Hong Kong DIY leather shop
When I was a child my parents took me to different cities on holidays. We weren’t the type of family to visit the same camping or city each year. No, we tried to see as much as possible in our reach, with our car or train! So we went to France, Spain, Swiss but also Italy. One of the cities in Italy that made a great impression was Florence. I know the Ponte Vecchio looks great and the Duomo of course. But we also weren’t the type of family to just visit the highlights of a city. No, if we had some time we tried to get lost and look for places you wouldn’t expect to be there. Alright, I could have imagined it in Italy but one day we bumped into a market full of leather ware. Purses, belts, suitcases but also raw hides. As I told you before I don’t practice leathercraft that long but the love for leather as a material has been there for a long time. It always felt like a kind of luxury to me.
That heat, those products!
It is not only the product I like but if you could imagine, it is thirty degrees Celsius. You are wearing a lovely white dress (overall covered with chocolate ice cream…..I wasn’t such a lady when I was little) and then the smell and the feeling of leather in such an environment, just lovely.
Obvious leather resource in Europe
For me, and not only for me, is Italy one of the most obvious leather resource countries to associate with leather. They are just really good at leathercraft. No doubt about that. In France, you have Hèrmes, who follow the whole life of the leather from the beginning till the final product in their own ‘house’. Then you have Greece, a real leather Walhalla. In Europe that is about it when I think of great leather workers (but please correct my if I am wrong, I am always looking for new places to travel to).
New countries to add to the list
Since my interest in leather work, I have scooped the internet upside down and looked for all kinds of information to take at me as a big sponge. It was then when I learned about other countries, that are also great for leathercraft. It could be just an eye-opener for me and did you know this already for a long time but for me this was a whole new level of information.
China and Japan maybe….
On Pinterest, I found many Chinese and Japanese drawings of leather products, designs and tools. That made me curious so I searched some more. Since I can’t read Chinese or Japanese I usually looked at the pictures. They were so detailed and clear you could follow them step by step. Not only patterns and designs are great you can also get great tools from Japan or China. When I started I didn’t want to pay a lot to get started and figure out if I liked leather craft or not. China was a great price/quality ratio place to get some tools. Though if you would like good quality you will have to pay a little bit more. So ladies instead of the newest ‘spring/summer’ colour lipsticks (PINK!) from ‘Chanel or MAC’, or the newest ‘Vogue books’ we could also order some of the products to make our own luxury products. I am thinking of ordering some of the GoodsOfJapan product lines from Japan. Though I haven’t made up my mind.
Hong Kong view
So I’ve added China and Japan to my obvious leather resource country list. What are your favourite countries to order, search of buy your leather and supplies? Please let me know, if you liked it and what kind of product you would recommend me. Love to hear from you soon and stay tuned for the birthday bag inspired on Fred de la Bretoniere, my newest master of inspiration!!
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