New batch of handmade leather wallets

A new set of leather wallets is now available for sale by Atelierul de istorie. As its best selling model, they are decorated with the ancient war standard of the Dacians, the so-called Draco (dragon in Latin), a mythical half wolf half serpent creature that the feared Dacians carried in battle to frighten the conquering Romans.

The differences reside solely in the colors of these wallets, some monochrome (black), some with mixed colors (red) and two block-dyed according to our previously described technique (black and brown). The inside pockets are either black or dark brown, assorted with the outside.

Draco leather wallets by Atelierul de istorie

Tooled leather handmade wallets by Atelierul de istorie

Leather dyeing variants by Atelierul de istorie

Wallets insides by Atelierul de istorie

See the description of the block-dyeing technique HERE.

See the Mjolnir-decorated wallets also created by Atelierul de istorie HERE.

And the collection of skull leather wallets available internationally by the same team on Etsy, at the Proper Leather Studio HERE.

An Etsy seller's experience

I opened my third Etsy shop, the Transylvanian Trove, less than one year ago, hoping to have learned from the strategies and failures of the first two and having a chance to try a different approach.

My first shop, the Goddess Gruia, was opened in 2015 and focused on my artwork. As painting is just a (serious) hobby for me, I have little time to organize exhibitions, go to art camps, and collaborate with galleries (anyway few in numbers in my home town of Cluj-Napoca), as I did before getting a full-time job. Considering these time limitations, the decorative character of my paintings and linocuts, and the affordable prices I believe are right for them, Etsy did seem like a good solution. Still, two year and 8 sales later, it proves that the platform is not really the best to sell art and promoting one's listings is equally time consuming than all the things mentioned above that I was trying to avoid.

I then tried a shop with a different profile and promotion approach - the Proper Leather Studio. The handmade leather manufacture started with my husband worked rather well in Romania, so we though about making special items for Etsy as well (the design is different for wallets, for example, as the Romanian ID card is rather large and requires a special pocket). We decided to take this second shop easy, not invest time in promotion games but rather pay for Etsy marketing and not stress about having enough listings, long descriptions and all the rest. It was indeed very stress-free, but we  had only two sales in over a year and concluded that a bit more involvement is required, at least in the number of listings :)

Print screen - the Transylvanian Trove - July 2017

The third - and I believe my last Etsy shop - the Transylvanian Trove, brought me the greatest joy. The strategy was to sell items I already owned (vintage accessories, retro jewelry, unique prints, collectibles, some older creations of mine, other made by friends or bought over time) so production seemed to cost nothing and I got to free up some space :) I also set aside only small objects for this shop, things that could be send as correspondence, thus not requiring me to take longed trips to the international postal office (for larger packs) and reducing the cost of shipping that buyers certainly appreciate as well. At the same time it seems that cheap nice things sell better and more often, and this makes sense as well. Selling a pair of 6$ earrings - packed in 5 minutes, shipped in 24h hours and received and reviewed in 1 week, often made me happier than selling more expensive, but larger and much more difficult to pack and ship paintings.

Selection of design accessories and collectibles from Transylvania

I also decided to learn more and use the promotions tools available - partly paid, mostly free- such as relatively frequent shop updates, correct tags and titles, longer descriptions, variables, team work games, social networks, related blogs etc. With more time invested, the 10 sales so far have bough me greater joy than those made with the other shops - even if the prices were so much smaller :)

Earrings, leather tooled bracelet, leather coasters and vintage necklace from the Transylvanian Trove

I am (still) committed to all three shops on Etsy and I believe all can be improved to lead to more sales and better visibility. It is also a matter of perseverance and stubbornness, but one also makes a habit out of checking the shops daily and being active on the platform just for fun.

New skull tooled leather wallet by the Proper Leather Studio

The Proper Leather Studio on Etsy has just remade one of its best selling models, a leather skull wallet entirely handmade. The bi-fold leather wallet is hand-dyed, in shades of dark brown dye and brown Gel Antique on the outside and dark brown and 6 dark brown side pockets for credit cards on the inside. The item is made of high quality veg-tanned leather,  subsequently protected with several layers of acrylic finish. Polished and waxed edges.

