I love leathers and works that use leather. Your grandma seem like a really passionate one, and good for you for inheriting the kit. I would have loved that myself as well!
That flower design is really good and I learned from you that you gotta wet the leather first before stamping. :D
Recently, I learned about leather and how awesome they are for lasting years... And I got myself a leather folio to keep my journals, stickers, and bookmarks in one place. I love watching people craft with leather. There's a different level of satisfaction I feel cos I know it will last a long time compared to using plastics or synthetics that will end up in landfills after maybe a year or so.
At one point I wanted to do it myself, but that means buying the materials needed and I'm not ready for that lol. I for sure in the future will do crafting. :D
Its a fun hobby/craft. I just looked up the cost of the stamping tools and they have actually come way down in price since I last looked many years ago. Looks like you can get a set of 5-10 stamps on Amazon or Temu for like $20-30 CAD. back when I looked for new ones at a specialty craft store they were like $40-125 per stamp! That was probably 10 years ago now though. The raw leather can be hard to source also.
I agree that leather is an awesome material for being durable and lasting a long time. However there are different grades of leather, and some are so cheap in quality that they dont last more than a year or two. "Genuine leather" for instance is very poor quality, made up of scraps and glued together. It breaks down and falls apart rapidly. Think of the "leather" purses that flake off and disintigrate after a couple of seasons. But if you get good quality leather it can essentially last a lifetime.
I've seen a lot of cheaper prices on my local app too, the one that ships from China. They have a lot of good leathers also. But yeah damn that $40 per stamp is crazy!
Yeah I've heard about the genuine leather thing too. That and the "vegan leather" kinda sounds deceptive if you don't really know anything about leathers. I hate those plastic ones that flake off. :D
I don't know anything about vegan leather. I'll have to research that a little.
That pretty cool that you have a good quality leather source.