I came across Tyrwhitt General Company list of workshops the other day, and was delighted to find that they offer Leathercraft workshop! Without hesitation (even though it was $79 for just 2 hours to make a simple namecard holder), I signed up right away and attended in the next few days at Ion's B4 NOISE exhibition.
It's really not a location I would have preferred to attend a workshop at. It's noisy, and children come up next to you to look at what you're doing (not that I don't like kids, but it's really distracting when you have a really sharp penknife in your hand).
Colin led the whole workshop, although it was another guy doing the hands-on example. We were provided with a scrap of leather, a template on cardstock that wasn't very well-drawn (I ended up having to adjust to make it symmetrical) and necessary tools.
It was quite a big class - I understand that they don't normally do such a large class but because this is just a very simple workshop, they squeezed more people in, but to make up for it, they had quite a few staff always walking around to help us out.
The workshop started off with the usual dreaded awkward but-maybe-kinda-necessary ice-breaker with everyone introducing themselves. Then we dived into making the namecard holder. It's a very simple design, beautiful on its own. It also shows off my not-so-awesome knife skills. Haha! They also taught us stamping although I didn't stay around to try it out on my piece. I like it as it is.
I was a little disappointed to know that stitching of leather will only be taught in the Intermediate level. I'm not sure if I'm ready to spend so much again...
I've always always always loved leathercraft, but what held me back all this time was that it's really quite impossible to buy scraps of leather in Singapore. Overseas shipping is kinda costly for me, so... And leathercraft has always intimidated me. Maybe I'll give it another go once I get my hands on some good leather scraps!
I wonder what's my next workshop... :)
love, n
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