Tanner Bates Repair Shop
From Devon with Love
Perhaps you know that one of our favourite and very special leathers we use here at Tanner Bates is our Russia Kip Calfskin Leather produced at our local tannery in East Devon. It has a fantastic story behind it - which you may already know. However for those of you who don’t, we’d love to share this with you.
Waste not want not
Provenance really matters to us.
Our leather is tanned in the old fashioned way, in small family run tanneries. It is a slow process, but uses only natural ingredients to create the tan. All of our leather is a byproduct of the meat industry. We are passionate about not wasting a thing.
Our Oak Bark Tanned Leather: The beauty of this story is that it is a truly local Devon story. The animals are bred, live and are slaughtered in Devon. The meat is most probably consumed in Devon. The hides are tanned locally, in Devon at J&FJ Baker & Co. We hand craft all of our products in small batches right here in our Devon workshop.
The Tanner Bates Devon Diaries
The Scrapbook Edition
Oak Bark Tanned Leather From J & F J Baker, Colyton
Scars, blemishes, irregular dyeing, parallel crease lines, surface white tallow are all natural and a part of the character of this unusual leather.
Repurposed leather and solid brass buckles: Beauty and the Beast
Handmade Leather tote bag
I made this simple bag as part of a collaboration we are doing with our partners Leather School® and Craft Revolution (where you can make one yourself just like it) and I just love it.
Meet Ella
Welcome to the Vienna Leather Bag
When Caroline came to us with an idea for a bespoke bag so that she could travel in style to Vienna, we jumped at the chance to create something for her.
The magic of the leather tannery.
We were blown away by our experience at the tannery with Andrew, our simplified version of the process is to give you an insight, only the lucky few will know the true wizardry that goes into creating such fantastic leather.
Thoughts On Leather Use
We were thrilled to have been mentioned in a recent article written for the Observer Magazine by Lucy Siegle about the morality and ethics of leather and the implications of a culture that wants more and more cheap leather goods.