Handmade Leather tote bag
I made this simple bag as part of a collaboration we are doing with our partners Leather School® and Craft Revolution (where you can make one yourself just like it) and I just love it. I have always enjoyed using a natural undyed thick leather for bags. The downside is that it marks easily. The upside is that it creates its own colour reacting to UV in daylight and develops an incredible patina that you can get vcery possessive about. The light rays react with the tannin in the leather which, in time, develops the familiar leather tan colour. In times past they didnt think of dyeing leather. All leather goods started life a very light soft cream colour getting darker by the day. You are, in effect, dyeing it yourself just by using it. Go into an antique shop and look at the old leather trunks and brief cases - they are all the same colour and no-one ever thought about dye.
If you are ever in Rome do visit Federico Polidori - his small workshop is in a street near the Pantheon. He specialises in natural vegtan leather but because customers want their leather brown he speeds up the process by taking his bags with him when he goes to the beach. He covers them with oil and places them around him in direct sun for maximum UV effect. See Federico's video https://vimeo.com/14323607
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