Celtic triquetra leather cuff

The latest product of Atelierul de istorie is an entirely handmade leather cuff bracelet decorated with the Celtic triquetra (triple knot) motif. The term is of Latin origin, from tri- "three" and quetrus "cornered", originally meant "triangle" and was used to refer to various three-cornered shapes. The wristband depicts a series of tooled interlaced knots, ending in vegetal tendrils. In order to stress the interlaced decoration further, all relief parts of the decoration are painted by hand in black against the dark green background. Made of natural vegetable tanned, full grain leather. Dimensions: 17 – 20 cm in length, 3.5 cm. in width.

Handmade leather wallets video

I have added a new video to my YouTube channel, presenting some of the latest products in my Etsy shop's "leather" section. These are entirely handmade wallets with tooled decoration, consisting of skulls, hooded or not, and ancient symbols such as the Dacian war standard, the so-called "draco".
Check them out for more details at Ana Maria Gruia ART. 
Or see my previous posts presenting the wallets in more detail, HERE and HERE.
 

Round leather earrings

Last weekend I experimented complicated leather accessory designs, human masks, three-part Ionic column pendants and other ideas. They proves just that: too complicated to be cool. So I turned to a very simple solution: round earrings with accessories. Each item consists of two leather circles in assorted colors (using as pattern two of the most common Romanian coins) and some recycled glass, sand beads, or bronze decorative elements (leaves). See how you like them and feel free to try.

Or check them out, with full descriptions in Romanian, on my website, Atelierul de istorie. 

variants of color and accessories

brown and grey + three leaves

white and grey and black sand bead

black and white and bronze leaf

tones of black and bronze leaf

black and grey and recycled white glass beads

white and grey and turquoise glass beads

brown and red and red glass beads

Ancient Dacian owls

As artifacts indicate, the ancient Dacians were keen on depicting animals - real, exotic, or imaginary. Among them one finds frequent representations of aquatic birds and owls. The latter are very sketchy and some have interpreted such images found on silver and gold bracelets as simple palmettos. I choose to believe they are in fact abstracted owls and was inspired to created a small series of handmade leather earrings. The earrings include various color combinations and decorative effects - hand cut and perforated. They can be acquired via my online store.

Owl leather earrings - 1.5 cm in length

Handmade leather earrings inspired by ancient Dacian owl depictions

Detail of the palmetto/owl part of various types of Dacian gold spiral bracelets

Detail of such an ancient Dacian gold jewelry piece

Leather accessories

Working with leather always generates scraps and odd pieces of material, so all artisans turn to creating small accessories in order to minimize the losses of the expensive primary material. I am going through the same phase and therefore though of researching the topic a bit on Etsy and Pinterest. The Etsy treasury of such inspirational finds - "Leather Accessories" includes catchalls and trays, key holders and coasters, dishes and earphone holders, various organizers and leather bowls. The Pinterest board of the same name is more varied, with leather chess pieces, key-shaped leather key fogs, dip-painting of various articles, and some exquisite types of knots and braiding.

The design of some of them is rather appealing, so let the adaptation / invention process begin!