The loud sounds of hammering reverberated from all four corners of a large crafts room at Colony Cottage Regional Recreation Center Wednesday afternoon — bang, bang, bang — as volunteers from The Villages Leathercrafting Club guided twenty grandchildren, ages 10 and up, to make riveted wallets/cardholders.
This was the first time virtually all of the children, plus most of the parents and grandparents, had seen this craft up close. The process called for multiple steps and took creativity and lots of elbow grease. Everyone was inspired by beautiful examples of an ornately carved leather boot top, wallet and computer folder the leather crafters brought to display.
Participants chose from a large variety of pattern categories to design their wallets — among them patriotic symbols, sports icons, musical, beach and boating symbols. Some kids chose Indian arrow imprints, dinosaurs, horses or boating themes. They also needed to select a repetitive pattern to hammer all around the border of their projects.
Once they decided on their designs, they commenced to hammer the patterns with awls into their leather. Their leather was placed on granite slabs, and large wooden mallets were used.
Volunteer Debbie Larouere handed out letter dies to the children who wanted to put their names or initials on their crafts. The kids practiced first on moistened towels, to get a feel for their mallets, before hammering onto their leather pieces.
“They need to decide how hard or soft they need to hammer their designs into the leather to get the desired effects,” Larouere explained.
Village of Duval grandparents, Jan and Gary Dahl, worked along with grandsons, Anthony, 10, and Evan Wilson, 11, whose family is in the process of moving to Lady Lake from North Carolina.
“This will be a big change for the boys,” Jan said, “but we are glad we will be able to see them more often with them living so close to The Villages.”
U.S. Air Force veteran, Bill Lowe, brought his grandson, Brandon Lowe, 8, who chose patriotic imprints for his wallet. Brandon’s sister, Allison Lowe, was working at another table with her grandmother. Hemingway Villager Diane Feduniec’s two granddaughters, Hannah Gorski, 14, and Jenna Feduniac, 11, both visiting from North Carolina, were hammering away at their handiwork. Both girls chose tree patterns — Hannah selected a palm tree and Jenna a variety of other tree types.
“Their wallets will look very different,” Diane observed. “Hannah is very artistic — the artists at Camp Villages on Monday were really impressed with her colored pencil talent.”
Volunteer leatherworker, Dennis James, moved around a table assisting Alex Prater, 12, plus Kaitlyn Thee, 11, who was working with her grandpa, Bonnybrook Villager, Rich Thee. Kaitlyn, from Waterloo, Ill., chose soccer and other sports symbols for her wallet.
Once the embossing was completed, participants softened their leather in water, dried it, and began rubbing Eco-Flo colorant gel on their skins for a burnished, antique look. The leather pieces took on a somewhat darker color which varied with the grain of the skin. Volunteers from The Villages Leathercrafting Club, Karen Lentz and Rich Vargo, assisted with the colorizing technique.
The last step to complete the wallets was folding them into shape and securing them with metal rivets. The youngsters seemed proud of their new craft items, and the grandparents were pleased their wallets looked so accomplished for first-time beginners’ work.
“This is a great program,” Bill Lowe said. “I’m very impressed with Camp Villages, and all the great things they do for our grandkids.”
