Grey-Beard Leather-Smith

02/01/2020

This was a commission with a bit of a challenge. The client asked to have a purse made for his wife that had a themed element to it. After considering the various options that we had discussed, I presented the idea of this Dragon Eye purse. I wanted to make the moulding and tooling as three dimensional as possible to enhance the tactile nature. The colour is achieved with multiple layers of complimentary dyes, with gold leaf for the eye and silver leaf around the eye and as accents on the claws. Each of the scales is hand tooled, with no two being the same.
The interior is lined with purple pig-skin. The pocket dividers are made from double thickness purple pig-skin and the coin pouch is made from magenta dyed, veg tanned cow hide, with the gussets made from magenta dyed pig-skin.
The entire project is hand-stitched using a yellow hand-waxed Coats Barbour genuine linen thread.

27/12/2019

I recently had a request for a 'longer' version of my gusseted pocket, Wanderer Wallet in oiled utility leather with pig-skin lining and vegetable tan cow-hide interior in saddle tan. The client wanted a wallet that could take £20.00 notes without folding them. The commission offered the opportunity for an aesthetic re-design of the wallet interior, due to the larger size. I presented the client with a number of options and this was the final result. The first Photo is the original gusseted Wanderer Wallet (for comparison) and the remaining photos are of the new version.

30/07/2019

A commission for a belt that has quotes from The Black Knight from Monty Python's 'Holy Grail' Film.

This belt was commissioned by a daughter for her father's birthday present. The gentleman in question has had a rather eventful life and has managed to withstand all that has been thrown at him. The belt is a symbol of his stoicism and the fact he and his daughter share a love of this scene from the movie.

The belt is Hand tooled with three quotes from John Cleese as The Black Knight..." 'Tis but a scratch... I've had worse!...Just a flesh wound." The text is bracketed by tooled images of The Black Knight's Helm and interspersed with tooled images of The Holy Grail. The tongue end of the belt has a tooled image of the Black Knights sigil, a red boars-head in profile.

The belt is is 51" long (129.5 cm) excluding buckle length, 1 1/2" wide, 3/8" (4.5 mm) thick and is made from natural vegetable tanned leather, both belt and lining (1/8"/1.5 mm thick), and is hand dyed to a saddle tan finish. Fully hand stitched through-out the length of the belt, with a single leather keeper to receive the tongue.

The buckle was sourced to complement the Monty Python theme and is a by Dragon Designs, Tanside Ltd - England.

15/07/2019

This belt was inspired by this wonderfully detailed solid brass belt buckle - "Jormungand" The World Serpent, created by Klamra (an artisan in Kiev). It inspired me to extend the theme of the world encircling serpent, from the Norse Myths, along the full length of the belt. I have added to the theme through the addition of a belt watch-hanger (Grey-Beard Leather-Smith design), depicting the rune associated with Thor (Thurisaz) and Mjolnir (Thor's legendary hammer). The Mythology tells us that these two are inextricably linked and so I have put them together here as a balance of Order (Thor) and Chaos Jormungand, child of Loki).

The belt is cut and constructed from natural veg-tanned cow hide, for both the tooled surface (4 mm thick) and lining/backing (2 mm thick), and is hand-tooled and fully hand-stitched along the entire length. The stitching is done using a traditional saddle stitch technique and natural linen thread (Fil Au Chinois Lin Cable thread). The leather has been hand dyed, after tooling, and 'antiqued' prior to the finish being applied, following the stitching. This belt required 924 stitches using approximately 32 feet of thread (roughly 10.80 m).

14/07/2019

This is a 'simple' belt construction, unlined, with a decorative repeating pattern. It is fully hand stitched all the way round the belt edge.

14/07/2019

14/07/2019

I thought I'd try something new! These house shoes were inspired by a commercially made pair (Ikon) that I found very comfortable, wore into the ground and couldn't get replacements for... The solution was to make my own version. 😁

14/07/2019

Full leather construction, other than the rubber soles (8 mm thick) which are glued to, a 5 mm thick leather sub sole that is topped with hard wearing but pliant 3 mm water buffalo hide (cut from the neck of the hide). The upper is black, motorcycle garment hide, lined with non-chrome tanned pig skin. Stitching is done in a contrasting yellow Barbour's linen thread.
From design to completed article, the entire process was hand-crafted, hand stitched and finished by hand using traditional processes.

