Leather craft feeds a part of me that is enamored with change. I love to watch something that has no shape, no form, no color, become something else entirely. That transformation, from a flat piece of leather to a finished bag with curves and structure and its own personality, never gets old.
I start with the leather and work out the pattern. The shape. The curves. I love gentle curves. Soft, flowing lines. Bright florals. And I love that moment when a bag slowly goes from just being a piece of material to something with a new shape and form. I am always pleasantly surprised at how it turns out.
Not every piece cooperates.
Sometimes a stitch line gets off. Sometimes the leather is not draping right, or a fold is too thick, or something is just not working. Those moments require starting over, or taking seams apart and putting pieces back together again.
In fourteen years of making handbags, I have learned to look at those moments as something positive. Most of the time, what looks like a failure shows me a better way to build something. A stronger seam. A cleaner fold. A more honest construction.
I do not look at failure as something negative. My dad taught me that too.
Before anything leaves my studio, I check every seam. I hold the piece up and let it hang. I turn it around slowly. Sometimes I put it on and look in the mirror.
That is the moment I know it is ready. When I can look at it from every angle and feel good about what I made, that is when it goes to you.
Every piece is small batch, made by hand, made by me. When you carry a Daylin Skye piece, you are carrying something that went through that whole process, the pattern, the mistakes, the starting over, and the final moment in front of the mirror.
That is what handmade actually means.
