Learning Leatherworking: Part 2 - Facing My Fears

...I saw a ray of sunlight coming through in the form of urgency — 20 months later. After surviving two floods and a major studio renovation, my waiting time was up. I had lost a big chunk of inventory to the monsoon mold; judging by the presence of surface mildew, the precious leather sheets might follow suit. With my partner's upcoming birthday as a motivation, I took out my rusty tools and started cleaning the rust off. I had the intention of filming the entire making process, so the tools should not only be functional, but also presentable.

Geby had been wanting a coin pouch since before I even considered leatherworking, so it had always sat on top of the pile of my project ideas. After getting Geby's approval on the design, I downloaded a pattern and bought the additional supplies.

While waiting for the supplies to arrive, I familiarized myself with the tools and materials. I played with all of my tools on a piece of scrap leather, deciding whether or not to include them in the project. Imagine doing an audition for a production, but for the crew members. As mentioned in Part 1, some of them didn't get a callback.

Wet stamps "audition".

As I began filming the actual project, I encountered some setbacks:

1. While trying to produce aesthetically pleasing shots, I had to work in uncomfortable postures. This did not only give me physical pain, but it also affected my workmanship. 
2. I wanted the video to feature ASMR elements, but a lot of the sounds were overshadowed by my fan's noisy cameo in most of the scenes — a sure outcome of filming in a tropical weather without an AC in the room.

So halfway through, I decided to prioritize my workmanship and comfort — even if it meant adopting awkward POV shots and losing some great footage and ASMR potentials. After working for several hours in the span of three days, I finished the project.

Not bad for a first-time.

I even made another wallet or a mini purse for myself using the same template but with some adjustments to suit my needs and wants but I didn't film any of it. Without the unnecessary pressure, I worked three times faster!

The second wallet with an added card slot.

With that being said, I might continue filming myself working but for my own viewing only. This is because when I stopped working to check out the recording, I noticed that I didn't hold the tool correctly — not because I was doing it consciously in order to get a good shot, but because I couldn't feel the tool placement in my hand. Catching this early helped me correct the mistake and exercise good practice.

The takeaways from this project:

1. I've confronted my fear of wasting precious materials. As I gained more confidence in my leatherworking skills, I could feel the fear fading into the background. I still find cutting and stamping leather sheets a bit tricky, but I look forward to getting better through practicing and creating more leather projects.
2. Ironically, the thing that motivated me to confront my fear was a greater fear. I used to think that ruining some materials with my incompetence would be a waste, until mother nature came and showed me what a real loss was.
3. I've confronted my discomfort of filming for an audience. Even though I had done this many times before, I don't think I've been progressing much. Some creativity and reference might help but I'm not sure if I want to try harder. I've come to a point where I'd settle for just taking photos instead of making process videos, but this is just my defeat talking.
4. Facing my fears helped me to understand myself better in terms of priorities, boundaries, strengths and weaknesses. Erasing the fears would be the ideal outcome, but surviving the confrontation alone already feels rewarding.
5. The entire learning experience was humbling. I always had to fight the urge of turning an interest into a business venture, but not this time. The 20 months of background struggles and mediocre products made it easy for me to resist the temptation.

Already drafting the next post, O.

Bonus content:

Download the coin pouch template for FREE

Watch the process video here on TikTok

Practice project - a name patch for Geby's leather journal cover.