I’ve kind of been on a streak of making small things for family for the last several days. But, even though these were all given away, lets call them prototypes for now. I can count the hours I’ve spent on leather craft on my two hands, maybe just one.
I decided to learn a little bit about leather work a while back, so I ordered a small beginners tool kit from Amazon, and made a trip to our local Tandy Leather store. Mainly, I’ve just piddled around, but my sister asked for a small valet tray, the kind where the corners snap together to turn a flat piece of leather into a dish.
Her’s turned out alright, but I wanted to try a different design, so my family give-away idea was a perfect excuse to make some more.
After watching several Youtube videos, it seemed like a pattern is a good place to start.
There are several programs for creating patterns on your computer, but a ruler, pencil, and paper is plenty for a simple project like this.
Once the pattern was cut out, I used a straight edge to make a cut on the leather even with one edge of the pattern. Keeping the pattern aligned with this edge, and holding it in place with a couple of binder clips, ensures everything stays lined up for the rest of the cuts and punch-outs.
The next step was to punch the holes in the leather. There are three holes punched at each corner. Two are for each half of a snap fastener. The third hole is used as a stop for the short cut that makes the flap that folds around to create each corner. I used the punch that came with my snap kit for all the holes.
After the holes were punched, I made all the other cuts the pattern required. Straight cuts were made with a ruler and X-acto knife or rotary cutter. All the corners were rounded over with a knife just following the edge of the pattern.
The next step was to bevel and burnish the edges.
Following that, I put in the snaps at each corner. Put in some thought about how each corner will fold up before you install each one.
Each tray had a coat of paste wax rubbed into the outer surface. I just wiped it on with a paper towel, then buffed it with a clean one.
Finished and folded up, It looks like this.
In all, I made two 5″ square trays (like the one above), and one 5″x7″ tray.
I also made another tray with the “pinched” corners, but I used leather rivets instead of snaps.
The tray wont unsnap and lay flat, but the rivets can be put in closer to corners, which keeps the sides from curling in too much.
I like the look and construction of the folded corners over the pinched ones.
Here are the improvements I want to make for the next batch.
- Incorporating a liner/stitched edge
- Better snaps and rivets
- Try wet molding on the riveted trays, to see if they hold their shape better
This was a fun week or so of projects, I even made another mallet to give to my Dad (I just forgot to get a picture of it).