Thanks for checking out my studio, I wanted to chat a little more about me and why I make horses. .
I am a creative and I love making things with my hands, my career has been working in commercial design, which I love, but I wanted to do something that satisfied my urge to make things. About 10 years ago (2014) I started making phone cases in leather as iPhone leather cases were, in my view, overly expensive for the type I wanted and I thought I could make one myself. The cases certainly lasted longer than the iPhones did and I (and many family and friends) were very pleased with them. I still make them today every time I get a new phone. Let me know if you would like one, I will be adding them and other items to my site soon.
Hand made leather phone cases
Over the 10 years, making many leather accessories, one naturally gets good at working with the material, confident you can create what you want. I still hand cut the leather pattern shapes, skive the edges to reduce the joined thickness and hand punch and saddle stitch the edges together. This all makes for a much better and stronger stitched area (any machine stitch is much weaker), which in turn means it will last longer.
I have often made 3D animal sculptures out of chicken wire and papier maché. I find it easy to think in 3D and imagine in my mind how I can transform a flat piece of wire into a 3D animal.
Now I live in a lovely area of Sweden, Dalarna, which is the home of the Dalahäst. We have many of these wooden horses and I started thinking, could I make a leather version? I checked online and I could not find any examples of someone doing this before, so I decided to give it a go. Pretty soon I discovered it is really, really difficult to make them, it took me 6 months, maybe longer, to make one I was reasonably happy with and I thought it would work. I then spent a further 3 months perfecting the pattern and the technique, it needs hand moulding to get the proper shapes, and the stitching is quite awkward in certain areas, you cannot just clamp the leather to aid in the stitch.
Beautiful Dalarna, Sweden. A view over the village where I live.
I decided at the very beginning I would serial number the horses, initially to see the progression or mark the development but later once the design was finished, it also seemed a good idea to enhance the individuality and uniqueness of them. I am also going to create a gallery of their ‘homes’, so if you buy one please send a picture of where you place it, where it resides, and I will add it.
Unique branding stamp – every horse has a number.
I hope to add different colour leathers and maybe offer personalisation in the future so please come back and take another look.
With all the horses I offer a free repair service, should any ‘loving’ be too much, but from experience of my leather accessories and phones they are very resilient.