Frans the craftsman

Frans du Plessis (63) can offer you real old school leather craftsmanship. He started making handmade products back in 1976 working with genuine hard leather.

February 25, 2021

Dewald de Beer 1 minute read

A leather handbag made by Frans du Plessis.

Handmade genuine leather products are not something that you come across at any shop you walk in.

Frans du Plessis (63) can offer you real old-school leather craftsmanship. He started making handmade products back in 1976 working with genuine hard leather.

Over time he stopped with it and only resumed the trade about 10 years ago and have been selling products at local markets for two years.

The time and craftsmanship put into every item are what makes it unique, the carvings in the leather are also done by hand.

“My items are unique, finding genuine hand made leather products is not something you come across every day,” said Frans du Plessis during an interview with WITBANK NEWS.

Frans works with both hard and soft leather.

The soft leather is a thinner layer of leather that is great to use for handbags or wallets, really supple items.

Hard leather can be used more widely for moulding into different shapes for example; handbags or gun holsters.

“I like working with hard leather items for the variety I can do with it, from moulding shapes to hand carvings and stencils,” said Frans.

Hard leather products is more time-consuming due to the time used in leaving them to mould or the carvings done by hand.

Frans said: “working with soft leather is something that can be done quickly because I can use my sewing machine to get the stitching done, and you can’t mould with soft leather. With hard leather, it is a bit more time-consuming because moulds need to sit throughout the night to keep the shape and the stitching needs to be done with the hand.”

Frans shows great ambition and passion in his work if you are interested in more information or want to place orders for leather products please contact Frans du Plessis at 072 591 0670.