Looking For Bright Colors In Pre-Dyed Leather

[KelseyR89]

I am wanting to make simple clutches using bright, pre-dyed leathers but at Tandy the leather I've bought is either too thin and flimsy or too thick. I'm thinking 2/3 oz or 3/4 oz, have any recommendations on where I can buy fun colored leather? I bought some Minelli Sides from Tandy and LOVE the color options, but it's just way too flimsy to sell any kind of clutch using it. The Tandy employee recommended using the cardboard-type stuff to thicken up the flimsy one, but if I don't need to do that then I don't want to

I'm hesitant to order leather online where I can't check each piece I'm purchasing, but if anyone has some recommendations and has great reviews for online retailers I'm open to trying it out because I'd really like to find the leather I'm looking for.

Thank you!

[Art]

Kelsey,

Hide House Napa has a wide variety of colors. Most of the really bright colors are in chrome tanned leather that will have a softer hand and may be in the 2oz to 3oz thickness. An old trick to heavy-up the leather is to find a suitably thick (thin) piece of veg tan to use as a glued-up backing. You can use another skin grain inside or grain out, either way works, but you get you get a really nice piece if you put both grain sides out which has the stiffness of the backup leather and the look you want from the flimsy piece. This is also done with things like reptile skins (even alligator and especially snakes) as sometimes you can darned near see through them.

Art

[KelseyR89]

Kelsey,

Hide House Napa has a wide variety of colors. Most of the really bright colors are in chrome tanned leather that will have a softer hand and may be in the 2oz to 3oz thickness. An old trick to heavy-up the leather is to find a suitably thick (thin) piece of veg tan to use as a glued-up backing. You can use another skin grain inside or grain out, either way works, but you get you get a really nice piece if you put both grain sides out which has the stiffness of the backup leather and the look you want from the flimsy piece. This is also done with things like reptile skins (even alligator and especially snakes) as sometimes you can darned near see through them.

Art

Thanks, Art! I'll check out Hide House and see what I find