I love getting custom requests for orders. A customer asked me to make a leather pencil holder for her sister-in-laws birthday. Apparently the recipient of the gift loves foxes so it was a perfect project for me. She expresses her art by drawing with colored pencils and she wanted a handy and original way of carrying them around.

I have made many tooled and painted bags over the years. The variety of fish purses I have sold seem to be the all time favorite. The fox comes in a close second. No two are ever alike. The tooling varies and the way I use paint colors and dyes usually depends on the mood of the day or the preferred favorite colors of a client. I also try and coordinate the lining and thread color throughout the project.

The pencil case was not going to be a purse with a long strap. I added a D ring on the side to accommodate a small strap for easy carrying. I also wanted to make sure the pencils could be held in the bag in an organized fashion with easy visibility. That required me to make a double gusset so there would be two separate rows to hold the 30 odd pencils. Somewhat of a challenge for me as I have only made one other purse with this type of gusset. A little tricky but I was able to figure it out.

I was really pleased with the end result.

I am grateful for the custom business I am getting. This year of Covid has limited my ability to reach new customers.  There is a small silver lining to all that as I have more time to do these special projects during what usually is the busiest time of the year. I am getting ready to start another custom order. A small backpack for a 16 year old with her favorite cat tooled and painted on it. She can carry her best furry friend with her everyday. Another birthday surprise gift. (shhh…don’t tell).

As a side note I always chuckle when I think of my mom who once asked me why someone would like a painted fish or fox on their purse. She is very traditional with her fashion sense. I told her it’s that tiny bit of whimsical magic to make yourself or someone else smile when they see it. How can it not be fun to have a bright green frog, a purple dragonfly an owl or a squirrel releasing balloons on the flap of your bag to remind you that sometimes it’s the little things to brighten up your day.