Curiosity and the hunger to learn something new led me to leatherwork. Every little project I pick up a bit more skills and a bit more understanding of the craft and the materials. When I see other leather products, I start to understand how they are made. But that’s not all. All the time spent also teaches me about myself. Where am I patient or what makes me uneasy? How natural does this process feel? Did I feel distracted or could I fully focus and dive deep?

When listening to a podcast interview with my brother, there were some things that he put in words so well that I think fit me too: I need to experience and I’m addicted to the feeling of full focus. The drive isn’t perse the finished result, especially not when I attempt a new craft with an unknown outcome, but I thrive on the sensation of deep work.

Last week I showed you the mess, now I can share the finished cover.
Note: I’m using leather scraps, leftovers from leatherwork, so this leather has some creases and irregularities as you can see. To me, it feels very liberating to try some projects with leftovers so that I’m not afraid to make a wrong cut, waiting for the perfect design or idea to get started or keep the nice material ‘for the perfect project”. (I’m the kind of person that has some crayons or notebooks from childhood that I just found too pretty to use 🙂 )

— PS: The podcast is in Dutch, it’s called “ADHD als superkracht” (ADHD as a superpower)