About Us
& Our Home

Host, Kev Comora

I am a multimedia producer running my two businesses. I create and produce a personally guided video tour of San Francisco and the Bay Area designed to entertain, inform and educate visitors about the beauty charm and allure of San Francisco and the Bay area. My other business is a dynamic digital signage business that provides and end-to-end solution for all types of businesses that want to provide rich, timely and relevant information to their guests, visitors and anyone who passes by their digital LCD screens and video walks. We provide the entire solution including system design, hardware and software, installation and integration into their existing infrastructure, software training, hosting, content development, creative and technical support and maintenance on everything. http://vizicast.com and http://sftv.com

Host, Lu Comora

2012 Graduate of the Amblard Atelier school of leather.  Louise was formally trained in traditional European leather craft by a former Hermès employee who had worked for years on the Hermès Kelly bag in France.

Over many years Louise honed her skills to become the Master Leather Artisan that she is today, resulting in BOHLUX…Bohemian Luxury, where her motto is —

“Handcrafting one beautiful piece at a time . . .”

Lu teaches and facilitates new designers, who typically face an uphill battle to find training and advice — while struggling to hold down their day-jobs.  Hers is a sort of ‘pay-it-forward’ state of mind that has pushed her over time to open a separate school from her boutique.  To further assist students in moving from their vision to making sales and promoting themselves, she dedicates part of her boutique to selling product made by the advanced students in the Bohlux Master’s program–each student with her/his own section in the Bohlux shop.Louise Comora has always loved to sew. From a young age she was creating quilts, costumes, tote bags, and other items. But it was simply a part-time hobby, and her full-time job paid the rent. She worked in physicians’ and general medical offices since the early 1970’s, and started her own insurance billing company 28 years ago in San Francisco. “I had a staff of nine and lots of clients—but I was working too hard,” she says. She downsized the company and relocated to Cotati eight years ago. Her husband, Kevin, built her an office/studio at their new home. “My creative side kept coming out in that space,” she says. “I was making quilts when someone suggested working with leather, so I took a course and knew I could really run with it.”

It wasn’t long before things really fell into place. “Finding someone who could help me with my passion was important to me, but it was difficult in that people didn’t want to share their secrets. Eventually, I found a former Hermès leather artisan to help me learn the craft.” Her one-on-one training lasted two years and, although she maintains her billing business, her true love is creating Old World, European-style, hand-stitched bags, belts, and bracelets. Her specialty is rolled handles.

She recently trademarked the company as Bohlux (which stands for Bohemian luxury. She had formerly called it “Itzalulu”). Her designs are simple, clean and elegant. She doesn’t believe in chunky hardware because it weighs the items down, and chooses high-quality, easy-to-clean, and functional leather from France, New York, Texas, Napa’s Hide House and New Orleans (for alligator). She regularly travels to New York to see what’s new and what other people are doing and to keep inspiration alive.

“A bag should look new for a long time,” she says of her custom products. “The majority of bags today have poured, plastic edges that peel or crack with age. That doesn’t happen with Old World edge finishing.” All of Lu’s methods and tools are the same used by Hermès. “This is a lost art. It’s not the same technique Western stitchers use. Not a lot of people can do this. I feel really blessed and fortunate,” she adds.

Lu has a line of standard designs and also creates custom items with clients, sitting with them to discuss their ideas. Then she creates sketches, a pattern,and then a prototype prior to assembling the final product. The process takes two to three months, but the result is a one-of-a-kind, treasured bag that will last for many years to come—and that is hand-made in Sonoma County.

Lu’s websites are http://bohlux.com and http://academyofleatherarts.com.