ABOUT
The Process:
Every single item I make is entirely hand stitched, no sewing machine or basically any machine for that matter is used. When you hear a person or company say their product is “handmade”, a sewing machine, a skiving machine (reduces leather thickness), an edge paint machine, a sanding wheel, a cutting die (think cookie cutter but for leather), etc. all falls under the category of handmade because a person is running the machine as opposed to it being automated. What takes me hours to do by hand would take under two minutes with the proper sewing machine.
Making a bag is extremely time consuming, even down to the planning and templating. Thinking of how pieces will fit together in the end can take hours by itself. This is all before a single piece of leather is even cut.
Including all the planning, gluing, punching, stitching, and painting the most time I’ve spent personally making a bag was upwards of 140 hours. You might wonder why even do it then, which is a valid question. But what I want to make sure you never wonder about is the quality, the creativity, the attention to detail. Cause it’s all there baby.
How it began:
I made my first bag as a gift for an ex in 2017 when at the time, I couldn’t really afford the ones that she liked. I had no clue what I was doing but I have always had a creative mind and a knack for building things. It was a tote bag made of soft vinyl, and lined with that colorful fancy duct tape. It had an interior zippered pocket made out of the same duct tape and it was fully stitched with an emergency repair sewing kit from Walgreens. I remember my fingers bleeding from trying to push the needle through that thick vinyl as if it was a cotton shirt. I had bent gold metal wire in cursive to spell out her name and sewed it to the folded over vinyl along the top of the bag in the interior. The finishing touch was my initials on a tiny gold pendant somewhere near the outside. I thought it looked amazing (of course my mom did too), but I could tell she wasn’t too enthused with a homemade gift. It wasn’t until her friends asked her where she bought it that she seemed to like it more.
Time went on and out of the blue on YouTube I saw a video of someone Hand-Stitching a luxury leather wallet with actual tools and techniques that I thought had been long replaced by sewing machines and other automated processes. I immediately started to research and ended up ordering my first “full” hand stitching leather kit off Amazon for $20.00. I continued to learn from videos on the internet, made some (what at the time I thought was the best shit ever) truly atrocious pieces. But as I continued to make these pieces, each one kept getting better and better. I begrudgingly decided to finally sell one of my pieces (the one you see here in the background) and to my surprise I got $1,500.00, which is exactly what I thought it was worth. And now here we are today.
For a time I felt like it was a way for me to continue feeling as if I put so much love and time into something and never get any back. I have since realized that it is so, so much more. Making these bags and doing other art has been a way for me to express feelings without having to talk to someone about it, to spread joy to others when they see their new piece, and most importantly a way for me to continuously think, create, and invent.
Thank you for being here, whether it’s been for a long time or just for the moment. I appreciate every second of your support.
Love,
Chance