Bob Blea | C and B Leather: Custom Hand Made Leather Goods

Custom Leather Orders

A soft leather handbag with a carved front flap. — Cross Body Bag

While it’s still winter for most of the country right now, it really isn’t a bad idea to be thinking about your custom leather order needs for the upcoming Mother’s Day and Father’s Day holidays, or any other spring or early summer events you have coming up that need a special gift.

Both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are ideal times to give a personalized gift that is designed to last a lifetime. As a leather craftsman it’s my job to make a unique and personalized leather item that is matched to your vision of an ideal gift. Leather is a timeless medium that can be used to make beautiful and functional gifts for your loved ones. and every custom leather order is treated as a unique work or art made for someone very special in your life.

Custom leather orders offer a unique blend of luxury, personalization, and durability, making them a memorable and valuable choice. A custom gift shows you put extra effort into choosing something special and tailored to the recipient’s individual taste and needs. Also, with customization options like initials, monograms, names, dates, logos, quotes, or even custom artwork designs make the gift one-of-a-kind. One of the real benefits of a customized leather item is that you can personalize the gift to reflect your specific relationship with the recipient (e.g., inside jokes, shared memories). And most important of all, it will stand out! In a world of mass-produced items, a custom leather gift stands out as a thoughtful and distinctive present.

Northwest Style floral vine design on a custom leather belt. — Custom Leather Belt with Vine Design

Because each item takes time to design and craft, customer leather orders take time. That’s why it’s a good idea to contact us now and get your orders in as soon as possible. As we move into the spring wedding and graduation season, custom leather orders can quickly take up all the available spots on my order books. So don’t wait until the last minute! Go to our Contact page and lets start the discussion about your ideal custom leather gift today!

Benefits of Full Grain Leather

Leather Construction

There has been a lot of interest and questions about ‘Vegan Leather’ in both my industry and the news and social media lately and I wanted to provide a little education on this product.

Full grain leather offers several advantages over vegan leather:

Hand carved leather belt with floral design and silver and turquoise buckle

Full Grain Leather Advantages:

Better Environmental Impact: While leather production has environmental concerns, full-grain leather can have a lower overall environmental impact than most types of vegan leather, especially those made with petroleum-based materials. The animal hides used for tanning are a byproduct of the food industry and if they were not tanned to make leather they would most likely end up in a landfill. Thus natural leather is actually a form or recycling or up cycling of a waste product. The manufacturing processes of vegan leather usually involves synthesis from a petroleum product that adds to the carbon footprint and also created a waste issue as vegan leather in general cannot be recycled.

Durability and Longevity: Full-grain leather is significantly more durable than most vegan leathers. It’s more resistant to scratches, tears, and wear, lasting much longer with proper care. This translates to a better return on investment in the long run and possibly (with personal items like purses or handbags for example) and item that will be handed down to future generations.
Natural Beauty and Character: The natural imperfections and markings (like scars and wrinkles) give full-grain leather its unique character and a more luxurious look that many find appealing. Vegan leathers often try to mimic this, but rarely achieve the same authenticity.
Breathability: Leather is a natural material that breathes, allowing for better air circulation. This is particularly beneficial in items like shoes or gloves, preventing sweating and discomfort. Vegan leathers are generally less breathable because they are usually made from petroleum products..
Aging and Patina: Full-grain leather develops a beautiful patina over time, creating a unique and desirable aged look. This characteristic adds to its value and charm. Vegan leathers typically don’t age in this way; they may crack or peel.
Water Resistance (with proper treatment): While not inherently waterproof, full-grain leather can be treated to become water-resistant. Many vegan leathers are less water-resistant and may stain easily.

Important Considerations:

Cost: Full-grain leather is generally more expensive than vegan leather.
Maintenance: Full-grain leather requires more care and maintenance than vegan leather. It needs regular cleaning and conditioning to maintain its quality and appearance.
Functionality: Vegan leather doesn’t have the same properties as the vegetable tanned leather I use for carving and stamping, so it can’t be used to make most of the products you will see on my website.

