The founder and the hands
Thilina
Perera
Every wallet that leaves Ceylon Leather Crafts has been through my hands.
Hello. I'm Thilina Perera, the founder and hands behind Ceylon Leather Crafts. This is what actually happened.
I started leather crafting in 2018, as a hobby. Something to do with my hands. By 2019 I was fascinated by it — the material, the process, the whole idea of it — and I began building a business around it while I was still working.
In 2020 I registered the company properly. I put the work on social media, I started making videos, and people watched. At that time Sri Lanka had almost no leather crafting to speak of. There were one or two of us.
Two years later I lost all of it. The business, the money, the machines. I did not have a single machine left. I was in debt.
I started again by faith. Not by skill. Not by anything I could do myself.
My brother is a pastor. He came to me, read me scripture, and told me to believe in God. So I did.
In 2022 I started again — with no machines, no money, and no plan except that one.
I stopped asking what I could do and started asking God what I should do. And I was answered. He looked after me. He guided me. He taught me. Every skill I have and everything I know how to make came from Him.
Today, in 2026, Ceylon Leather Crafts is one of the leading leather craft brands in Sri Lanka. We ship across the country, we export, and we are going international — one day I want this name known everywhere.
Thilina Perera Founder · Ceylon Leather Crafts
Why it has to be right
The part nobody sees is the part I care about most.
I was created in His likeness. So what leaves my bench should carry something of that. Not perfect because I am perfect — I am not — but never rushed, never hidden, never good enough because nobody will look.
The inside of a wallet is the part you will never photograph. It is the first thing I check.
“Genuine leather” is the cheapest part of the hide with the most expensive-sounding name.
What we use, and what we refuse
Full grain and top grain. Nothing below it. Ever.
A hide has layers. The outermost one — the layer that carried the animal through its life — holds the tightest, strongest fibres in the whole skin. That is full grain. Nothing is sanded off it. Every scar, every wrinkle, every insect bite stays exactly where it is. That is why no two of my wallets are the same, and why the leather gets better with use instead of worse.
Below that sits top grain — the same strong outer layer, lightly corrected to even the surface. Still the good part of the hide. I use it, and I tell you when I have.
Then there is a phrase printed on labels all over the world: genuine leather. It sounds like a guarantee. It is the opposite. Genuine leather is what is left once the strong outer layers have been split away — the soft, loose underside of the hide. It is usually sprayed and embossed with a fake grain pattern so it resembles the layer it is not. It will crack. It will peel. It will never build a patina, because there is nothing in it to build one with.
Calling it leather is legal. That is the only honest thing about the name.
I have never used it and I never will. If it carries my name, it was cut from the part of the hide that was built to last.
What comes next
God created me in His likeness. So I want to create something too — not just a brand, an industry.
When I started, there was almost no leather crafting in Sri Lanka. So now I teach it. I run classes, I train people, and I have helped many of them begin their own work. A brand is one person. An industry outlives you.
All glory to God.
