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Wotancraft's Traveler's Notebook and City Explorer Camera Bag Review - Part 1

Our job to find great stuffs from all over the world doesn't stop at product level, I believe understanding the concept and stories behind is far more important than product features.  Only through digging deeper will I be able to bring true benefits to end users, in the process of doing this I learned a lot and makes my job an adventurous one.  It is exactly this practice which sets us apart from a typical retail chain store.

This review is separated into two parts.  Part 1 is a story in this post, Part 2 is a product review in the next post.

(James' customized Traveler's Notebook, Panerai and Mont Blanc Meisterstruck pen)

I first found Wotancraft from random searching on the net a year or so before, then I popped into a great store in Hong Kong called Annie Barton and found their products there.  Admiring the quality and aesthetics I grew interest in the brand, I was scared away by the price though.  So despite having the feeling that those bags suit my needs and in styles I adore, I found myself staring at them repeatedly on the net and never got myself one.  What stopped me from getting one?  The price tag and lack of knowledge about Wotancraft's true attention to details.  Annie Barton told me each one of the bags were made by hand by those artisans in Taiwan, I couldn't believe it, no way, the bags are so well made I thought they were produced by professional mass producing bag maker.  Judging from the details, each model requires literally hundreds of manufacturing processes and it was not possible to be made by just a few persons by hands.  The story turned out entirely true when I got a chance to visit Taipei 20 days ago.

(entrance of Wotancraft in a dull building)

On the day I arrived Taipei, before other business engagements I shot right away to the Wotancraft showroom/shop.  It was a huge disparity between what's inside the place and everything else surrounding it!  Inside a dim florescent lit office building full of local trading businesses with zero taste and style decorations, I was still assuming Wotancraft a corporation you know, but once I entered the showroom, everything changed.

(Gordy's strap, Annie Barton's strap, Wotancraft camera holster for M)

(leather camera straps corner)

(open shelves displaying products and prototypes)

Surrounded by cozy fixtures made from aged wood and pig iron, products made from leather and canvas, I immediately felt homey.  One side of the store was an open shelf displaying full product range and prototypes, while the other side is a service counter full of custom made leather straps for Panerai watches.  I picked up the City Explorer series of bags and started examining each one of them until a friendly staff came out of the backyard and explained to me product details.

(City Explorer 002: Ranger)

(Urban Classic 006: Desert Eagle)

Soon I was unpacking my camera bag and started trying out almost every model possible.  I guess camera bag to a guy is like fashion to a girl, you can spend hours enjoying the selection process in a setting like that.  The staff noticed my Traveler's Notebook and some of my leather craft stuffs like camera case and straps. "James have the same notebook!  He made crazy customization of it."  That's when real conversation began.

(genuinely handmade from four artisans)

(craft tools at Wotancraft)

(this corner is used to be where they make their bags, but now the production facility is in another place)

By then I realized that each one of their bags were literally made by their own hands.  Four artisans made up the entire Wotancraft company, the two I met in store were among them.  It was not a corporation I presumed before, just a small bunch of people doing everything by themselves.  Time to leave for a business engagement, hungered for more stories, I used Paypal to pay for the City Explorer 002 Ranger bag, left the showroom and determined to contact James about his Traveler's Notebook and come back a few days later.  During my initial stay at the showroom, there were constant influx of Panerai fans looking for unique leather straps, but I'm not gonna cover that part of the story here.

(Panerai watches.  Straps made by Wotancraft.  Most are made from new leathers, but some of them are vintage leather sourced from WWII military artifacts)

3 days later, after a few email exchanges I finally met James, the soul behind Wotancraft.  The company was created out of his pure passion in photography and watches, despite working as a bio-chemist after his graduation, he started to make his first prototype camera bag 5 years ago.  Not satisfied with camera bags with trivial features and ugly looks, he explored different forms and materials and came up with a bag he would use.  He was kind enough to show me all the thoughts he put into this City Explorer 002 Ranger bag, comparing it to his first prototype.  I will cover the details in Part 2 in the next post.

Let's talk about James' Traveler's Notebook.  In a typical Traveler's Notebook show me yours and I'll show you mine fashion, we exchanged our usage patterns.  His cover is not the original but one made by himself, a very thoughtful implementation.  There are two layers of leathers, a thicker one forms the shape while the outer thinner one gives its distinct Wotancraft look.

The thin leather on the cover is the same material James uses in his City Explorer series of camera bags.  Stitched together on 3 sides, the notebook cover has an opening on one side doubling the cover as a pocket by itself.  To increase the pocket size, James relocated the elastic string attachment point from the middle of the back to the edge, creating an inner space large enough for his stationery stuffs.

