Arts and crafts have always been an important part of my life.
Some of my oldest memories are the ones of being taken from one art show to another by my mom and my father bringing scrap wood from his workshop for my little projects. After spending my entire childhood in art classes and after turning all of my high school notebooks into sketchbooks I realized that was exactly what I wanted to do for living.
During my Master’s studies of Product Design I discovered passion for digital art which brought me to my current full-time job at the Volvo Concept Interior Design in Göteborg, Sweden. Working in their studio has been a very humbling experience and an opportunity to learn from some of the most talented designers in the world.
Leathercraft is my chance to combine all that experience and knowledge into a product of my own.
Handcrafted
My products are designed and handmade with passion using traditional leather working and saddle making techniques.
Story of each design begins with a simple sketch capturing the essence and proportion of the product, as well as some main features and details. The design is refined by creating mock-ups and prototypes, which are then tested in real-life.
The manufacturing of each individual product consists of countless steps, all of which are done by hand. Tracing, clicking, gluing, skiving, creasing, edge-painting and most importantly hand-stitching are just few of them. Hand- or saddle-stitching is a technique of sewing leather using only a thread, pair of needles and an awl. While time-consuming, this method results in stitches superior to the ones made by a machine.
It is an incredibly rewarding process which is best described by my motto:
“Handcrafted - From the first sketch to the very last stitch”
Natural
My aim is to use natural materials whenever possible.
Vegetable tanned leather from France and Italy, handmade linen thread and last but not least – beeswax from my father’s beehives. My dad has been a hobby beekeeper and enthusiast most of his life. All members of our family love the honey from his beehives, but I’m more excited about the mead (honey wine) and the beeswax.
This wax comes straight from the honeycombs. It’s untreated and unbleached, unlike some commercially available beeswaxes. In simple words – It is all-natural and perfect for waxing stitching threads. Each individual piece of thread is coated with the wax and heated to make the yarn fully impregnated. It makes it weather resistant, stronger and easier to work with.
While it may seem like a small detail, it is all those details that make the products stand out.