22/06/2019

The first six photos show the Art Studio:

This is the creative heart of Grey-Beard Leather-Smith. A dedicated space for conceptualising, designing, making and repairing leather goods and products.
The décor may seem a little quirky, but it is largely made up of mementos from my time working in professional theatre as a prop maker.
The crocodile is real and was brought back from Egypt by my Grandfather in the late 1920's/ early 1930's. Crocodiles are fascinating and wonderful creatures and I do not condone the slaughter of them.

You may observe a Singer Walking Foot treadle sewing machine. This is occasionally used for mocking-up prototypes when conceptualising a new design. However all finished products are entirely hand stitched, which is much more durable and long lived than machine stitching.

The second set of six photos show the Leather Workshop:

The leather is stored in here ready for working on. It is cut on the large table (made from a vintage vaulting horse), the length of which can be extended for larger hides. The table is on castors, so that it can be moved around the room for access all round.

Over against the right hand wall is a dedicated 'dye station'.

The room also houses a sink for the supply of clean water for the 'casing' of veg tanned leather for the purposes of tooling and wet forming. The sink unit is up-scaled from a four poster 'loft bed' that I made for my daughter when she was younger ( I like to adopt the attitude of 'waste not, want not').

The walls and ceiling are clad in birch ply, which provides excellent durability as well as providing a bright interior finish.

The window frames and sink countertop and splash-back have been varnished with Yacht Varnish to provide extra durability and a mellow contrast to the surrounding walls.

Both the Art Studio and Workshop are fully insulated and heated, with double skinned roofs to help regulate temperature and prevent condensation.

20/03/2019

When a simple repair becomes a total re-make!

This was a 'little' side project that i took on for my daughter. She had been given a nice looking leather back-pack that my parents had bought her whilst on holiday in Spain, some years ago. It was a little large for her at the time but now that she is at college she wanted to use it.

The initial problem was that there was a cut/tear from one of the draw-string holes toward the outer edge of the bag.
'No problem' says I, 'I'll reinforce the top edge of the bag with a strip of leather, re-punch the holes and fit brass eyelets in place. One quick repair...

My daughter then asked it I could replace the pouch pocket buckles with quick access fittings. I suggested a number of options and we settled upon Sam Brown studs. Elegant and simple...

Then the snobbery set in as I looked more closely at the 'nice looking' back-pack and realized that there were quite a few aspects that I was not happy with...🧐

1) All the buckles were made from cheap pressed tin that would wear the leather straps in no time. The three that weren't being replaced with brass Sam Brown studs would need to be replaced with solid brass roller buckles.

2) All the straps were too thin for the tasks being asked of them. On the plus side, the shoulder straps could be re-purposed to make the new straps for the three pouch pockets - the Sam Brown closures.

3) New robust shoulder straps would be required along with weight spreading shoulder pads as, due to the size of the bag, when full with books for college the straps would otherwise cause discomfort and possible long-term injury.

4) All the edge trims and welts were made of a thin plastic that would need to be removed and replaced with real leather.

5) the leather for the pouch gussets (the sides of the pouches) was less than 0.5 mm thick and was tearing like paper as I tried to remove it.

6) The stitching was machine-stitched and looked to have been done in a hurry with frequent errors and misses.

In short, the whole thing would need to be taken apart and re-made with the necessary replacements and improvements. Thankfully, the leather for the pouch fronts and flaps and the main body of the bag was, although not of the highest quality, suitable for the task and, had a lovely texture to it as well as the potential for a good finish.

Unfortunately I did not take any photos of the bag before I took it to pieces, remiss of me. However, included with the restored back-pack is the collection of items that have been replaced.

My daughter is very happy with it, although she has informed me that her suitcase-sized purse (one she bought on-line) has to go inside the main body of the bag (safer but less convenient) as it won't fit inside the front pouch! Looks like I might have talked myself into another project...🤔😆

20/03/2019

A project that started out as a simple repair job on my Daughters leather back-pack but, became a challenging and interest project that required taking it apart and remaking it.

03/02/2019

Fully hand-crafted and hand-stitched from veg tanned, oiled and waxed water buffalo hide, with accents and reinforcement in veg tanned, hand-stained, cow hide. The interior is lined with maple coloured pig skin that is intended to contrast and complement the saddle tan stained interior details.
The pattern for this bag was created from measurements provided by the client, with adjustments made for specific requirements and the thickness of the leather being used. The client requested a top handle and quick release straps for the front closures and, that the leather chosen should be flexible. The water buffalo hide provides both durability and flexibility as well as a large portion of character.
As a finishing touch a hand-tooled, hand painted version of the Grey-Beard leather-Smith logo has been added to the front flap indicating that it is a bespoke item.