewed and corrected some parts for me. Without her, there is no way I would be able to finish the sewing part by myself.
To be honest, I think the whole process was way more difficult than I imagined. It was supposed to last for 4 hours, but we ended up working for 5 hours and my clutch wasn't even finished yet when we stopped. I still have to do some final touches on it.
Still, I think it was a wonderful experience. I'm really glad that I got out of my comfort zone and learned a new skill when I didn't have to. Plus, I now have a beautifully handcrafted leather clutch that I'm super excited to start using!
