Leather is a natural material, the hide of a cow that lived a life in a field.

A range marking describes a scratch, a scar, a stretch mark, or otherwise acquired during the life of that animal.

To respect the value of that life, to reduce waste, and keep the prices of these products reasonable I use as much material as I can from each hide.

While a mark will never be allowed to impact the function or structural integrity of a piece, I do not discard every scar that comes across my cutting table.

I think such markings add character to a piece and honestly show the providence of the material. Some disagree.

Flawless leather may be requested but not guaranteed at no additional cost. Flawless leather may be guaranteed for 200% cost.

My products cannot be made from factory-dyed material because I need to soak the leather in water to sculpt and engrave it. Soaking leather in water ruins the dye, so I must dye it later on.

Hand dyed leather cannot be 100% consistent. Each hide and each area of each hide has a slightly different texture and density. Consequently, any given section of leather will take to the dye application slightly differently to any other.

Even more importantly, different screens display the same image slightly differently. This means try as I might, colors are tricky to communicate. Please look at a variety of items in my shop and ensure your screens brightness is turned up comfortably in a well lit room.

Each hide produced at a tannery is graded before sale. I purchase the best leather that I can but that grade is based on a moving curve.

An "A" grade hide is not a totally flawless hide, it is a hide in the top 20% of the hides in that batch of leather. If that batch is particularly bad a hide that might have been a B in the last batch will be an A in this one.

Moreover, a grade does not compare leathers from one tannery to another, only within the same tannery and batch.

The most important detail is the tannery itself. I chose Hermann Oak Leather in Springfield, Missouri USA, the longest running tannery in the states with an unmatched product that stands the test of time.

My messages to new and prospective customers come from an @etsy.com email address. So do lots and lots of marketing emails unfortunately.

If you have told your email inbox to send all of those to the trash, you might have cast too wide of a net and caught my emails too. Happens all the time unfortunately. You can whitelist conversations@mail.etsy.com to solve this problem. This help article explains a bit more in detail and lists the emails for receipts, and lost passwords, and other functions you might not want to block.

https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015566067-I-m-Not-Receiving-Emails-from-Etsy