I’ve been playing with leather lately and @Janet wanted me to show this project off, so here goes. Work assigned me a brand new MacBook and I decided to make a leather sleeve for it to try some ideas I’ve been pondering. There is a ton I’d do differently and it’s far from perfect, but overall it’s not too bad considering how many new tricks I tried out.
The primary goals of the experiment were: 1) I wanted to try the layered edge look that I really appreciate in other folks’ projects, 2) I wanted to attempt a filigree style, 3) I’ve never wet formed something like this, 4) I’ve never airbrushed before, 5) I’ve never tried to make a case for something that fit snugly
I designed the cutout in illustrator and used the VHS laser to cut that out of a side of undyed tooling leather. Behind that is another layer of tooling leather dyed in blobs to show through the filigree appropriately with the edges dyed red for contrast, and a third later to act as a liner. The pocket for the laptop is wet formed so it contours perfectly to the laptop. That nice charcoal grey is actually black dye sprayed through an airbrush so it wouldn’t come out black black.