“Hobby Shops” on base
One of the benefits of growing up on Navy bases is access to common recreational facilities like an outdoor pool, basketball court, ping-pong, pool tables, gym, etc. Some bases also had “hobby shops” where Navy personnel (and their “dependents”) could use woodworking tools, ceramic-making kilns and “wheels,” metal-shop equipment and other “hobby” equipment.
When I was 8 or 9, my mom signed us all up for a “leatherworking” course. Following instructions from an instructor, we bought a flat piece of leather, soaked it in water, cut it into the pieces needed to make the artifact we wanted and then “tooled” it to add decorative patterns, or functional elements like grommets, clasps, edging, etc.
My two projects were “beginner” level: a belt and a wallet. The belt was super-easy: a strip of leather with some holes in one end and a clasp on the other. You’d use a mallet and a handheld die that would imprint something into/onto the leather — a half moon shape, a groove, the pattern on the edge shown here, the dark part in the background, etc.
Like a typical kid, my span of attention was short and my belt had essentially NO decorative embossing.
The wallet fared slightly better … until I lost interest and cut up the leather to make a pouch for a slingshot I made. (My mom was NOT pleased with me for that little bit of resourcefulness!)
My mom and my sister were much better. The purse shown here, which was in a window of a local shop in San Clemente, CA this Christmas, looks like the purse my mom made for herself. It triggered strong memories … back to the simpler times of “going to the hobby shop” on base. #good_times.
