December | 2016 | Spadoni Bags

Congratulations to a friend of mine and his wife on the birth of their daughter this fall. I wanted to do something special since Jayme has been so supportive of me and my quest with this little hobby of mine…

Top view. Each shoe is hand stitched and alledges finished with leather edge paint. In the center of the little hand-cut flowers I used a peridot (green) colored stone rivet.

These Mary Jane styled shoes have tie closures and are lined with a cotton blend polka dot fabric.

For add a more finished look, I top stitched along either side of the back stitches. Each of the little tags has a hand stitched “S” for Spadoni. The yellow ends on the ribbon are leather edge paint to prevent the ribbon from fraying. Now if I can only find the right box.

Thank you again, Tim for helping me with my site/blog.

A review of my theme bags revealed I needed to up my game in handle making. One designer has a video on the Internet of a worker making beautiful shaped handles. Seriously! Look…

dior-handles — Theirs – a thing of beauty!

beginning handles — Mine – they look alright, but I want better!

I searched my favorite leather forum and see Al Stohlman’s books are referenced – a TON! So I picked up his volume two “The Art Of Making Leather Cases” because there are a bunch of handle patterns and tips. It is totally worth the 16 or 20 bucks! Plus half a hide of veg tan…

Actually I began the process in October of 2015! Yes, over a year ago and these were the first four. Because I do not have wood-working equipment (or skills) to make a forming block, I made a basic little unit by horseshoe nailing three 12″ sections of a 2″x4″ together and attaching cans to it.

This is my original forming block. A crude little beast on which I began my wet formed handles.

Frustrated and dissatisfied with my results – I got the most encouraging words of all from Alan & Jayne at Shoe School when I said I can’t make those beautiful handles like they do over at “designer house X” Alan challenged me “Why not?” He went on to say that handles are probably the only thing the guy in the video does. Everyday. It is likely he cannot create a bag from concept to final product.

I was inspired; my talent and accomplishments in my little handbag hobby were evident. Like all things – “practice, practice, practice” (thanks for that Mr. Nick! – an art instructor-friend).

The pattern needed changing – I wanted to rid the end rings (for this particular style) and I ordered a rainbow of colored edge paints and channel pliers from Springfield Leather. Once I figure this out…the possibilities may be endless.

I set out to work and as with each of my projects, I took copious notes on sizes, shapes, bonding techniques, stitching holes, thread and needle choices, and more. I created another five handles on my original forming block (the 2″ x 4″ pieces horseshoe nailed together).

With the fifth, I was that much closer to the final version – the problem? The channels created by putting the 2″ x 4″ pieces together left ridges in the handle.

Along the top edge you can see the ridges set into the leather as it dried on the 2″ x 4″ pieces. A shout out to Alan & Eddie at Channel City Lumbar (Ha!! I sooo did not plan that – channels and Channel!) Let’s just say I certainly got Alan’s attention when I put my forming block on the counter to show hime what I was doing and what changes I wanted to make 🙂