Date Published: 22/05/2020

My name is Ilia, I’m from Russia. I’m shoemaker.

For almost twenty years I have been studying leatherworking and making historical shoes from different eras from ancient Greece to the beginning of the 20th century.

Some time ago I saw a news in my Facebook feed, it was “Roman Leather Toy Mouse Discovered”. After carefully studying the photos with the find on the website Vindolanda.com, I wanted to repeat the experience of the Roman leatherworker. Apparently, in between work, he amused himself by making this simple toy.

In the morning, before serious work on making shoes, I took a few scraps of leather and outlined the contours. For making, I used a shoe knife for cutting out the body and a old screwdriver for applying embossing.