Kovan Leather Crafting Workshop at S$99: The Leather Society

The Leather Society, at 183 Jalan Pelikat #B1-61, Singapore 537643, runs every leather crafting workshop by appointment only, out of a basement unit in The Promenade @ Pelikat near Kovan MRT. The cheapest seat is S$99 for a Basic 3-Item Workshop that lasts 2 to 3 hours and sends you home with a cardholder, a luggage tag and a key fob cut from Italian Buttero Museum leather.

Most people who book here meet the same two instructors. Reviews quoted on the studio's workshop page name Keith and Dechen again and again, and one guest, Yuanhui Teo, wrote that their expertise and extensive knowledge became apparent as the class went on. The tone the reviewers describe is casual rather than precious: people laugh, ask about leather, and still leave with stitching that holds.

The guests are a mix you would not expect in a Hougang basement. Ashley Hoo called her cardholder session a wholesome date activity, Jo H brought a whole hens party to make cardholders, key holders and luggage tags, and a married couple wrote in about a shared afternoon at the bench. Couples and small groups of friends seem to be the core of the weekend crowd.

Public classes are only part of the business. The Leather Society also sells personalised corporate leather gifts and sends staff out to brand events for live embossing, and its homepage lists teams from Dior, DBS, MongoDB, Estee Lauder, IBM and Sony among past clients. That event work explains the professional kit in the studio, including a heat-creasing machine you would normally see in a factory.

The workshop collection currently lists five fixed-price projects, spanning S$99 to S$349. The entry class is the Basic 3-Item at S$99, followed by a Leather Crafting Workshop with Epsom Leather at S$179, which makes a Calvi-inspired two-slot cardholder, a luggage tag and a key fob in 3 hours. Both finish with hot foil stamping of your initials on the pieces.

Further up sits the Two Tone 5-Slot Cardholder Stitching and Heat Creasing Workshop at S$199, a 3.5-hour session pairing Buttero with soft Chevre goat leather. The Passport Sleeve and Luggage Tag class costs S$219 and runs 4 to 5 hours with initial embossing, while the Bucket Bag Leather Crafting Workshop costs S$349 and fills 6 hours of cutting, gluing, punching and hand-stitching.

Every product page states that no prior leathercraft experience is required, and all tools, leather and hardware are included in the price. The bucket bag is the one project labelled an advanced project workshop, and it is the only one with a paid material upgrade: switching the vegetable-tanned body to Epsom leather costs an extra S$70, with colours depending on what is in stock that month.

Leather sourcing is the studio's real selling point, and the product pages name each tannery. The Buttero Museum used in the S$99 class is a full-grain vegetable-tanned hide from Conceria Walpier in Tuscany, firm and structured, with a surface that darkens into a richer patina as you carry it. Few beginner classes in Singapore tell you which tannery your offcut came from.

The passport class swaps to Pueblo, a textured, rustic vegetable-tanned leather from the Badalassi Carlo tannery, also in Tuscany. Pueblo scuffs and shifts colour quickly, which some people love and others find messy. The two-tone cardholder pairs smooth Buttero with Chevre goat leather from Demso, and that contrast is the reason the finished piece looks more like a boutique item than a class project.

Italian vegetable-tanned pieces come with a Pelle Vegetale Consortium Authenticity Tag, a small card confirming the hide meets the consortium's standards for traditional tanning. Keep it with your cardholder. It is a nice detail when the piece becomes a gift, and it answers the inevitable question from friends about where the leather actually came from.

Book the S$199 two-tone cardholder if you want one session that teaches something you cannot get elsewhere. Beyond saddle stitching and edge finishing, you learn to run the professional heat-creasing machine that presses a crisp line along each edge, the detail that separates a factory-finished wallet from a craft-fair one. Five slots also make it the most useful thing you will carry afterwards.

Skip the S$179 Epsom class unless you specifically want that pebbled, structured grain. It makes the same trio as the S$99 basic, a cardholder, luggage tag and key fob, so the extra S$80 mostly buys a different material and a glued, lined construction rather than a new hand skill. A first-timer learns more by starting basic and returning for the heat-creasing session.

The bucket bag is a different commitment. Six hours in one seat is long, and the page is honest that it is the advanced project even though beginners may sign up. If your hands cramp after an hour of stitching, take the passport class first. If you already own a stitching pony at home, the bag is where your money goes furthest.

There is no walk-in counter at Pelikat. The footer of every page reads by appointment only, and the shop sells each workshop through its own checkout, with WhatsApp and phone listed for questions. Groups planning a hens party, birthday or team outing should message first, because corporate sessions can be tailored by group size, project and personalisation, and staff will also run them at offices or event venues.

The site publishes no cancellation or age policy, so raise rescheduling and children's places in your first message rather than after paying. If your preferred date has gone, Kult Bespoke in Kaki Bukit runs dated public leather classes from its industrial-park atelier, and Crafune runs shorter, cheaper sessions in Kampong Glam and at Funan, closer to town if you are coming from the CBD.

The Promenade @ Pelikat is a mixed residential and retail block in Hougang, and property listings put Kovan MRT on the North East Line, station NE13, about 650 metres or an eight to nine minute walk away. Head out toward Upper Serangoon Road and turn into Jalan Pelikat. The studio is downstairs in the basement retail level, so look for the lower-level shop units rather than street frontage.

Leave time after class for Kovan itself. Kovan Market and Food Centre, beside Heartland Mall Kovan, is a busy hawker centre where you can sit with your new cardholder over a plate of noodles or a cold kopi. The stretch of Upper Serangoon Road between the station and Jalan Pelikat has rows of older shophouse eateries and bakeries that reward a slow walk back.

Address: The Leather Society, at 183 Jalan Pelikat #B1-61, Singapore 537643. Visits are by appointment only. Prices on the official workshop page are S$99, S$179, S$199, S$219 and S$349, plus S$70 for the Epsom bucket bag upgrade. Every class includes tools and leather, and four of the five finish with your initials stamped or embossed.

Bring nothing but patience for a three-hour session and wear clothes you do not mind brushing against glue and dye. Plan a quick bite before the six-hour bucket bag. To line up the class with dinner at the hawker centre and a train home along the North East Line, ask the Karpo APP and it will map the afternoon from Kovan station outward.