Natural leather wallet for men, skull wallet, handmade EDC leather, boyfriend husband gift, European card holder, Goth hand-tooled wallet

Outside: 1.6-2.0 mm (4 to 5 oz) single bend European hide
Inside: 1 mm (2.5 oz) calf hide
Folded measurements: 12 x 9.5 cm / 4.7 x 3.7 inches.
Slim enough to enter into your pocket.
Due to the high-quality leather and craftsmanship, this wallet will last good years of use. Nevertheless, do not submerge it into water and avoid acids and corrosives. Leather is not a waterproof material and if submerged, it absorbs water and might deform of loose some of the color. Cared for, it will only look better in time. Also, it needs to soften through wear a bit, to reach its optimal functions. 

 See the other wallets available - hooded skull and bucranium.

The studio is a family business, with me making the designs, transfers, cutting, and dyeing, and my husband managing the measuring, cutting, and sewing of the products. We like to make thing properly, thus every item has been cut, incised, tooled, dyed, sewed, and finished entirely by hand. We take our time in carefully crafting every single item so that it is both artistically pleasing and durable.

Handmade leather bracelets/cuffs

The Proper Leather Studio of Cluj-Napoca, Romania (selling via Etsy) produces fully handmade leather goods such as wallets and bracelets/cuffs. Among the latter, one successful type consists of such fashion accessories with tooled and hand-dyed decoration depicting the Draco. The ancient war standard, an iconic symbol of the Dacian civilization, is very popular in Romania and among Romanians all over the world.

Here are couple of variants of the cuff type and the season greetings from the proper Leather Studio. Merry Christmas! 
Do not forget about the 10% Etsy discount coupon that applies until the end of this year!

Etsy coupons

In tone with the shopping season, I have created, for the first time, Etsy discount coupons. It took a while to figure out how to promote them and concluded that the best was is to adapt the shop cover photos. This is the result for both of the shops I run on Etsy: Goddess Gruia (art) and The Proper Leather Studio (handmade leather items):

New cover advertising the 5% discount coupon, available until Christmas 2016

 

The 10% discount available until December 31st 2016 for handmade leather wallets and bracelets

Block-dye leather wallet

The Proper Leather Studio is working on a new series of block-dye handmade leather wallets. The new project employs a decorative symbol inspired by the ancient Dacian Civilization from the territory of present-day Romania, i.e. the mythical half wolf half snake war standard of the feared Dacians. This so-called draco (dragon as the Roman put it) was initially blocked with three careful brush applications of leather Resolene, then the entire outer piece of the wallet was covered in Gel Antique and burnished, while the final step consisting of sponge painting with brown dye the surface and corners around the main motif. See more about the block technique HERE.

 

finished wallet

Handmade leathercraft

As we [The Proper Leather Studio] have just started a new batch of natural leather, tooled wallets, I though I should show you our method. The first painstaking step is to cut all the elements - outside, money divider, pockets - at their required dimensions. The outside is cut of thicker veg tan leather as it is decorated through tooling. The chosen motif (a skull and an owl so far from the current lot) is transferred by hand on the damped piece of leather, incised and tooled. The pockets are meanwhile hand-dyed - all black for this project.

Veg-tan leather cut for several wallets

 

Hand dyed leather elements (dividers and pockets)

The tooled motifs are then blocked with Leather Sheen and/or Resolene (we use Tandy Leather products for this). Resolene does a better job at blocking but allows for less hue gradients of Gel Antique. Sheene is more permeable but better for some projects. It all depends on the intended effect.

Blocking tooled leather motifs

The next stage envisages hand dying the outside of the wallets - around the blocked motifs - by brush and sponge and then applying and wiping Gel Antique from the entire outer surface. The combination of colors is rather important here, considering that the dye is covered with the semi-transparent Gel Antique and the precise and sufficient blocking of the motif, that should remain leather-color, with the gel just stressing the indentations.

Hand-dyeing

The parts and then assembled, glued, sewed and the edges finished.
 See our finished products on ETSY.