As a master of customization, he of course couldn't settle with a bookmark without his very own Wotancraft branded charm and leather tag.  On typical day, James would use two types of notebooks inside - Traveler's Notebook lightweight paper for note taking, sketch paper for sketching.  Inspecting his TN, I found inspirations common to creative people, not only would he take notes in meticulous details, he sketches out architectural structures purely out of his head, perhaps this keen practice is his way of precipitating his creativity into reality.

(Urban Classic 005: Safari.  This is my second choice yet an indispensable beauty, less rugged than the Explorer series, soft and gentle)

James' TN is so far the best Traveler's Notebook mod I've ever seen, functional and pleasing.  I've got to make one myself someday :)  Stay tuned for Part 2.

Instayay - Hong Kong's Thriving Instagram Community, A Day With My Kid

Today is the 1st anniversary gathering of our very own Instagram community in Hong Kong, the 11th meet up since a year ago and going strong.  Thanks to the founding members and friendly IGers, even though I joined only 3 photo walks so far, I feel like knowing them for a long time already, probably due to the constant feeds we shared and "liked" on daily basis.

The weather today was unbelievably great, casual hiking in Cheung Chau island and BBQ was just the right thing to do.  I brought along my son and we shared a great time together, I thought he was bored but at the end of the day he said he was very happy, to be able to see a pirate's cave, play at the beach and meet new friends.  He was quietly enjoying the father and son outing, loving it.

My trusted combo "Polaroid 110A + Fujifilm back" often works magic, just that I failed to find more time mingling with IGers and take those "wow" shots.

What a great day to lay on a beach drinking beer watching my kid playing sand, no words can describe it :)

Don't be fooled by his look, he was tired outside but happy inside :)

Earlier the day when his schoolmate was around on the hiking part, they took pictures by the shore, each of them had a Digital Harinezumi.

Cheung Chau is a beautiful island, except for computer electronics, you can almost find everything in this tiny island, old and new, mostly very local.  Here's a fishing village.

You can almost certain that sooner or later, some of these images will be hard to find due to modernization.

The day before this trip, I got a sample Digital Harinezumi 3 for review, great timing.  I made a strap for my kid out of scrap leather pieces and both of us are proud of the outcome.

While everybody was having fun BBQing, we found this weirdo Ken laying on the beach in strange posture.  Later my son told me his butt was entirely exposed at the back, Ken is Ken you know :)

Welcome to Hong Kong - Our Nice and Culture Rich City

There's been much talk in the media and social networks about rich mainland Chinese coming to Hong Kong to spend millions in luxury shopping and how their etiquettes ruin everyday life of Hong Kong people, a kind of culture clash.  Fumed by emotions against the increasingly severe income disparity and developer hegemony, our society has become pretty restless.

Demonstrations after demonstrations is one way to deal with hegemony and poor government policies, it has to be done, but we can do better in other small ways too.  Let's not forget that those rich Chinese are just a small portion of the entire Chinese population whom God knows where they get their money from, let them waste their money on luxury goods, there are a lot of young people who genuinely want to explore our nice city and culture, including people from other countries too.

(photo: Voigtlander 35mm, UXi200)

A few weeks ago I spent a little time taking a young couple from Shanghai to see our nice and culture rich city.  It was a short day's tour but it was great fun sharing stories of our streets, I wish the government had ambassador programs to teach us how to do it properly (but I guess there is no point waiting).

(photo: Voigtlander 35mm, UXi200)

If you haven't eaten our famous street snacks like fish ball, you haven't been to Hong Kong.  It can be fun to watch my tourist friend ordering snacks to fish ball ladies :) I wish they can put up a more welcoming face to foreigners though.

(photo: Canon F1 85mm, UXi200)

A stroll in the Upper Lascar Row near Hollywood Road gives you a glimpse of antique business in the old days (my Dad roamed around this area a lot!) and you can get some pretty nice reproduction (or genuine?) goods like watches, communist badges/books, old vinyl records and posters, etc.

(photo: Leica CL, AGFA400)

In some areas, newer galleries and cafes sit right beside temples and old buildings, very romantic to write your travel journal while absorbing the contrasting atmosphere.  If modern cafe is not your cup of tea, go Mido Cafe to experience Hong Kong's afternoon tea culture (Time: Hong Kong 10 Things to Do).  The place is close by to Temple street, an interesting flea market often crowded late in the evening, if you are lucky you may be able to have your fortune told in a small fee.  There is also another flea market just a few stations away called Apliu Street, suitable for geeks and audiophiles, often very crowded in the afternoon around 4pm.  The Audio Space tube amplifier show room, made famous by the movie Infernal Affairs (American adaptation The Departed, well I suggest you watch our Hong Kong original, it is way better), is right on Apliu Street!

