Kingston Leather Crafting Workshop, £260 Bag Day: Ten Cloudy

Ten Cloudy, at Studio 29, KOPPEL Kingston, 29 Thames Street, Kingston upon Thames KT1 1PH, runs a leather crafting workshop built around bags rather than keyrings. The one-day Small Leather Crossbody Bag class costs £260 and lasts six to seven hours, and a three-hour tassel bag session costs £130. Sessions are booked online and then arranged by appointment on most weekdays and Saturdays between 10:30 am and 8:00 pm.

Ten Cloudy is the one-woman label of Natasha Kerimova, who designs and makes leather accessories, bags and costume jewellery in Kingston upon Thames. Her Cockpit maker profile says she originally trained as a bag maker and still takes on selected commissions, working mostly with vegetable-tanned leather and reclaimed offcuts. On her own satchel page she admits her path into leather began with a two-day bag-making class, the same format she now teaches.

Her bench sits inside KOPPEL Kingston, a creative workspace that the KOPPEL Project describes as located along the River Thames, close to All Saints Church, the historic marketplace and Kingston Bridge. That setting shapes the day. You are not in a shopfront with a retail counter but in a working studio, and lunch on the long courses means stepping out onto the riverside rather than eating at a café table inside.

The defining rule at Ten Cloudy is size. The crossbody page states that lessons are always private or semi-private, the two-day bag course takes a maximum of two participants per day, and the backpack course is limited to one student per day. Nobody is waiting for the teacher to finish helping a table of eight, so a slow stitcher can still leave with a bag that closes properly.

That makes the studio a good fit for couples, a parent with a teenage son or daughter, or two friends marking a birthday, and a poor fit for an office party or a hen group of ten. Several classes are sold as a pair at a single price. If you have one companion in mind, book the two-person listing rather than two separate seats, because the maths works in your favour, as the next section shows.

The Small Leather Crossbody Bag finishes at roughly 19cm by 14cm by 5cm. Over one full day you cut several pattern pieces, punch and saddle stitch the seams, colour or burnish the edges, glue with Eco Stick, set rivets, Sam Browne studs and a magnet, make a simple strap and press a hot foil handmade mark. It is £260 alone, or £455 for two people, which saves £65 against booking twice.

For more ambition, the two-day Leather Bag Workshop runs 11 hours, costs £400 and produces a bag of about 18cm by 23cm by 5cm with an internal pocket, D-rings and some machine stitching. The paired version is £780. The Leather Backpack Workshop is also 11 hours over two days, costs £520 and ends with a backpack near 34cm by 27cm by 6cm, with one or two magnetic closures.

The three-hour bag with tassel, at £130, was first designed to keep Kerimova's daughter and her friends busy in the school holidays, and it is open to teens aged 15 and over. The finished bag is small, about 9cm by 15cm by 2.5cm, but you still saddle stitch it, fit an adjustable strap, set rivets and Sam Brownes, and add initials with hot foil.

Pairs who want a taster can take the two-hour Introductory Leathercraft Class for £160 per couple, choosing a key fob, a card purse, a bookmark with a tassel or a dog collar, and making as many pieces as time allows. The glasses case version costs £180 for two. Our honest call is to skip the Stitch-Free Leather Bag at £180, because it drops saddle stitching entirely and costs more than the tassel bag, which teaches it.

Ten Cloudy does not publish fixed class dates on its own site. You pay for the workshop on tencloudy.co.uk, and Kerimova then contacts you to agree a day. The product pages ask you to leave preferred dates and a contact number in the booking comments, and questions go to nkerimova@tencloudy.co.uk. No phone number is published, so expect the arrangement to happen by email and a returned call.

The listing on CraftCourses gives a clearer calendar, with the crossbody day offered on request from Saturday 24 October 2026 through November at the same £260. Its cancellation terms allow a reschedule, or a cancellation with a full refund, up to two weeks before the course starts. If your plans are loose, booking through that listing gives you a written two-week window that the official shop does not spell out.

Private bag tuition at £260 a day is not for everyone, and some students would rather spread the work out over several weeks. Morley College London runs a six-week Make a Leather Bag course on Thursday mornings at its Waterloo campus, where students build a simple tote first and then a gusseted one. Enrolment is live now, but the next run does not begin until January 2027.

The trade-off is clear. Morley gives you a class of fellow learners and a term-time rhythm, while Ten Cloudy gives you the teacher to yourself and a finished crossbody bag in a single day. If your Saturday is free this month and you want something to wear home, Kingston wins. If you want a tote and time between sessions to practise stitching, wait for Waterloo.

Kingston has no Underground station, so the train is the simplest route. KOPPEL notes that services from London Waterloo to Kingston take roughly 25 to 30 minutes, and the studio building on Thames Street sits a short walk from the station through the town centre towards the river. For a full-day bag course, aim for a train that lands you with time to spare before a 10:30 am start.

Bring a bag big enough to carry the finished piece home flat, especially after the backpack course, and wear clothes you do not mind marking with edge paint. KOPPEL Kingston houses many separate studios, so keep the Studio 29 number and your confirmation email to hand when you arrive. If you left a phone number in the booking comments, Kerimova has a direct way to guide you to the right door.

Thames Street sits close to the water, so a walk fits easily into the lunch break of a one-day course. Head to Kingston Bridge, the stone crossing that KOPPEL lists among the landmarks around its building, and look upstream and down from the parapet. Then drop onto the Riverside Walk and follow the bank for a while, which is the best place to judge the colour of your half-finished bag in daylight.

On the way back, cut through the historic Market Place and step into All Saints Church on its edge, the parish church whose address is the Market Place itself. Both are a short stroll from the studio, which means a two-day course can include a different walk at each lunch without needing a bus. Save the longer river walk for after the final burnish, when your hands are free.

Address: Ten Cloudy, Studio 29, KOPPEL Kingston, 29 Thames Street, Kingston upon Thames KT1 1PH. Schedule: by appointment on most weekdays and Saturdays between 10:30 am and 8:00 pm. Phone: none published. Email: nkerimova@tencloudy.co.uk. Prices: crossbody day £260, pair £455, tassel bag £130, two-day bag £400, backpack £520. Teens aged 15 and over can join the tassel bag session.

Book through tencloudy.co.uk, or through CraftCourses if you want its two-week cancellation and refund terms in writing. Lessons are private or semi-private, so the pace follows your hands rather than a group. The Karpo APP can suggest a riverside lunch spot near Kingston Bridge for the break between cutting and stitching, and a pub along the bank for when the bag is finished.