Yesterday a customer ordered 3 pairs of cherries finished as a brooch 
What a good occasion to flip through the great tutorials of Diana from mygurumi again. She really put great effort in these how-to’s, have a look. Here a pic of my work in progress.
Haven’t got a clue jet how to do a nice leaf, any tips? Thanks in advance. I make you a pair as well, when me clumsy-crocheter can work it out.
The grain side is the smooth side of the leather which is mostly worn on the outside because of its appearance and its easy to clean qualities. The look of the leather is influenced by the pattern how hair, wool and plumes grow on the skin. Every animal has its own characteristic leather.
Calf leather:
From male or female calf (max one year old) that are mostly nourished with milk. The leather with a fine grain is suitable for shoes and bags. Calf hides are 0,7 to 1,7m² and weigh about 12kg.
Calf leather
Cow/Bull leather:
One hide’s average weight is about 30kg and is 2 to 6 m² big. Because of its size clothes and furniture coverings can be easily made without many seams. But it is as well suitable for bags because of its tensile strength. The best part of the hide is the back of the animal, because of the hides regular thickness. Bull leather can thin and lightweight or think and heavy depending of how many layers have been split.
Cow/Bull leather
Goat leather:
Goat leather is more close and dense than sheep leather. That is why it is tough and soft. Goat leather has a visible line on the back. Compared to sheep leather goat hides are longer and more slim. Goat leather not covered with colour tends to stretch and widen that is why it is not suitable for tight clothes.
Goat leather
Pork leather:
The pig’s bristles penetrate the whole skin. Because of that pork leather is more permeable for water than other leathers. Pork leather has a big variability in structure between side and core parts of the hide. Pork leather is mostly used for suede leather in many different colours. The very soft pork leather is suitable for leather shirts, vests, dresses and coats and it is the cheapest of all leathers.
Pork leather
Sheep leather:
A loose texture that contains a lot of fat.Because of this it tends to split and break. Sheep leather is characterized by many holes for the hairs that are placed in an irregular way. Contrary to goat leather, the natural grain of sheep leather is still visible after treatment of the leather. Characteristic for sheep leather is the very wide shape of the hide which is advantageous for further processing. Sheep leather is usually sold as Nappa or Suede leather and is mostly used for clothing.
Sheep leather
(pics from Lederpedia; linked to their sources)
Do you remember our colorful, nice, often gazed at flowerbed in front of our shop? We wrote about it earlier here. Well: It’s history. The city gardeners of Berlin killed our flowerbed! I can´t express how sad it makes me to see the last victims laying there, waiting to faint away. “We only crop the weeds!”, they said…. I feel helpless confronted with so much asininity.
The only thing that helps me out is little Agathe, a small new fellow from our friend Betty. Betty gave her as a present to me and she is able to make me smile again with her cute green, clumsy feet. You can find her work here.
Already some time ago I found out about the Danish bags and accessories company Backsöndergaard who manufactures bags and small leather goods from eel skin in fantastic colours for a reasonable price. Unfortunately I wasn’t clever enough to order them then. I still had them in mind, saw them again at the Premium during fashion week in Berlin and talked to the German agent. The end of the discussion was: Beuteltiere won’t get these bags and purses because they are already sold too much in Berlin Prenzlauer Berg according to the agent. Well I am quite angry about myself not having ordered them earlier, because they have really nice wallets that I would have loved to have in our shop. And I wonder where actually these bags are sold here in Prenzlauer Berg, because I have never seen them in a shop. And what makes me angry as well: We are always looking for products that are not that common in Germany and than we can’t get a product, because the German agent wants to keep these bags quite rare in Berlin. Grrr! Usually companies are more amused when we want to buy their products.
I have also seen a company that copies that eel skin products, but no way! I won’t order any copied products. I am against plagiarism.
(pics from Becksöndergaard; linked to their sources)
While checking web-stats I found out that somebody named Tom Saye wrote about as at Berliner Akzente. That’s a Berlin guide initiated by Berliner Sparkasse. Thanks a lot! And hey boys and girls, please write comments there and rate Beuteltiere as a 5 star shop!
(screenshot; linked to source)
A look out of the window makes me sad, because the weather outside doesn’t look very promising: it’s raining for two hours now. ‘The look outside doesn’t promise lots of people in the shop for today and tomorrow and doesn’t promise a nice and relaxing weekend outside in the sun. What did I do to the weather god that he makes the weather very hot during the week and makes it rain latest Saturday evening when my one day weekend starts (like it happened the last 2 or 3 Saturdays)??
(pics from Marsupialia)
Since some time I am looking for the perfect wallet for women. There are lots of wallets on the market, but I can not find the perfect ones that I want to have in the shop. Well I had some perfect ones, but there are only 5 black ones left. That’s why I need some new ones. Urgently! For me important characteristics of a good wallet are nice leather in lots of different colors, lots of space for credit cards and good quality for a reasonable price.
Do you have any tips? What wallet do you use personally? Do you know any companies who manufacture super-wallets that are not sold in our neighbours store like the Keecie products from my post two days ago. 
Grrr.
PS: I am not looking for wallets like this!
(pics from Shareski; linked to its source)
Before the invention of synthetic colorants leather was colored like cloths with vegetable colorants. Leather is colored either in a rotating drum with colorants resolved in water, brushed or sprayed. Covering color based on plastics is used for leather with defective surface. More than 70% of all upper leathers are colored with covering colors.
Another possibility to color leather is to lacquer it. Like that high gloss leather that is highly resistant against bending is made.
Important for the quality of leather is color fastness and light resistance. Not lightfast leather is getting brighter, as vegetable leather darkens.
(pic from Flickr; linked to its source)
Yesterday I ordered some products at Keecie. A dutch company that I got to know at Tendence in Frankfurt who produce really nice, funny and simple leather products for a reasonable price. By the way: two girls as well. Well today I found out that another shop really close to us (they are not our direct neighbours, but they are really really close; not even 50m to walk) ordered these products as well. Damn! I canceled the order, because we don’t want to sell the same products than them. And I am sure that they don’t want us to sell the same products. I am so sad.
(pics from Keecie; linked to their sources)
I found out while reading Diwas post about thekey.to and the GREEN Showroom that I should have gone there during fashion week. But I simply hadn’t enough time to go everywhere unfortunately. But thanks to Diwa I read her post about it on I heartBerlin and discovered these fantastic green bags, made of natural, vegetable tanned leather from RoyalBLUSH in Switzerland.
Have you remarked the fantastic details and as well the leather braclets? Now I am curious to find out how much these bags cost.
(pics from RoyalBLUSH, linked to their source)