In summary, full-grain leather offers superior durability, natural beauty, and potentially better longevity, but comes at a higher price and with ethical considerations. Vegan leather provides a more affordable and cruelty-free alternative, but often compromises on durability and longevity and potentially has higher environmental impacts.

Intentional Spending in 2025

Business, Life of a Maker

I’ve seen a lot written lately about the No Buy 2025 trend on social media. While I understand the sentiment I think the concept is hard to hold firmly to. After all most of us need to buy food and I hope most of you will continue to purchase some essentials like toothpaste and deodorant! And then there is coffee….

I think a better idea is to “Intentionally Spend” throughout 2025. Intentional Spending involves making educated purchases for stuff you really need and that is made with quality in mind by a local business or artisan whenever possible. It also involves shopping at locally owned business and supporting your local small business as opposed to the big box or on line retailers. Intentional spending in 2025 can have a huge impact on your wallet and your local small businesses and local economy.

Hand Sewing Leather — Hand Stitching a Leather Wallet with a traditional saddle stitch.

By purchasing quality items, you get a product that will last longer or be better suited to your needs. Let’s face it, while the things sold at major retailers may be very affordable they are often made so they don’t cost much to produce. That means quality materials or craftsmanship are sacrificed in order to keep the price down. When you purchase something made with quality materials and crafted with care, you get a product that will last much longer than what you will get from the big box retailer. In the long run that saves you money because you don’t have to repeatedly replace it.

Why support your local craftsman or artisan?

Unique and High-Quality Products: Handmade items are often made with more care, attention to detail, and higher quality materials than mass-produced goods.

Supporting the Local Economy: When you buy from small businesses, you’re putting money back into your community, supporting local jobs and helping the local economy thrive.

Sustainability: Small-batch, handmade items are often more sustainable and environmentally friendly than mass-produced goods.

Personal Connection: You often have the opportunity to connect with the maker directly, learn about their process, and appreciate the artistry behind their work.

Preserving Craftsmanship: Supporting handmade businesses helps preserve traditional crafts and skills for future generations.

Investing in Dreams: When you buy from a small business, you’re often supporting someone’s passion and helping them achieve their dreams.

By practicing Intentional Spending in 2025 you can make a difference in your spending habits and end up with smarter, more long lasting products that contribute to your local economy! You will also be supporting the dreams and creativity of your local craftspeople and artisans and helping their businesses survive.

If you have any questions or want to discuss my products or processes, feel free to contact me here.

Thankful For My Customers and My Craft

Business, Creativity, Life of a Maker

Thanksgiving is upon us and I have much to be thankful for. I have been able to make many cool and unique leather items this year for very appreciative customers. I’m very thankful for people that value my work and allow me to make one of a kind works of functional art!

A custom leatherwork notebook with floral carving. — My World Leather Debut entry, a custom made leather notebook cover.

I’m thankful that carving and making in leather has become a business that I can succeed in. So many people have come to me over the years to make items for special occasions in their lives, be it weddings, special gifts or just unique items they couldn’t find. I’m thankful that this work has allowed me to express the creative fire within me and I’m grateful for the endless sources of inspiration that surround me – nature, people, music, etc. I’m thankful for these inspirations and their ability to keep my work fresh.

I’m thankful for leathercraft!

I’m also thankful for the journey of creating art itself – the messiness, the breakthroughs, the moments of frustration and the ultimate satisfaction of bringing an idea to life and creating something special and unique for my customers. Most of all I’m deeply grateful for the people who connect with my work, who appreciate my efforts, and who support my artistic journey through purchases, encouragement, and kind words. Their engagement validates my passion. And this goes beyond my customers. I’m grateful to my family, friends and mentors for their encouragement. They’ve helped me navigate the ups and downs of this creative business and kept me going when things got tough.

I’m grateful for the wonderful year I’ve had making these unique items and I’m looking forward to many more making all sorts of new and unique items for people. If you are looking for your own unique leather item, contact me to get the process started. I’m eagerly looking forward to my next projects!

About Leather Thickness

Leather Construction, Leather History

Leather is an ancient material, perhaps one of the first materials that mankind learned to make. As such it has a rich history and as a trade working with leather goes back to our oldest civilizations. And as you would guess leather craft has some pretty unusual terms for the tools and techniques involved.

