Bracers and Masks

When I went down the crazy path to become a leather artisan, I didn’t know what I was getting into. I was at our local renaissance festival (renfaire for short) with some friends and one remarked she loved the leather bracers and wanted one.

Her birthday was in a couple of months and I was like PERFECT. I can totally make one of those! I do arts and crafts stuff all the time! Do some reading, buy some supplies, BAM!

Two years and several versions later she actually received her gift (after she saved up to buy some… d’oh!).

I had NO idea what I was going to be getting into and very little idea that this newest hobby would… click with me and almost make my soul sing. “Leatherworking is your happy place,” I’ve been told, by those watching me work in my studio and listening to me talk about my projects.

The learning curve is STEEP. And so many people do sub-par work that the majority of people buying leather things don’t even know what quality work looks like… Heck, I didn’t even really know until I became an artisan myself.

Each project in my journey has made my skill-set jump exponentially. Which is great! Leather is expensive.

I’m coming to a point where I am learning things now not just about the process of working leather, but about myself as a person and artisan.

I made four masks this week and loved every second of it, even the point I thought I had accidentally burned one with the hairdrier and poked myself in the eye.

I’ve been working on two bracers at the same time… and kind of hated points. That’s new for me. And I’m actually happy about that. Learning more about myself. I want to see where else this road takes me and what else I can learn.

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