I love the idea of turning a raw material into something that can posses both beauty and charm but simultaneously can be an object of utility and practical use.
Leather is a wonderful material. It's smell is evocative and it can look very luxurious.
I’ve made many different leather items over the years – some large, some small, some decorated, some shiny, some not. For now, I am concentrating on making Travellers’ Journal Covers for the many wonderful people of the worldwide journaling community who shop on Etsy.

I am often asked what are the qualities and feels of the different leathers, and what are the colours really like? Hopefully I can briefly explain here:

All my products use Vegetable-Tanned Leather. These hides are mostly cows, although they may also be from goat, pig, sheep, buffalo and other animals. The 'vegetable' used in the tanning process can include tree bark and oak leaves as they are high in tannic acid. Most of my hides are sourced from either the UK, Italy, Canada or USA. Vegetable tanning has been around for a millennium and it can take months to tan a single hide.

The leather used is what is termed 'full-grain', referring to the outermost part of the animal skin. This is the toughest, hardest-wearing part of the skin, but also means it has no doubt seen some 'action' during the life of the animal. It may have been in contact with barbed wire fences, trees or posts and may have sustained insect bites or other injuries. You will never see any of the larger skin abrasions, as I don’t use these parts, but items may include some light scratches or marks here and there providing evidence, if it were needed, that it is the genuine article.

Do not confuse the full-grain used here for what some pass for the best, which however, is in fact a 'split', where the thickness of a leather has been split in two by a machine and the lower piece given a synthetic texture.

Of my Journal ranges, the OAK, the ACORN, the DOUBLE ACORN and the OAKLEAF use a thick leather (approx 3mm) which, if fed with something like Neatsfoot Oil, will become quite reasonably supple, but still retain that feeling of something substantial. The inside surface may range from very smooth to slightly unsmooth. As with allmy leathers, treated well, they could last a lifetime.

The MULBERRY covers are also made of thick 3mm leather, but this has been dyed at the tannery, rather than myself. The Mulberrys are very supple and almost buttery to touch and I find they are more willing to lay flat by themselves than other leathers.

The SNOWBELL, WILLOW, CATKIN and TWIN CATKIN use approx 2mm leather, which has a similar surface to the Oak etc, but as it is thinner, is more flexible.

DARK FOREST leather is only about 1.4mm thick, so is very malleable and even a little floppy! It possesses a great quality called ‘pull up’ which allows it to patinate easily. Any scratches, digs or marks the surface picks up turn into shades of brown, giving the cover a nicely worn-in appearance.

Pockets and wallet sections are made from Kip leather, which is about 1 to 1.2mm thick, but still very strong.

take care,
Mike