Arts and crafts with leather.

You can generally tell how much work I've done if you take a look at the floor around my workspace. Here are scraps from my second handbag style, which I am in the final stages of finishing now (and my pretty shoes that I bought in the Paris flea market last year). By the end of this week, if all goes well, I should have photos of three new handbags to share with you. 

We took a break in our usual course of studies to experiment with different treatments you can do by hand to re-finish and enhance leather.

This is an ancient Italian method of burnishing leather. You heat the metal tool and rub the leather in a circular motion to create a slight "burnt" effect. We learned another ancient method which is frequently used in shoemaking, of wetting shoulder (thick) leather and molding it into shape. Once it is dry, it takes the form of the shape you've created until you wet it again.

Acrylic paint can be applied directly to the leather.

We also experimented with mixing pigment with "ambra cera," amber wax. It creates a beautiful effect on the skins and allows the color to blend in naturally. This works best on light colored leathers. 

There is a family-owned store in Firenze called Zecchi where you can find all kinds of materials to do this kind of work. The storefront was once an old "bottega," workshop, called the Colorificio Toscana. It was then re-opened as a mesticheria in the earlier part of the 1900's. You can find "mesticherie" all over Firenze (never when you are looking for one, however). They are the Italian version of hardware stores that sell everything except for the thing you are hoping to find there. Of course, if you can't find it there, you can find it in the store down the street owned by the brother of the mother of the wife who works in the mesticheria. In the 1970's Zecchi became more specialized on selling materials for fine arts and focused on research for preserving traditional artisan materials and techniques. Today they are recognized worldwide as experts in their trade.