Meet Timothy Ung. He’s the mind behind Mars Leather Company, where he shares his passion for craftsmanship and high quality leather goods with the world. Like many makers' stories, what began as a hobby surprised him by flourishing into a full-blown business.
Leathercraft wasn’t always his focus. He is a licensed architect in New York, whose fascination with product design began at architecture school. “As I started to find myself with more time after work hours, I decided to search for a hobby outside of architecture that focused on craftsmanship and details,” he says. “That’s when I thought back to one of my fascinations as a child – leatherworking.”
He was intrigued by the process of taking a raw material and using all its parts and pieces to create a beautiful finished product. It was a method that would allow him to marry his passion for design with his love of hands-on making. “At the end of the process, I love seeing the ideas come to life in their physical manifestations,” he says.
Since adding Glowforge to his design toolbox, he’s been able to support his business by more efficiently creating prototypes. “As I develop more leather product ideas, I create each one in programs that I use as an architect and cut them on the Glowforge,” he says. “While assembling each prototype, I write down all of the slight modifications that need to be made to balance the design of the product, cut the updated design on the Glowforge, and repeat this process until I’ve made the final product.”
As he explores new ideas, he finds this creative process to be both both fulfilling and meditative. He particularly enjoys the challenge of designing and innovating products that are visually striking as well as functional. “One of my passions is traveling on short adventures ranging from a weekend to a week at a time. With a vacation quickly approaching, I realized that my small carry on duffle bag was starting to fall apart. Instead of buying a new one, I decided to make a small leather weekend duffle bag,” he says.
Not only did he end up with a product he could actually use, he was blown away by the response. “Before going on my vacation I shared the final product with the Glowforge community and had an overwhelming amount of positive feedback and enthusiasm from my fellow makers,” he says. “This was definitely the most rewarding product that I’ve made and I was thrilled to use it on my vacation!”
See more of what Timothy's making at Mars Leather Company.
