Hello from Bali (for now)

Hi @Philip , Everyone,

My name is Julien, I'm from France I've been practicing leatherwork for about 3 years now.

I think it started after being a month off work with a broken arm, and having all that time to binge on youtube I stumbled upon Ian Atkinson's channel and found it fascinating and promised myself I'd give it a go.

So when all healed I just bought a bunch of tools and started making horrendous knife sheaths and wallets using all the resources available on the web to slowly improve my work.

Fast forward 3 years, still a long way from where I wish I were but definitely better, and I ended up getting sick of it and quitting my day job and moving to Indonesia for a few months to get a chance to work on leather full time, and hopefully manage to make a living from it eventually. It probably was a bit reckless but I'm pushing on:).

Going back to Europe in May and looking to set up a workshop then.

It has been fantastic having all this time to try new items and techniques and get the chance to see the improvements coming from working everyday for hours on end, but it;s a slow process.

I work mostly with vegtan, with a soft spot for walpier buttero (and Horween CXL), making wallets, cardholders, small bags etc. for now, but I would love to move more towards larger bags and luggage items in the near future.

It is still rather rustic and crude work, working on developing more finesse and working finer materials but yeah...

I'm looking forward to meeting you guys and share tips and tricks that can maybe help beginners avoid all the mistakes and the wasted time and leather I've been through at first, as it is still fresh.

My IG page is @juliendouve.leather, would love to hear your thoughts and constructive feedback on what I do, as I lack objective opinion from fellow workers.

Speak soon!

J