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Hi everybody,

I’m Ehrhard Peter, living in Germany, Bavaria, near Munich. So please forgive me when my English is not always so perfect.

Always having a fable for nice leather goods I did fall in love with leatherwork about three decades ago, when trying to make my first belt. Fortunately a shop did open close to my location offering leather tools, dyes, adhesives and all the stuff needed for leathercrafting. When the owner did found the “German Leather Guilde” ( unfortunately not existing anymore ) I got the chance to become a member, being one of a few hobbyists among professionals.

Attending numerous courses I did learn the basics like handstitching, leather dying, moulding, stamping etc.

I found my destination in working with vegetable cow leather, strong material about 2 to 5 mm thickness, making bets, sheath, wallets, bags etc. But never did make projects from soft leather, like goat skin with linings.

My aim now, by subscribing for the courses and joining the forum, is to widen my “leather horizon” and to learn the techniques, to be able to make projects like a Turenne Handbag or a De Havilland Travel Bag for example.

Hi, My name is Tibor living in The Netherlands I am a professional furniture upholsterer with my own business for 17 years now. Always working with fabrics and leather, I got really interested in the leather craft as a hobby. Love the craftsmanship from some off the things I see on Instagram and other places, especially those making wallets, bags, ect. Hopping to come to that craftsmanship some day.

hello everyone,

My name is chris im from philadelphia. I got interested in leather after a friend of mine gave me a flintlock rifle and I wanted to learn how to make a possibles bag. I realized quickly i needed to practice to get better. I also am a chef of 30+ years and have made some pretty crude knife sheaths for my chefs knives. I want to elevate my skills in leather as I suspect everyone on this forum does. Just in the last 4 online courses so far my understanding has increased tremendously.

thanks

Hello, my name is Nick. Texas transplant and fully obsessed with crafting leather goods. While I love European styles, locals favor the western classics. These courses have been excellent for helping me in the blending process of the styles. Looking forward to learning more.

Hi everyone, I'm Ken, a stay at home dad from San Jose, CA. I'm completely brand new to leathercraft. I got interested in it by watching youtube and wanted to try making luxury bags for my wife instead of buying them.

Hi, I'm Fenne, a Belgian artist/photographer living in the Nordics, but just starting out with leather craft. I've been playing a bit with scraps and quickly got curious to learn more!

Hello! My name is Marinella and I have been an enthusiastic crafter all my life, mostly stitching. I took a few courses in making leather bags using a sewing machine in 2018 and loved it. I now want to turn to hand stitching, my real love, and have found Philip's videos and advice extremely helpful. Thank you!

Hi I am Curts,

Nice to meet everyone here, first time posting. I am an amature leather maker from Hong Kong, been exploring and learning the leather craft for around 4 years now. excited to learn more and get to know everyone from the forum.

Curtis

Hello everyone, I'm Lizzie and I live in Bedfordshire, England. I am a bookbinder and have been selling my hand bound books for over eleven years. I've been learning leather techniques for traditional bookbinding, but want to expand my skills, so that I can make better leather books and also companion items in leather. My aim is to learn good leatherworking skills, so that I can create really beautiful and luxurious items, which I can sell at better prices than my current items. I am glad to be here! Lizzie

Hi everyone, my name is Maxine, I live in Somerset, SW England and 14 months ago I attended a leathercraft class for a weekend as a complete beginner. I fell in love with the craft from the get-go and couldn't wait to get started on some projects on my own. This Christmas I took semi-retirement and now have time to devote to improving my skills. A subscription to your site was a Christmas present to myself and I am loving the videos and the passion you have for the craft.

Hi Philip. My name is Koorosh (live in the US, born in England and raised in Canada) and I’m a newbie to this craft. I’ve been a consumer of leather goods (mostly watch straps, rolls and trunks) and that passion has led me to wanting to start crafting myself. I really like the way you teach which is what drew me to your program. Really excited learn from you and others. Thanks!!

Hi folks I'm JimT from northern Alabama. I'm recently retired again, 5th time. I've been around awhile 73 years old, had many jobs but only one a little close to leathercraft was upholstering furniture in mid years, so leather work is new for me started around April this year. On the ladder to being a craftsman I'd say my rung now would be the OK stage. Being a silent member of this site for the last 6 months has helped enormously, I hope to improve with time, will post a couple photos soon. Just now finishing the Turenne bag now. Many thanks to Phil for the knowledge and direction provided in this site.

