Handbags as a career

Yes I just realised that this year is 40 years since I made my first leather bag.

AND I am still making them.

OH BUGGER.

Is there something seriously wrong with a bloke who is now 66 and still handmakes all the bags that come out my workshop.

Do I love it? Some days??????

How on earth did it start?

Well! I was in my 20’s and having dropped out of school, Art school and interior design school, it was discovered that I had an aptitude to making things and problem solving.

So!  I found myself training and working in a very old Power station on the edge of Sydney harbour. Where it once stood, are now, Museums and luxury apartments that look across to Sydney CBD.

Living in a small flat and working shift work, (we didn’t have computers, netflix and what was to be the internet. TV yes, but with 3 channels that closed at midnight) Get home at 11pm and wide awake. What to do? Bored or what!!

I had been given a book about Australian Traditional bush craft which showed how to hand sew leather and make bags and stuff.

So! one day I found a place and went and bought a skin of veg tanned leather, a sewing awl, some needles and thread and a Stanley knife.

There! Now you might say I’m hooked ;-) 

Read Who is Steven Harkin for more details