I was getting pretty tired of coming home and emptying my pockets on the kitchen counter, so wanted to make a nice home for my pocket contents.
I mocked one up out of paper. It’s 23 x 23cm. It seems to fit everything I carry on me. This will also serve as my template.
Now to pick a colour. I have quite a selection. I decided to go with Fiebings Pro Light Brown, followed by a light Dark Brown coat.
Next steps were to finish the leather. After it’s been dyed there is still some dye pigment left on the surface. These need to be buffed off, otherwise you’d get dye rub off. Buffing is just wiping vigorously with a cloth. Then I sealed the leather by applying Carnauba Creme and buffing it again.
I cut the leather to size and made slits where the tabs would turn. At the end of every slit I made a small circular hole to prevent that area from wearing too much. The tabs I rounded with corner punches, and punched a hole in the centre where the rivet would go.
To mark the corresponding hole on the back of the tray I bent the tabs into position, clipped them in place, and marked with a pencil where the hole should go. Simply marking the centre in a mirror position from the tabs doesn’t work, because leather doesn’t behave like paper.
I put my mark in the middle of the tray.
After all the holes were punched it was time to finish the edges. I beveled the top side first. The bottom still has a rough finish so I slicked the edges with water and beveled the bottom.
The entire under surface I slicked down with Tokonole for a nice smooth finish to lay down the fibres nicely.
I dyed the edges with a cotton tip, gave it an initial water slicking, then a final slick and polish with Tokonole. Once all the edges were done, I set the rivets, and we’re done!