(photo: Voigtlander 35mm, UXi200)

Passionate about analogue photography?  You must visit FilMe where you can find hundreds of 135/120/Polaroid/Fuji/etc film brands, you will love the atmosphere there.  Interest to get an old but refurbished Polaroid SX-70?  Well the technicians at :Mint: do hell of a great job fixing these treasures, the shop is a distributor of Impossible Project films and they designed and made their own SX-70 battery operated flash!

(photo: Voigtlander 35mm, UXi200)

If you are coming to Hong Kong and like what I'm recommending, message me and I'll see if you are worth to give out a google map for places to go, perhaps we can have tea together if you are lucky :)

Only You Can Figure It Out

Today I brought a young visiting couple from Shanghai to see my version of the world in this tiny little city of Hong Kong.  They were not looking for comfort, they were not rushing, they were curious.  So I had the freedom to show them around not worrying too much whether they like it or not.  Imagine you had those young minds regardless of your age, you will have no shortage of teachers.

I was hauling 3 analogue cameras trying to spend all the films left in them, it was great fun, plain shooting at anything as I pleased.  At the back of my mind, there was this phone call from Mom being nervous about Dad's condition, whom called my name in bed with huge discomforts in the afternoon.  On my left shoulder, a camera bag from Korea I was testing, compact and light at relatively low price.  Bringing friends to shops I know, chatting with owners and telling stories, finding pleasures in every turn of events.  Finding tiny pleasures while I can, that's probably the single most important constant I can find in life.

Don't look down at them tiny pleasures, they always show you something beautiful.  When you taste that delicious feedback loop, you will never quit.  No matter how bad a trade show would look, I keep walking, and walking and telling myself "that's not it!" until I found something interesting or somebody worth chatting to.  Next week it is going to be a Taiwan trip, let's see whom I'll meet or what I'll find.

The secret of a balanced life?  There is no balanced life I figured, there is just constants, which ones you hold onto, it is just up to you.  Again, City Slickers quote "just one thing, you stick to it and the rest don't mean shit… that's what you have to find out."

A short time to regroup your thinking (Feb, Tokyo)

A beam of warm sunlight and fresh air from outside of an airport (Feb, Tokyo)

A burst of inspirations from objects (Feb, Tokyo)

A sense of peace at your desk (Feb, Hong Kong)

 

 

 

A glimpse of people's lives from photos (Feb, Tokyo)

That's all.  Tiny pleasures.

Laminating Sheets - How To

It was time consuming to make 6 sets of display samples of the newly arrived laminating sheets from Japan (Style Leather Craft).  Things I like very much is hard to sell in a typical department store setting, unless good samples are being made to inspire.  So there I was spending the last Sunday afternoon having fun.

If you haven't been to Hong Kong, it is the proudest place to be in.  From beads, charms, fabrics, leather, to electronic parts and luxury goods, everything can be found in such a tiny little place, everywhere is accessible within an hour.  I got a few nice charms from Sham Shui Po area last Friday, every piece is about HK$5-10. 

The materials are simple, scrap leather pieces, charm, graphics from magazines, cotton strap, eyelets, etc.  The most important piece of material is the iron on laminating sheets.  Take any graphics you can find from magazines, newspaper or printed materials from the net, cut them into proper sizes and just iron them onto your leather pieces or fabrics.  It is that simple, how to make the resulting piece good looking, it is entirely up to you.

 

I would recommend you to invest a few craft scissors with patterns, they make wonderful shapes from ordinary piece of paper.  To add a little bit of creativity, instead of using leather as your backdrop, find woven fabric and fray the edges to make volume like how you'd do to your hair.  Stick on the graphics, laminate them, add eyelets and make tags you can wear on your clothes or bags.  Absolutely satisfying.

 

 

I've made an instruction video so that our store staffs and customers know how the laminating sheets work.  Also made an instruction sheet for customers to pick up at stores to make it easier to understand.  Enjoy. 

BTW, for the fun of it, while I was playing with leather embossing, I picked up a piece of scrap leather and made a ring cover: prevent scratch of your ring during craft projects, AND hide your marriage status at bars.  Just a side track :)