Honey Leather Tote Bag with Red & Yellow Eight-Point Star Tatreez

Honey leather, with a row of eight-point stars stitched across the front in red and yellow. Open and roomy, it swallows a laptop, a notebook and whatever the day asks of it. The stars are counted and placed one at a time, so the row keeps the small irregularities that tell you a person made this and not a machine.

It comes from Turathuna, a Palestinian leather workshop where every stitch is set by hand.

Keep it out of standing water, feed the leather once or twice a year, and let it darken the way good leather should. The embroidery wants a gentle hand, never a machine.