A creative teenager has launched a business during the lockdown and is making donations to the NHS.

A creative teenager has launched a business during the lockdown and is making donations to the NHS.

James Ship learnt leather craft 18 months ago as a hobby. When it became clear schools were going to close due to the coronavirus pandemic, he invested in leather.

Now, his handmade rustic leather wallets, made in a workshop in his bedroom, are for sale via online craft website Etsy.

Money raised from the business, named Chester and Thompson after his grandmother’s much loved cats, will be reinvested into tools and materials, as well as being donated to the NHS.

The Year 9 student at Forest Hall School in Stansted said: “I started to make small things. I studied engineering at school this year and that has helped me a lot with designing my wallets and marketing them. I have some really inspirational teachers.”

His mum, Ruth, a deputy headteacher said: “James is an only child and his dad and I are key workers, so he is home on his own. He wanted to have something to get stuck into when he had finished his schoolwork.”

Shop at https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ChesterAndThompson.