The Art of Leather Witchery

I come from a long line of ancestors who used sharp tools. My great grandmother was a carpenter in Jim Crow Sanford Florida. My mother said my Grandma Charlotte could build anything. My grandfather was the first Black dentist in British Honduras (Belize) in the 1920s and created beautiful replacement teeth and his tools included small scissors for cutting stitches. My father spoke to me as a child about how clean and sharp and sanitary my grandfather kept his tools. So it's not surprising that I've been fascinated by cutting instruments for as long as I can remember.

My father, who immigrated from Belize in the 1950s, joined the US military and was an army MEDDAC (Army Nurse). I was fascinated by his tool bag, especially his medical scissors, which were bent to easily cut bandages. My mother made a lot of our clothes growing up, and she had a pair of old-fashioned, heavy duty fabric scissors which he kept very sharp with a whetting tool she brought from Florida to my childhood home in Seaside, California. They both told me never to use them, which of course meant, I stole every opportunity to do just that.

During the pandemic, I had a sibling, and many friends who passed away. My husband and I, who normally participated in social dancing several times a week, had to stop dancing with friends completely.

I had to find something to fight depression, which I had been prone to before COVID. Keeping busy with creative projects keeps me sane. I was a silversmith for 30 years, creating hand-crafted jewelry until I developed an allergy to every metal BUT silver. I had started a new job in March, only to be unceremoniously laid off only 5 months later. When I asked the HR representative for some relief since we were in a pandemic, and she said to me, "we've given you enough" it shocked me, but also made me decide, NOW is the time to live my best life. I decided to start Leather Witch Accessories, an online, handmade accessory boutique. EVERYTHING about working in leather gives me EXTREME JOY!!! I love opening the box of leather when it is shipped to me. I have a pair of large, heavy scissors, and I always cut a corner off the leather to smell it and test its capability. I find myself smiling while I am cutting the leather, imagining which magical thing I'll make next.

I studied with a cobbler in 2014, and learned to make boots, slides, and shoes. I decided to take my leather crafting to another level and took online classes through a vendor on ETSY to learn to make stitched bags. This afforded me the opportunity to try new projects and push myself to create new things. I'm happy when I wake up and see my projects neatly ready to go. Although I have not officially opened my shop, I’m getting request to create pieces for people whom I know will love them, and at 57, I'm looking forward to creating with joy for myself and others.

Leather Witch Accessories. I Make Magic with These Skins.