Reviewed by annieb123 on
Woven Leather Bags is a new niche leather-working technique tutorial guide from Naoko Minowa. With an expected release date in early February 2019, from Stackpole Books, it's a concise 104 pages in full color and available in paperback and ebook formats.
Despite being a bionerd lab rat and, frankly, not very girly, I have always loved well made purses and bags (shoes, not so much). There is something about woven leather that I find really attractive. I have longed for a real Bottega Veneta bag for ages, but even their 'entry level' bags cost more than my first car. It's not going to happen anytime soon.
The projects included in these tutorials admittedly aren't BV bags, but they are very stylish, high quality and style correct. The detailing is very well done and the hardware enhances the designs. The construction details are well described and illustrated and these are no-sew tutorials. The woven leather ground fabric is manipulated and shaped by using cold riveting, glues, metal snaps, magnetic closures etc. All of the construction and finishing techniques are included in the book.
There are (by my count) 15 distinct projects in the book which can be varied and combined somewhat with different weaves and colorways. The project pages cover roughly 20% of the page content. The projects are followed by very detailed instructions which cover tools and materials, weaving techniques, and finishing techniques. There is also a handy resource page at the end listing North America friendly e-tailers from whom tools and materials can be bought.
This book was originally published in 2014 in Japanese and it's worth noting that the translation work was seamless. It doesn't feel like a translated book.
Five stars. Lovely projects
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 3 January, 2019: Finished reading
- 3 January, 2019: Reviewed