Welcome at my Pritty Petz Workshop!

Hola, my name is Carine. My husband and I are both Dutch and we live in Spain, together with our two cats and three big dogs - a Doberman and two Shepherd mixes.

My interest in leatherwork began when one of our dogs needed a new collar and I just couldn’t find one that I really liked and that fitted my dog. All collars in the shops were more of the same... and I was looking for something special for my baby!

The thought of making one myself crossed my mind...

Living in Spain, it was difficult to find the right leather and tools to do this. So during my next visit to Amsterdam I went to my brother’s workshop and told him about my plan to make a collar, asking his advice what leather to use. 

Leatherwork runs in the family. My father and uncle were in the business for almost their entire life. My brother still is. He has a fully equipped leather workshop in Amsterdam and he gave me some old pieces of leather to start with.

With my brothers help I made my first collar, and I really liked the fact that I could design it myself. Having made my first collar gave me the incentive to make more. Needless to say our other two dogs also needed new collars! And so one thing led to another...

My brother gave me some redundant tools and old pieces of leather to practice with when I returned to Spain. I was pleasantly surprised about the positive comments about my collars, even though they were made with the limited number of tools and the old pieces of leather that were at my disposal back then!

On my next visit to Amsterdam I took more leather and tools back home to Spain.

It was a revelation for me to discover that this artwork is the perfect combination for me - working with leather, my love for color and painting, my love for animals (especially dogs and cats) and the ability to explore my creativity!

At last - after 35 years, finding a profession that I really love, a profession that had been within reach all the time...

It felt good carrying on the family tradition of working with leather and I decided to start my own business. Before going ahead with my plans, I had to research the possibilities here in Spain. I spent day and night on the internet, sometimes with a smile, sometimes a little desperate, trying to find the right suppliers for my specific materials. Strong materials, especially for my target - strong dogs. 

Bit by bit my collection of leather, tools and leather paint grew.  

I found a leather worker in a city nearby, who is willing to sew the lining for me. A highlight of my journey to start my business was the fact that my husband built a nice workshop for me in our garage! All the pieces came together and I now have a workshop at my disposal with many (hand!) tools, different types and colors of leather and lots of paint to create a large variety of collars!   

My special thanks go to my brother for giving me a few of his spare tools (some of which my father had used 50 years ago!), leather to practice, and the necessary information so I could start, to my husband who supported me and built me a great workshop, to the Facebook friends who gave me their trust and support, Fifi the Dobermann for being a model showing how to measure the necksize, and last but not least to Laura Hagen for helping me with the editing of my website!