Leather Utility Belt

2012-2014, 2020

In 2012, I attended a workshop on leatherworking at a local leather store, after which I had begun tinkering unfruitfully with various projects at home. My nesting partner purchased me a bright yellow cape for my birthday in 2014, and I decided to make a utility belt, cuffs, and mask to complete a superheroic look, complete with leotard. I threw a superhero-themed birthday party that year, watching the three live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies with my very tolerant superfriends. Working on the utility belt project was meticulous and exhausting enough that I didn't return to leatherworking until 2020, when I started using up leftover leather from those 2014 projects to bind books.

I was very much a beginner throughout this process, and here you can see the consequences of getting leather wet and not letting it dry before applying dye: there are watermarks along the edges of my pieces.

I used a kit to make the belt buckle. I couldn't figure out how to get the letters to pop after I stamped them, so I used Sharpie, which has held up remarkably well over the years.

Part of what I learned while working on a project of this scale was how much I disliked the nitty gritty of leather working. I used a pouch kit to create a template for several other pouches, but still found the patterning confusing. Snap setting was the worst. Basically the only part of leatherworking I truly enjoyed was hammering.

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