One of the odd terms we use involves how to measure the thickness of leather. In modern times and most of the world we use a very straightforward measurement in millimeters or fractions of an inch. In many places though a more archaic measurement is still used, ounces.

Stamping a design in leather — Stamping a basket weave design into leather.

Measuring thickness in ounces is tied to a standard of weight for leather. The weight of any given leather used to be defined by how much the leather weighed for a piece that was 12 inches square. For example, if a square foot of the leather weighed 8 ounces, that would be referred to as 8 oz. leather. This is a thickness that is very commonly used in carved leather belts and it corresponds to about 1/8 inch or 3 mm in thickness. While much of the world has moved on to metric measurements in the US ounces is still the standard unit of thickness for leather.

When talking about leather in ounces the conversion factor is one ounce equals 1/64 of an inch or 0.4 mm.

There is an older and more interesting term for measuring leather: irons. This is an old term that derives from the English shoe making industry. Cobblers (workers who made shoes in pre-industrial times) used the term iron to measure leather thickness and one iron was equivalent to 1/48 of an inch. It is believed that the ‘irons’ probably referred to an iron plate that was stacked up against the leather to measure the thickness. Since shoes are rarely hand made these days the term irons has been relegated to the history books and you would find few leather workers that would be familiar with it.

Christmas Custom Leatherwork Orders Close Soon

Leather Carving

Fall is here again and the leaves are turning, and that means Christmas isn’t that far off. It also means it is time to get your orders in for custom leatherwork and still have them guaranteed in time for Christmas!

Christmas orders take time to make and there aren’t many slots available in my order books. If you ware looking for a custom leatherwork item to be that special gift for this Christmas now is the time to contact me. There is a deadline of Nov 8th to place an order in time for delivery by Christmas. After that date I can’t guarantee delivery in time for Christmas, but I will do everything I can to complete an item in time to ship for Christmas.

As a maker of fine leather belts, wallets, notebooks and handbags, I always strive for being unique and of the highest quality for every item I make. Each of my items are made by hand by myself, Bob Blea, maker and leather artist. Any gifts I make for you will be unique and the highest quality possible or your money back.

Everyone wants a unique Christmas gift to give their loved ones. If your gift ideas include a custom leatherwork creation, it’s not too late to place an order with me and have your idea become a reality. But be sure to place your order soon! Time is running out and it can take several weeks to make some items. Quality takes time! That’s why it’s important to contact me as soon as possible. I would be thrilled to make a custom leather wallet, leather notebook, belt or handbag for you or your loved one.

And as another option, please check out my shop for items I currently have in stock. There may be something there that is completed and ready to ship that will make the perfect gift.

Don’t delay! Get your Christmas custom leatherwork order in today!

Happy National Leathercraft Day!

Leather Carving, Leather Construction, Leather Stamping

Did you know that August 15th is National Leathercraft Day? It is a celebration founded in 2018 by Tandy Leather to celebrate the rich history, artistry, and skills of leathercrafting.

Stamping a basket stamp design on a leather wallet. — Stamping a basket weave design into leather.

So how to celebrate this day that is so important to what I do? For starters if you have a Tandy Leather store near you, try stoping in to find a cool kit to build, discover some really cool leather, or discover the rich world of leather crafting if your just getting started. They also have a large sale going on this weekend to promote Leathercraft Day. There are also on line leather suppliers like Springfield Leather that are having massive sales for National Leathercraft Day to promote this day dedicated to the leather craft.

Also, check out the resources section of my website for tutorials and tips on leather crafting. You can also follow me on social media (on Instagram @bobbleacandbleather or on Facebook @C and B Leather) to see more tips, techniques or just to follow my work. I’m also open to any questions you may have.

Creating in leather can be a very rewarding hobby or even a side business. Making leather and creating things out of leather is probably one of the oldest skills known to man but despite that fact crafting items in leather is still as important today as it has ever been. Leather is also an up cycled material. Cow hides are a byproduct of the meat industry and if they were not made into leather they would end up as a waste product in a landfill. So by creating in leather you are putting an age old product to good use, and you just might be making a work of art.

