Item to make: Card holder

Material: Mineral tanned full grain leather 

Course duration: Approx. 6 hours

Required skill / experience: None 

Tools & Materials: Provided

Cost: R2300

Number of students: To ensure the quality of the instruction that students receive, lessons are limited to 3 persons per class. 

Description of the course: Students will receive the entire set of paper patterns for the wallet which they will make. Leather and other materials like lining, reinforcement, glue, etc that are required for making the wallet will be supplied according to the availability of my atelier. Once the materials have been chosen they will start to cut exterior & interior components of the wallet and the reinforcements. Next step will be leather edge creasing and edge skiving by use of the skiving machine combined with traditional hand skiving knives. Then we will start the assembly of the cut out patterns, applying water based adhesive. During this course we will learn the basics of saddle stitching techniques in order to hand stitch the entire card holder. For this stage we will use pricing irons to mark the holes. Students will get the basic information about threads and needles that are used for making small leather goods and will learn how to set a thread in a harness needle. The card holder will be finished once we paint and make the edges smooth. During the course we will use a hot stamping machine to brand and personalize our card holders. 

Item to make: Clutch bag convertible into Cross-Body bag

Material: Mineral tanned full grain leather 

Course duration: Approx. 14 hours (2 days)

Required skill / experience: Some basic leatherwork understanding 

Tools & Materials: Provided

Cost: R6000

Number of students: To ensure the quality of the instruction that students receive, lessons are limited to 3 persons per class.  

Course outcomes: 

Cutting leather from a pattern
Preparation of previously cut patterns: Edge creasing, Edge preparation and painting, Skiving techniques for different edge constructions, Leather splitting,  Glueing and assembling cut out pattern, Edge finishing techniques.
Thread & Needle selection and preparation 
Setting thread in a harness needle
Intermediate saddle stitching technique.
Sewing and finishing your item 
Zipper construction and its placement
Making a padded leather puller 
Rivet covering with leather 
Introduction into different types of reinforcements used during this project
Leather hot foil stamping 

Description of the course:  Students will receive the entire set of paper patterns for the bag which they will make. Leather and other materials like lining, reinforcement, glue, etc that are required for making the clutch bag will be supplied according to the availability of my atelier. At the beginning of the course students will receive design file of the bag and the patterns. The class will start with studying the design and construction of the bag. Once the materials have been chosen they will start to cut exterior & interior components of the bag and the reinforcements. Next step will be leather edge creasing and edge skiving by use of the skiving machine combined with traditional hand skiving knives. Then we will start the assembly of the cut out patterns, applying water based adhesive. During this course you will learn saddle stitching techniques in order to hand stitch the entire bag. For this part we will use pricing irons to mark the holes. Students will get the basic information about threads and needles that are used for making leather goods and will learn how to set a thread in a harness needle. Next step will be to learn how to place a zipper, make a padded leather puller and how to to cover the rivets with leather. The bag will be finished once we paint and make the edges smooth. During the course we will use a hot stamping machine to brand and personalize our bag. 

Course duration: 15h divided in 3 days

Required skill / experience: None 

Level: Beginner, you do not need any prior knowledge.

Tools & Materials: Please bring your own laptop and make sure you have the program installed and functioning.

Cost: R4800

Number of students: To ensure the quality of the instruction that students receive, lessons are limited to 3 persons per class. 

Description of the course: Learn how to draw your own designs using Adobe Illustrator. This skill will enable you to make creative, accurate product designs quickly and to standards required for design presentations and manufacturing.

Course outcomes: By the end of this course you should be able to:

Create a simple and impactful logo for your project.
Make a professional looking vector illustration.
Incorporate colour and texture into your designs.

Requirements:  You should have Adobe Illustrator installed. The training is designed around the latest Adobe Creative Cloud version of Illustrator, however you can still follow the training with older versions of Illustrator as many of the techniques will be the same. You should be aware though that there may be some functions featured that will not be available in older versions.