My name is Léa Mai Nguyen.
I started working with leather in the summer of 2013, when my father-in-law passed his leather tools on to me. He showed me how to use them, and I mostly made bracelets, belt buckles, small leather experiments. I liked it enough that I quit my Art Director job of 20 years in video games and wanted to do it full time.
But I became restless after a few months. I wasn't being creative enough.

I had taken a bird taxidermy class a few years ago at Paxton Gate in San Francisco, and I wanted to try and make little leather armors for mice, roman or fantasy, now that I knew how to shape leather and tool it.
It quickly evolved into full-on steam punk style instead, when I came upon a lot of really thin, bone-white leather that I could dye and use to sew tiny clothes.

I make everything myself, by hand. I design the patterns for the different elements (hats, coats, dresses), and figure out how to make the accessories that I want. The goggles are clear epoxy poured into a ring of leather, trowels are pounded from thick, soft metal wire. I sew and glue and solder. I use leather, metal, recycled electronics, fabric, jewelry findings, and frame mouldings for the pedestals. The bags open, and I usually slip a tiny treasure inside. See the Making Of on my webpage at leheartdesign.com.
Because of the process, every mouse, even within the same collection, is a little different. The face, the pose, the colors, the details of the clothes and accessories, they each have their own personality.

After the first prototype, I generally make four more, so that each costume line consists of five mice. They're individually named, numbered and signed. The last name of each series indicates the type of costume, and I try to make a male and female version for each line.

You can contact me at leheartdesign [!at] gmail.com.

Interested in making a mouse yourself? Check out my tutorial video:
http://youtu.be/cMsYIHrAKv8

Get the whole story with all my secrets and step-by-step instructions in my book on Amazon:
http://a.co/d/dLLEtE1

About the mice...

A lot of people are curious, sometimes concerned, about the origin of the mice.

I don't kill them, I buy bags of frozen feeder mice online, the ones intended for snake consumption. The online vendor (Layne Labs) claims they're killed humanely.
Once I'm done with my part, I donate the bodies to the San Rafael Wildcare Center so they can feed rescued raptors and other animals.