If there is anything I can craft for you from leather contact me and we can come up with a way to make your vision a reality!

Leatherworking Resources

Leather Carving, Leather Stamping

If you are a leather worker or want to be a leather worker, this is just a reminder that I have some tutorials on leather carving and leather stamping on my website. Just go to the Resources section and look for the tutorials there. They are written to provide an overview to a beginner of the process steps I go through for carving floral elements in leather.

Hand tooling a flower in leather. — Process of carving a flower in leather.

I also have leatherwork tutorials on stamping basket weave designs. These focus on the basket stamp but the techniques apply to other types of geometric stamps. I do want to create a tutorial on geometric stamping at some point so stay tuned for that.

Let me know about any other sort of leatherwork tutorials you would like to see here. I’m also working on developing a YouTube channel that will have leatherwork tutorials and tips for the leather worker at all ranges of skill levels. If there is something you would like to see or know more about how I do it, drop me a note in the comments about what you are interested in or let me know your questions. I’ll answer it in the comments if I can and it may just be something you will see in a future tutorial or video here on this site!

Leatherwork Tutorials

Leatherwork involves a lot of diverse skills and there are many different ways you can follow your interests. Maybe tooling and carving leather isn’t your thing. Maybe you enjoy designing and assembling hand bags our of exotic leather more and don’t care about carving and tooling. Maybe your interest is in leather restoration. Whatever you area of interest is in let me know what you would like to see and if I have knowledge or information to share on it I will. I learned because other leatherworkers were willing to share their knowledge and now I want to pay that forward and share what I know to help others.

Custom Leather work is busier than ever!

Life of a Maker

Hi all and Happy First Day of Summer! It’s been a busy first half of the year here in the shop and its hard to believe so much of 2024 has already gone by!

Carved leather money clip wallet with Celtic knot design — Money clip with Celtic knot design

I want to thank all our fantastic customers for the business this year! I’ve been able to make many cool custom leather work projects so far this year, recreating old wallets, making notebooks and belts. And there are some really cool projects coming soon like a recreation of a customer’s favorite handbag that has now worn out. A chef’s knife roll. Some really cool wallets. There are so many cool things that I am very thankful for the opportunity to make, plus some projects I am doing just to expand my own skills and products. I’m particularly excited about some projects that will go beyond the traditional western style floral designs I typically make. I’m looking to expand into different styles of artwork so I hope you will be seeing some different artwork appearing on these pages and on my social media accounts.

If you are interested in having some custom leather work made for you, just let me know here. I would be happy to talk to you about what you need and what you envision, and I love making your vision into a real leather item that will last you for years to come.

A Little Competition…In Custom Leatherwork

Creativity, Leather Carving

If you don’t push yourself you won’t grow.

It’s true of any skill, job or art form. Whether you want to grow in your job, a sport or in art, if you don’t push yourself to reach new heights, learn a new skill or refine what you do, you will just be stuck in the same place. Stagnant.

That is why I enter the World Leather Debut show in Sheridan, WY. I have no illusions that I can actually win at this competition. It is filled with the art work from some of the best leather workers in the world. Not just the US but exceptional artists from Japan, China and Europe. Their skills and styles are diverse and they bring a full lifetime of pursuit of their art to this show. For people like me that make artwork in leather, this show is the pinnacle of our art.

Custom Leatherwork

Whenever I am making custom leatherwork I am always trying to do my best. Each item is made uniquely for that particular customer and I try to make each item as special and exceptional as possible. But making something like this notebook for a competition that includes some of the best craftsmen and women in the world definitely pushes you to another level. It also makes you look more critically at your work. You examine and put more thought into each detail. You know how high the bar is and you think about how you can improve each step so you can get closer to that bar.

Back cover of a leather notebook cover with floral caring design and geometric stamping — Rear panel of my World Leather Debut notebook.

So while this notebook didn’t win any awards, I know it is some of my best work. And I believe I will carry the lessons and insights learned in making it into each custom leatherwork piece I do in the next year, so that next year my work will have leveled up just a little bit and I will be that much closer to that high bar.

If you are interested in a custom leather notebook or journal similar to this one, contact me and I will be happy to make something like this for you.