**For all you who want to know how each pictured item is made, each picture is linked to an album, made by Ninique, that walks through that item’s construction**

What is your name, your leather craft business, and where are you located?

Among leatherworkers I go by the nickname Ninique. I don’t have a brand or shop, although I take occasional commissions. I am in Europe (moving between Vienna, Bratislava and Prague – if other leatherworkers want to grab a beer in these cities, let me know!

What types of leather goods do you make, or what is your role in the leather craft business?

I don’t currently have a business role, although my teacher, his other student and I plan to open a little shop together. My main interest is bags.

What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your leather crafting in the last six months (or in recent memory)?

Centering ruler (I got the idea from Ben Geisler).

How has a setback, or seeming setback, set you up for later success in leather craft? Do you have a “favorite failure”?

I tried to think of any such ‘successful’ failures, but I can’t recall any. All my failures were just that, failures.

If you could create any leather good, with unlimited budget, what leather and hardware would you use? (Horween #8 Shell cordovan bag with Japanese brass hardware, for example)

Ideal project would be a bag that is required to last at least two generations. The project would include a lot of material testing and prototypes. I would get updates on how it is aging once a year until my death and I would have access to modify or repair it.

What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made? (Could be an investment of money, time, energy, etc.)

Finding a good tutor.

What’s an unusual or odd technique in your process that you’re pretty sure most people don’t do?

Taking apart old bags, although it’s not a unique idea. There are a few cheap, beaten-up bags from high end brands in the secondary market. Cutting them open shows how are they made, how they age and what parts got most stress.

In the last five years, what new mindset, behavior, or habit has most improved your leather craft?

Doing measurable experiments helped me understand a few things. Measuring tear resistance of materials and their combinations, weighting all materials I use, A/B testing of different edge painting methods, and their flexing performance.

What advice would you give a smart, driven person about to get into leather craft? What advice should they ignore?

This kind of general advice makes sense after decades of experience with the craft. I don’t have that experience unfortunately. My answer is then to be selective about sources of advice.

What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?

We have a bad habit in the leather working community to obsess about how Hermes does things.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do? (If helpful: What questions do you ask yourself?)

I sit silently.

Where can people find you (links to online store, blog, twitter, Instagram, etc.)

I am on Reddit as u/ninique_svk and I can be reached at E-mail unertragliche.leichtigkeit@gmail.com

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