American Horween Leather Founded in 1905, this is America's most famous tannery, its leather known and sought after around the world. Did you know they have produced football, basketball, and ball glove leather for more than 70 years? So yes, you have most likely, at one point or another, come in contact with their leather! Arnold Horween Sr. was a professional football player and coached for the Harvard team; he’s the one who developed their official football leather. As a maker, I find Horween a dream to work with: buttery and pliable, yet resistant to wear and tear, and super easy to b ..read more

Leather comes from many different animals, and not only mammals; birds, fish, and reptiles too. You can use the tanning process to turn just about any animal skin into a usable leather hide. Here are some of the most common, and a few interesting ones too: The skin of all bovine animals can be tanned: cow, bull, calf, and buffalo. Goat, sheep, pig, horse… Kangaroo! Ostrich and chicken. Elephant, rhino and hippo.  Alligator, lizard, toad, all types of snakes. Salmon, tilapia, eel, shark, stingray. Turtle and many more.  About 65% of leather comes from cows, 15% from she ..read more

A peak inside the making of a Bulgari luxury handbag. That fuchsia handbag is gorgeous! Lots of interesting details in the photos; like the all white prototypes in photo #2, and the reinforcement of every single alligator tile in #7. For more details,  read the article at the NYT ! View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize Photo credit: courtesy of Bulgari for the NYT. back to the blog ..read more

This 4-part series is designed to give the leather craft beginner, a bit of guidance for navigating the world of hand crafted leather making. This broad overview should answer some of your questions and give you a starting point. The four blogs are: 1. An Introduction to Handmade Leather Craft 2. American vs European Leather Craft 3. Leather Craft Tools for Beginners - coming soon 4. Vegetable vs Chrome Tanned Leather - coming soon. In Part 1, we explore the range of hand-crafted leather goods you can make. From rough to luxe and a few in between. A project can be simple enough for a beginner ..read more

This was a challenging but fun project. The goal with this commission was to duplicate an all time favorite Hermes wallet that had become worn, torn, stretched, and generally beat up. Having the original on hand at the design table made it a lot easier to figured out the pattern and construction details. Copying an existing design is actually a great way to learn! Aside from using a skiving machine to thin out the edges of the inside pockets, the wallet was made entirely by hand, including the stitching. Here are a few photos from the process. View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View ..read more

This 4-part series is designed to give the leather craft beginner, a bit of guidance for navigating the world of hand crafted leather making. This broad overview should answer some of your questions and give you a starting point. The four blogs are: 1. An Introduction to Handmade Leather Craft 2. American vs European Leather Craft 3. Leather Craft Tools for Beginners - coming soon 4. Vegetable vs Chrome Tanned Leather - coming soon. In Part 2, we explore the differences between Traditional American and European handmade leather craft. We first look at overall aesthetic, and then talk about a f ..read more

Chrome tanning The video below gives you a nice visit to the Heller Leder tannery in Germany. Notice the blue color of the hides when they come out of the barrel: it’s what we call the “wet blue” state of the hides. The color comes from the chromium salts used in the process of converting raw hides into usable leather. That’s why leather tanned this particular way is called “chrome tanned”.  Vegetable tanning This is a slightly smaller tannery in Tuscany that uses the “vegetable tanning” method. The tanning ingredients used may differ (in chrome and vegetable tanning) but you'll notice th ..read more

Leather is a material that comes animals skins that have been treated with a process called "tanning". Regardless of which tanning method is used (there are several), tanning's main goal is to permanently change the protein structure of the skin to make it more durable, usable, and resistant to decomposition and rot. Leather has unique properties, like high tensile strength and resistance to tear, abrasion, and flexing. It’s also heat, flame, and mildew resistant. Some leather is also moldable, which means it can be shaped into a form and after its fibers rearrange themselves, will stay t ..read more

An informative post from Purseblog: a picture guide to the different types of leathers Hermes uses to make their handbags. Hermes, the French luxury goods manufacturer, makes two of the most recognized and expensive handbags in the world, the Birkin and the Kelly.  Bags worthy of their own blog! The photos show how varied leather can be, in texture of course, but also in weight, feel, and what I call "resistance to daily use". Enjoy! For the complete list of Hermes leathers, visit purseblog here.  PS: Purseblog by the way -if you don’t already know- is a fabulous resource for ev ..read more