Hello everyone! I live in Texarkana, Arkansas and work as a Certified Public Accountant as my day job. Texarkana is a border city so I cross the state line every day and work in Texas. Can I claim both states then?

I am excited to join this group and can hardly wait to start advancing my leathercraft knowledge. I have been making & bags and various projects for 2-3 years with a leather sewing machine. I have been doing very basic patterns and I post pics of my work on Instagram as HollandLeather. (The name has nothing to do with Holland, but pays homage to a poem entitled "Welcome to Holland.")

The thought of hand stitching is very intimidating to me. So please bear with me as I am sure I will be asking lots of questions.

I would love to have a meetup with fellow leather workers some day!

Hello from Costa Mesa, CA. My name is Jamie and I've been leatherworking off and on for almost a decade. Now that the kids are grown, I've opened my own leatherworking studio, and I'm enjoying this second chapter. I love everything there is about this craft and community. And the tools... 😂

Hello,

My name is Andalyn I am in Los Angeles CA. I have lived in LA for 14yrs. I came out here to go to Fashion Design school (FIDM) I have been in the fashion industry for 12yrs in production and design for women/jr clothing.

I have always had a passion for handbags, but there was no schooling in LA for bags at the time I went to FIDM. (it may of change now?) I am in the process of starting my own handbag line. I have my designs/marketing/customer profile/ etc completed. I had all my costing ready and I knew of some manufactures to get my line going. My husband suggested I make my own samples instead. I was not sure about this at the beginning, but then it made sense to know how to make a bag and all the details that follows. so in the last 2yrs I've been learning leather craft but I have not found anything that can give me all that I need. There is so much to learn and gain experience. Since Covid-19 hit I got laid off, now I can focus on leather craft all day everyday!

Hi am zul fikri, I am from Malaysia. I am about 6 months in leathercraft, I mainly do custom order for wallets. I involved in leathercraft when I try to make a gear knob cover for my dad, it was horrible when I look at it now. I paid a lot of money for your courses but I think it make my journey easier.

Hello Phil, and all!

My name is Jason and I reside in Frederick, Maryland, USA. I started in leathercrafting in late 2019, and I've been enjoying the journey ever since. I am very fortunate to have stumbled across your YouTube channel while in search of more leathercrafting content.

My first and recently completed project is a minimalist wallet (images coming to Instagram soon @leatherjim_made). The project came out far better than expected. I literally stared at and handled it for hours, in disbelief and amazement. Those close to me who have seen the prototype thought it was store bought. When I told them I made it from scratch they were surprised, then inquired about when they could order one and/or have something else made. I am being very careful not to get caught up in quantity over quality. But I have a plan as to how and when items will begin rolling out. A little background before all of this: I ran a photography business for 7 yrs before turning my interest to leathercrafting, so I have some good lessons learned from running a business.

You've been a great teacher and inspiration to me, thus far. I honestly couldn't have reached such a level of skill and understanding without your courses. I look forward to continuing my educational experience here, from you and hopefully many others in your growing community.

Cheers!

Howdy everyone! My name is Jake Smith and I'm checking in from Springville, Utah, USA. I'm glad to have found this community and I hope to contribute Inna meaningful way.

Hi there! Welcome!

I googled Meteora.. What a beautiful place it is!

Hello from Greece... Ι live under the shadow of the rocks at Meteora. I have been learning about leather over the last year. I didn't expect to like it so much. I wanted a hobby to distrαct me and I found it. I don't have the right tools yet. I have a lot to learn and I find your videos extremely felpfull.

Hi everyone! Sam here ( space alien in mission) just visiting this world for a short while. Things seem very slow in this world 😆 Specially this thing called internet or the mobile phones or the servers .

I have some problems surfing this site on my mobile. Hence the delay in getting acquainted how this site works.

Making things out of spieces skin was something new to me and got me interested for some time now( 6 months in your time zone)

So please bare with an alien like me who is intrigued with stuff made out of skin ! and not very sure how things work out in your world 😆

Hope the human spieces guide me thru this, and I too in return will share what I learnt from other human spieces.

@Philip leather man and others like him have been great help !

I came across him thru an application called Instagram. He is very helpful although he has plenty on his mind and hands ( I have been told humans use an expression called plenty on his plate, but it doesn’t make sense to me unless someone is hungry. Weird humans...anyway)

I hope to learn and share from the human spieces in this world.

