Landon's Card Wallet
My nephew Landon graduated from university this year, and he is heading to medical school in Texas. Good for him!
So I decided, what better reason to practice making a card wallet?
I've made a few before, but I'm refining my technique, piece by piece. This time I began by cutting the outside veg-tan piece a bit over-wide, and after sewing the pockets on, I trimmed the edges to match, so they are very nice and straight!.
Here's the outside:
The design is the symbol on the flag of Sendai city, Japan, where he lived for two years. I used a reverse carving, so the design is inset below the surface of the leather, so it will wear longer. I used Fiebing's white dye -- it's not good for large surfaces, but it's exactly right for this. Combined with the textured surface of the design, it looks a bit old and weathered. A nice effect!
I used a pebble-pattern backgrounder on the rest of the wallet (except in a circle around the design) to make a rough surface, easier to hold onto and better to grip the inside of a pocket! The color is a combination of Angelus Purple and Light Blue, with some dye reducer. It's difficult to match colors with dye, so I didn't spend hours and hours to get it exactly right. I got a dark purply color, and called it good!
For the inside:
I used the same purple mix to color the inside, and smoothed the surface (which you can't tell in this photo) with gum tragacanth.
The two pockets are a piece of scrap brown leather, hand stitched using Burgundy Ritza Tiger thread (.6 size). Thanks, Rocky Mountain Leather Supply! You guys have a great selection of high-quality supplies, and FREE SHIPPING!
You can't see the sides, but they are sanded smooth, burnished with Tokonole (black color) and finished with Kyoshin Elle Columbus edge wax (also black colored.)
This was the first time I used the wax -- it's a nice effect.
I am adding two more "pages" with more pockets, because many people carry more than 6 cards (which is how many it holds with two pockets.) Here are the inside "pages":
The tooled design is a traditional Japanese motif. Here you can see the construction of the pockets, using a thinner black leather-- they are cut slightly larger, glued down, then trimmed to fit.
This makes for a very even edge.
All pockets are sewn down using the same burgundy thread. The inside page and pocket edges are all treated with Fiebing's black Edge Kote, for a durable, smooth edge.
Here the inside "page" is flipped open, showing the color contrast and the offset thumb-indents.
Oblique side view, showing the page and the edges.
Top view of the whole wallet
Completed outside, showing the stitch line of the inside pocket pages. The white has been touched up, and the whole thing treated with Fiebing's Resolene.
I mailed it off, and now it's in the hands of its new owner!
