A Travel Wallet Designed by a Traveler My friend Norma Hawthorne travels frequently to Oaxaca, Mexico, where she directs a travel and learn program (oaxacaculture.com). The other night she and some other friends were in town, and as we sat talking over dinner Norma asked me if we could design a case for her to conveniently carry her passport.  She got her idea from looking at the small Shara that I was carrying.  We threw ideas back and forth for a while-- she needed something BRIGHT and easy to spot, light enough to hang around her neck, easy to open, and easy to remove the passport from for stamping.  The case shown above is what we came up with.  I love it and plan to make one for myself as soon as possible.

The case opens like a Shara, only instead of a button and elastic closing it has a small strip of velcro in order for everything to be as flat and light as possible.  I had a lime-green bag from fish food, thanks to some pond-owning friends, and best of all the print on the bag was in Spanish!  So the case is slick and light and bright and filled with little fishy images and interesting text.  We adapted a neck strap design by combining our small bag strap and our wallet elastic closing.  The back cover of the passport slides right in to the right side inside flap of the case, making it easy to flip the passport open if it only needs to be shown.  When it needs stamping, it can easily be removed from the flap.  The flap on the inside left can be left empty for extra lightness, but it could also be used for boarding passes, a stick of gum, or a little piece of paper with a calming mantra written on it for airport trials and tribulations.

These babies aren't in our catalog yet, but if you want us to make one for you, email us at email@example.com with your needs and ideas.  Passport cases cost the same as Sharas-- $18 including postage and handling.
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