What leather for jewelry box bottoms?

[Dave Winters]

What's a good leather that's easy to work with and looks good for jewelry box bottoms? And good suppliers?
Thanks in advance-
Dave

[Ellen Benkin]

Do you mean the bottom of the box or the bottom inside?

Around here (Los Angeles) I would go to fabric stores. They have real and faux leather.

[Dave Winters]

Yeah, just the bottom. Thanks.

[Bill Rogers]

Go to the fabric store and ask for suedecloth. They might just call it suede depending on where you go.

[Richard Coers]

Chemicals used to tan leather may not be good for jewelry. Use a cloth or felt to be safe. I cut a piece of 1/8" hardboard undersize by the cloth thickness, then wrap the cloth around the hardboard for cleaner edges.

[Paul Symchych]

This is a copy of a response I posted elsewhere;

I've used felt and leather, and now prefer the leather. Suede rather than smooth leather makes a very nice liner.
The hobby shops have some suede but the best bet is to visit an upholstery shop or someone who supplies upholsterers to choose from their cutoffs and scraps. They should have a great assortment of colors.
I stick it down with Duro all purpose spray adhesive in an aerosol can. There must be others.

No complaints about it being bad for jewelry.

[Terry Beadle]

I can recommend : Zack White Leather Company (http://zackwhite.com/xcart/)

They have 2 ~ 4 oz leather in different colors and from different sources. Even snake skin etc.

They have a scrap bag of 5 pounds for $17.

Of course they have leather that you can select the type rather than the grab bag above.

The 5 pounder I bought of the 4 to 7 oz type was a very good selection. YMMV... after all it's a grab bag but the one I got was a good quality selection.

[Jim Finn]

Tandy leather has all sorts of leather. I line the inside bottom of my boxes with Flocking. Easy and looks great! If you mean, outside bottom, leather or felt will work.

[Ryan Mooney]

I've bought a few sides (upholstery, buckskin, goatskin and one latigo leather side) and some lacing from http://www.theleatherguy.org/ Looks like its generally a smidge cheaper than Zach White for most hides, but Zach White has more accessories and pre-done stuff.

For your purpose I might consider goat skins, they're pretty thin, easy to work (relatively tough) and pretty cheap comparatively. You could do a lot of lining with $20 worth of leather. You could make it "suede" by lightly sanding the hair side or put it flesh side up if its clean enough.

[richard poitras]

A lot of the European box makers are using pig suede from what I have read generally in the lighter weights 1.5 to 2 oz thickness.
.
Richard

[Matt Zettl]

Dave, I have made a lot of jewelry boxes. I used to use real suede or leather, and then read in different places that the tanning process for most leather left residual chemicals that could be harmful to jewelry stored in contact with the leather over long periods of time. Although I never had anyone report damage to jewelry from any of my boxes, I figured why take the risk. After using several different cloth materials, I settled on Ambience Ultrasuede (c) by Toray. This is an imitation suede made from a microfiber polyester. It is very plush, easy to work with, and comes in a multitude of colors. It is difficult to distinguish from real suede, and in my opinion looks and feels much, much better than felt, velvet, or other cloth materials. You can Google it to find suppliers, or if you want just smaller pieces, you can find it on eBay for reasonable prices.

Hope this helps,

Matt