Uxbridge purse designer and creator Nancy Newman's interest in textiles "started with the Feminist Movement in the 70's, where attention was being paid to what was disparagingly called "Women's Work", which was anything to do with textiles - needlepoint, quilting, sewing, knitting. Generally, if a woman did it, it wasn't worth much". We are delighted to feature Nancy along with her talented guest artist Mary Philpott at Studio 10 of the 2019 tour.
Here's a little from Nancy's website about the dying and slicking of the edges on the leather straps of her handmade designs...
I make all the straps for my purses but order my leather blanks from a supplier in Saskatchewan because he understand leather better than I do, and has the equipment to cut them exactly the same length. All the rest I do myself.
First up is to take the sharp edge off, and that is done with a handheld beveller. I run it along the edge of the leather strap at a slight angle and it shaves off a tiny bit to round out the edges. All four sides have to be done, and I’m left with a whole pile of fun curly cue stuff!
Then the edges must be dyed to match the leather, so out comes my little dauber, which is dipped into the dye and run carefully along the edges. You can see below, the before and after, or in this case, the after and before!
