Karnataka Leather Crafts

If you go to Commercial Street and find the building at number 91, you have to head up to the first floor to find Karnataka Leather Crafts. It’s a busy area, so it’s always loud with people shouting and cars honking outside, but once you get up the stairs, it’s a bit more focused. We’ve been here for a long time in Shivaji Nagar, and the floorboards sometimes creak when you walk across them. We have shelves all over the place filled with different kinds of leather items we’ve been working on. It’s a lot of manual work, using hand tools to finish off the edges or punch holes for the buckles. We don't have any fancy air conditioning, just a few old ceiling fans that wobble a bit when they’re on high. It’s a bit of a squeeze when we have a lot of materials delivered at once, and we have to stack the boxes wherever there’s a gap. The light isn't the best in the back corner, so we have some extra lamps set up so we can see what we’re doing. People come and go all day since Commercial Street is such a popular spot for shopping. We just stay busy up here on the first floor, keeping track of our orders and making sure the leather work is done properly. It’s a lot of hours on our feet, but that’s just the job. We just keep our tools sharp and keep working through the day.