One of a Kind and Small Batch Leather Goods
Welcome to Sully + Proper Handmade Leather Supply.
Handmade leather items consume a very large portion of my brain’s processing power and ideation each day. I think about handmade leather goods while I should be thinking about a hundred other things, which is how I got here.
The name: Sully is our senior Labradoodle, and the best dog. He is kind, patient, gentle, funny, polite, intelligent, loyal, reliable, responsible and all of the good things you’d want a dog to be. Proper is the precise descriptor of his late sister, Zephyr. Think Her Ladyship Lady Crawley from Downton Abbey … Maggie Smith’s beloved character, and that was Zephyr. Together, they were the perfect balance.
Me: I’m Beth, or BD, or Big BAD B. Whatever you call me, just don’t call me late for dinner. Anyhoo, I’m a sole crafter in my homebased workshop, and obsess over handmade leather goods. I’m also a consumer and purchaser of way too many handmade leather items from other makers, which is a whole other conversation. For now, know that I absolutely love everything about this craft, and literally dream of making things.
The process: Because everything in life is a process.
From start to finish, each piece is made one at a time, with old world hand tools and basic, high quality materials. Each piece is made from start to finish by me, in my home workshop, with the supervision of at least one of our three dogs.
Tools used: Sharp knives, hammers, stitching chisels, hole punches, corner rounders, and edge slickers.
Materials used: whole hide leather from various tanneries, thread from the Maine Thread Company, copper rivets, hardware from Buckleguy.com, Tokonole, beeswax and natural leather conditioners.
Occasionally used: tap water for wet molding, pine pitch for water proofing and Daisy BBs for paper weights.
Private event services
Whatever you’re celebrating, your guests and loved ones deserve the best. Each person receives a handmade, personalized gift.
The Early Days
Everything in life is a process, whether it’s intentional and planned, or completely chaotic. I started out my leathercrafting not knowing anything about the process of making leather items. I have bought many leather goods from other makers, and have an infinite set of ideas of items to make, and variations to the designs, but not the know how or technical skill yet to actually make all of them. The first few dozen items were rough, to say the least. Also, it didn’t help matters that I really like doing things the hard way, but I digress.
I cut things by hand, and largely without templates or patterns. Sometime last year, I started making some patterns of my own designs, and use them sometimes, but mostly each piece is unique and intuitively made.
The wallet pictured here is an early piece I made from vegetable tanned leather, and left the pockets with the natural edges of the hide. I rarely throw those pieces into the scrap bin. You can see the squared corners, because it was before I knew how to round corners, or that tools existed to aid in this design component. Items with sharp corners don’t below in our pockets.
A Student of Life
YouTube and Instagram are fantastic platforms for learning from others, in nearly anything you’d like to learn about. My particular interests include leather craft, astrology, tarot, music, financial markets and literacy, and all around, how to be a continually improving version of myself. Each maker has their own set of tools, ideas, patterns and processes. Many share these on YouTube, and some simply share the output.
Some of my favorite brands:
These are a few of the companies and makers I follow loyally, and have had the honor of meeting a few of the makers in person. Each style is different, which keeps the craft going and evolving, yet maintaining a steady tradition of the age old craft. As I make each piece of my own, something new is learned with each cut, stitch and finish. Whether it’s a design adjustment or better method to enhance the process, taking the time to think, plan, strategize and design is an in depth process that has no end.
Two wallets in progress from October 2020. Progress, with a long way to go.
Current State
It is now the year 2024, the month is April. 2023 was a whirlwind of events, custom orders, white labeling orders for a locally owned bulldog brand, and a huge private event! You can follow the continual happenings and events on my Instagram page, and get reminders for in person events in the DFW area.
As life goes, change is inevitable and what keeps us growing and improving. This year, I’m reducing the in person events by 80%, and will be focusing my energy on custom orders, my webshop, private events and white labeling services. Spending a significant amount of my weekends of the last few years away from my wife, son and dogs has yielded a lot of lessons, refinements and humility.
I’ll be quite candid. In person events can be quite amazing and fulfilling, while others can be quite deflating and unproductive. The highs and lows are of course part of building a small brand from the ground up, and it’s all part of the learning process. I’ve made some great friends and connections along the journey and am appreciative of the organization, thoughtful planning, time, energy and creativity that go into each event. It takes a village and is often overlooked, but the folks that host events are a special lot. I’m not at a place to move completely away from in person events yet, these are still a fine marketing and sales strategy for my business, but I’ve taken meticulous notes and the inner data analyst in me can’t deny the facts.
Aside from all of that, my plan has been shifting towards other avenues to sell my handmade leather goods so I can spend my weekends in the fall volunteering with our son’s high school band for their competition season. His band is one of the best in the county and competition season is serious business. Half time is game time!
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It is the year 2022, and the month is late March. The day air is warm & windy in Texas, the night air is humid and thunderstorms are a beautifully welcomed experience. In the evenings, once my family are fed and we have an hour or two after chores are finished, I make my way upstairs, crank on some music or video of my favorite YouTubers, and get to making. I have a short backlog of custom orders I make progress on, and spend most of my making time working on my own ideas. 8/10 times of starting something new, I make something completely different than my initial plan. Let’s say I get a hide out to make a bag, but there’s a really cool portion that would make a nice edge for a wallet pocket … then the bag plan gets morphed into making a new wallet.
Most items I make are one of a kind, for the above mentioned reason. However, I have made a few patterns of my own designs, and have bought some standard patterns from the likes of Buckleguy.com and Karlova Designs. I’ve printed them out, and intend on making some of each design soonish, but battle the clock for prioritization of my own designs, or what is more common and recognizable to the masses. Putting these two types together, one of a kind and small batch, is the next phase in the evolution of Sully + Proper Handmade Leather Goods.