I have a few quite nice fountain pens from when i was working and I wanted to keep them somewhere else than just loose in a drawer. So, I started to look at designs for pen cases. The cases that I like, and I thought protected the pens the best, were mainly cigar cases - although you can buy molds for similar to the one I intend to make from leathercraftpattern.com. So, molded leather - which I had not tried before. The first step was to make a mold. I had a number of plastic test tubes which were about the right size; no end of timber and I am quite used to resin work (with cabinetry). So I made a very simple mold. The tubes were epoxied to the base of the mold. The sides of the mold were measured to come half way up the depth of the tubes, i.e. sides equal to the radius of the tubes. The next time that I was mixing resin, I mixed a little extra and filled the mold to the top of the sides. This meant that the resin also came halfway up the tube sides. I then soaked some thin goatskin (for the inside lining of the case) and some faux ostrich hide (this is my first time doing this). I molded them both to the form with a bone folder and then cramped on some offucts of timber. Now to let it dry. When dry, it would form one half of the bottom part of the case. I would then repeat this exactly for the second half and then glue and stitch those two parts together, stitching up the two channels between the tubes as well. That would complete the lower half. I'm not sure about the top half yet. I think that I mold more layers onto the bottom parts so that they would slip over the lower half when complete. Obviously, i couldn't stitch the channels on the top half as it wouldn't slide over the lower half. I may, therefore, just make a simple wooden mold for the top halves. Who knows yet? . How will it turn out? Will it be a disaster? Will it be good enough on my first attempt or will I learn from it for a second try? Follow my success or disaster and learn from the mistakes.

Because of a minor operation that got infected, I've not been able to do much recently. one of our sons is a very talented woodworker and he recently bought a new IPad to help him with his designing. I offered to make a leather folder for that and the photographs are the result. He chose the leather and the contrast stitching (I'm not a fan but that is just personal) whilst the burnt orange lambskin suede was my choice. The IPad plastic holder insert is kept in place by two snaps (hence the orange eyes) so that a change of IPad model could be accomodated. it was actually more complicated than I had envisaged for a "simple" folder and I learned a lot from the make. The difficulty in cutting straight accurate lines through several layers when all the padding was in place; the thread (Amy Roke Polyester; but the first time I have had issues with it) fraying several times during stitching. I did a prototype with turned edges but it looked scruffy, partly due to my inept skiving but also due to trying to match the turned edge of the leather to the turned edge of the suede. I've been cabinet making for 40 years and so understand about the striving, and failing, for perfection in a make. I would give myself 7/10 for this - but lessons have been learned. Apologies for the qualoity of the photos - if you think I'm pretty bad at leatherwork, my photography is even worse. You know how some people are able to detail instructions on how to make something and what to do? Well, I am thinking of doing something similar except that mine will be instructions of precisely what NOT to do.