By the way please don’t ask me how is it in my dimension as there are no words in your world to describe it. You have to experience it yourself, but one thing is for sure we don’t make things out of spiece’s outer crust or skin😅

Hope this introduction helps you’ll to be more patient with me😆

Hi, I’m Jen and I’m from Chicago, IL. I went to college for an equestrian degr and took a class for tack construction and repair and fell in love with it. I was an artist through high school and found it was a great way to make things again. I was taught the basics but definitely ran with it and have been self taught since. I am so grateful for this page and your videos beautiful I don’t have anyone to learn from. I have been doing leather work consistently for the last 4 months, and have been working at a tack shop doing leather repairs on my own. I’m so excited to learn more and I can’t wait to see what I can do with it!

Hi everyone, I am Dibs, and I only got into leatherwork last year when I went to a 1 day bag making class. I fell in love with it and went mad, and bought all sorts of stuff for my new hobby 🙄🙄. I live in Northampton in the UK and I am literally surrounded by leather merchants and so I have ALOT of leather at home 😭😭. Right now I am building up my skills, with the dream of turning it into a side business focusing on clutches and handbags. In addition to leather craft, I also have other hobbies like dressmaking and cake decorating. You can find me on Instagram @dibsmaxwell

Hello, I'm Radosław (you might read it as 'Radoslove'). I'm a software engineer from Poland who has been working with leather as a hobby for the past year. Right now I concentrate on bringing my skills to a decent level. I'm a great fan of small wallets and card holders. I have lots of small questions for all of you and I hope they not only give me the answers, but also make someone else gain some knowledge.

Cheers,

Radosław

Hi everyone. My name is Delphine, I’m French and live in the suburb of Paris. I learned the basis of leathercraft in 2017, and now I’m practicing at home and taking every tip I can to improve my skills. Next year I’ll open my shop online, selling bags and purses to begin. My dream is to be able to live of my craft.

A big thank you Philip for creating this website, the courses and the forum. It helps a lot.

Hi everyone! My name is Andres and I am from Spain, but I have been living in the States for the last 10 years. I started leatherwork 3 years ago. I’ve been making wallets, belts, tote bags, a little bit of everything and next year I would love to start making handbags. Almost all of my work is made using exotic skins. My Instagram is @shopminerva. I look forward to sharing some experiences with other people and learning new techniques. Thanks!

Hi all, I'm Glenn from Belgium. I started leatherwork 4/5 years ago and stared my side-job business about a year ago. My business is called Delmotte Leathercraft and I mainly make leather belts and wallets.

I want to start making more handbags next year and fine tune my wallet making skills.

Hi all, My name is Andrew and I have been doing leatherwork for around 3 years. My father dabbled with leather 30 years ago and I inherited his collection of stamps, carving tools, and Al Stohlman books. Armed with these, I got my start with a stamped belt for myself and then a wallet. I now make custom belts and wallets, and fill in with totes and handbags.

Hi everyone!! My name is Naty I love learning new hobbies and crafting. I haven’t done anything yet but have bought a few leather pieces and love the leather smell 😊 hope to Learn something and make a few things for my self.

Really great to see you guys joining in! I'm really happy that you have all taken to opportunity to post and support the group 👍

Keep going! 😀

Phil

Hello Everyone,

My name is David Ferrel,(@Ferrel_Leather on Instagram) I have been working with leather for ~6 months.

I still have so much to learn and am excited to learn and progress with my fellow Makers.

Thank you to Phillip for putting this forum together.

Looking forward to speaking and working everyone!

Cheers from Los Angeles

-David

Hi everyone! My name is Kelly Hayes & I'm located in Louisville KY in the USA. I started learning Leathercraft about five or six months ago & have been working mostly on tote bags. I am so excited to be a part of this community!

Hi. I'm Ben and I'm base in Singapore.

I've been doing this craft for 2.5 years. It started off as a hobby building my own leather products.

My business is called Todah. I've been making wallets, watch straps, custom order, belts. I'm working on building briefcases, handbags and clutches next year.

My dream is to build a brand that sells leather products & fashion accessories.

I hope to attend some leather school in Europe someday to equip myself.

I'm interested to learn and talk about leather works/leather.

Ben

Hi guys!, I was really looking forward to this. I often get the feeling, that in the leather groups, the pros hide the good tricks. Like I spend years learning this, im not giving away for free. which to som degree I fully understand.

But, in this forum, we are not each other enemies. Like, im from Denmark, so im in no competition to anyone 😂 So lets share, and all get better✌️