October Residency

Week Four

This week was rough and I knew it would be.

I went into this month knowing that it was going to end in this week and started building up the courage to face it.

I took three of my cyanotypes, my three favorites from this month, to a gallery on Friday to have high quality scans made of them so I can have reproductions made.

Sounds mundane. If you've ever poured your heart into a creative endeavor before you will know the fear I'm talking about though. Logically I know they aren't going to laugh at me, but there is always that voice in the back of my head.

"What if they find out you don't know what you're doing?"

"What if I look like an idiot?"

"What if they tell me my work sucks?"

"What if I don't realize I'm in over my head until it's too late?"

Well, let me tell you how it went.

I started by emailing them. I explained I was looking to have some reproductions made. That I had experience running a creative business (so I didn't look like an idiot) but was new to making work that was scan-able and printable (so I could ask stupid questions). They got back to me the next day, told me to come on up, and that I didn't need an appointment.

On Friday I drove twenty minutes across town. I felt pretty nervous the whole way. I'd spent all week getting in my head about it. Simon at the gallery recognized me by my Lamplighter when I walked in. I showed him my prints. I think he was glad to see I'd brought work that was nice and flat.

Over the next thirty minutes I learned a lot. One important lesson I've learned in running Wright & Rede is that you don't get extra credit for coming off as an expert. So I walked in with a written list of questions in my hand.

"Do I need to worry about surface texture for scanning?"

"What is a normal turn around time to expect?"

"How do I order new copies?"

"How big of a piece can you scan?"

I then had to name all the pieces (oh god) but he told me I could always change the names later (thank god). In talking to him I learned a lot of other things I'd need along the way. Most people you are establishing a relationship with like this are more than happy to educate you. They want a competent customer who is going to order a lot of reproductions. So as long as that is your aim then you are good. You might look a little dumb the first time, but you'll look less dumb the second time and that is what really matters.

Next week I start back in on leather work. It's been a whole month since I've worked with any leather. The holiday season is peeking over my shoulder while I'm typing. Usually by now I'm well into stocking up for that. I haven't started on it yet. But I knew that this was the right time to do my residency. I started it as all the leaves began to change and fall. The branches are bare now and it makes sense to move onto the next thing.

I'm excited to get back to leather working. I've been trying to imagine how this is all going to fit together. After this last month of turning out cyanotypes I'm fairly tired of thinking about leaves. Switching gears feels very right. So that might be how things work in the future. Different seasons with different mediums. I'm not sure I could do both at once.

If you follow me on Instagram check out my profile. I finally updated it to reflect all that's going on. I've been struggling with how to define what my job is when I'm telling other people. I took the plunge and changed it to artist.  Over the weekend I'm going to one of my wife's corporate events. That means lots of introducing myself to people. Let's see if I can tell people I'm an artist for a living without stammering.

October Residency

Week Three

Oh, Week Three. You were a beast.

The beginning of week three was about trying out a bunch of different ideas and compositions. So the first half of the week was a blast, and now I have a direction for the body of work I am going to make for this month.

My inner craftsman was dancing with joy. The straight forward, mechanical work of coating paper to prepare for making all of these cyanotypes is right up my alley.

My goal for October was to have three finished pieces around a cohesive theme to function as an anchor off of which I can build a greater body of work.  Also I wanted to have a good ending point for my residency.

I've got three pieces. More than three I'd say.

So I've reached then end of the creative/producing part of my residency. Then I hit a wall. I noticed it right away.

I stopped sharing the work I was making. Writing to you from the beginning of week four I can tell you that I've had these finished pieces for over a week now. I haven't showed them at all.

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I thought this would be the easy part. I have a lot of experience sharing my work. I've been photographing myself at work for over a decade. So I went into this part feeling pretty confident. I'm discovering that it is a whole different beast. My biggest hurdle at the moment is my set up. I need a big sink and a room I can darken while the light sensitive paper dries after I coat it. My studio doesn't have a sink and there is no way I can get this room dark enough. So I'm having to work part time in my old basement workshop. Which is not photogenic.

I know the obvious answer is to just shoot anything. Perfect is the enemy of done, but I'm finding myself getting caught up in trying to perfect it. This is a red flag for me. It's one of the ways I procrastinate when I'm slipping outside of my comfort zone. This whole residency is an exercise in being outside of my comfort zone. I shouldn't be surprised that this has come up.

I suspect the bigger issue is that I'm nearing the point where I have to make all of this real. I will have to show my work to the outside world. Creating in a bubble is safe and fuzzy.

This feels a little like posting nudes.

Experience has taught me to just do the damn thing. So tomorrow I'll be shooting a video of me talking about my work, how it is developing, and why I've made some of the choices I've made. Following that will be a round of "just take a bunch of damn pictures".

You'll be able to judge for yourself the results in a few days. I give myself 50/50 odds of messing it up.

Next week will be the nitty gritty. I'm going to start contacting printers this week to see about getting reproductions made. Then I get to dive into the exciting world of pricing out art mailers and packaging. I know, right?

Am I giving up on leather?

Why Cyanotypes?

“Are you giving up on leather work?”

The burning question that no one is asking but I'm imagining they are in my head.

The short answer, no. I still have a lot to say in that area. I love working with leather. I've spent a decade honing my craft and I still think about it every day.

So why the side project? Is the band breaking up?

Yes and no. I started this business thinking of myself as a little factory. A cottage industry. The point was to turn out a quality product and make a living with a little integrity. The problem with this plan is that A) anyone can do it (or appear to) and B) success with this plan looks like growing into just a bigger factory .

To sort out "A" I started making more creative work that has a higher bar to entry. Something not just anyone can sit down and do.

Sorting out "B" has been a bigger issue. What does success and growth look like if I'm not hiring people and producing more?

This is why I pivoted over the last few years to making more creative work. I don't just make wallets anymore. I make little bits of functional artwork you can carry around in your pocket. As the creativity and complexity of the work I've been doing has increased so has the price I charge for that work. That has worked for continuing to grow my business.

But I feel like I am nearing a ceiling on what I can accomplish with this plan. Continued growth along this path looks like eventually making insanely clever and meticulous art that I turn into wallets. Which I then have to charge thousands of dollars for to cover the time spent in making them.

I'm sure there are a few people out there willing to spend that much on a wallet. I don't know any of them, and I don't think there are enough I could reach to make a living. To be honest I don't think I would even want to make a living that way.

So then what do I do?

Well, I've spent the last few years (mostly during the hours of 2am and 5am) thinking about this. I'm in a weird situation. I'm making art, but treating it like a craft. I'm not just making functional goods. I have a whole ethos behind what I do. Come to the studio and I'll talk your ear off about it.

There are so many stylistic, ethical, and creative decisions over the years that I've managed to shoehorn into the leather goods I produce. When I started making cyanotypes again I suddenly realized all of those choices and artistic intent I've developed are quickly and easily applied to this other medium in really interesting ways.

Have you ever tried to figure out how to express the bittersweet magic in something that is beautiful but temporary? And then put that on a wallet?

I have.

You can see how I might be interested in applying some of this to a new arena.

It's like I've been serving wine in a coffee mug. Both coffee and wine are great on their own, but sometimes wine makes a lot more sense in a wine glass. There are so many things I can explore once I stop limiting the art I make to a canvas that is 3" x 4". I really want to explore those. I think this is why the very first body of work I made in cyanotype was on 30" x 22" sheets of watercolor paper. I needed to stretch out.

This also solves a question I've been trying to answer ever since I read the E-Myth Revisited. A book that makes some valid points about being an entrepreneur while simultaneously being completely soul crushing.

One of the points in this book that has really haunted me over the years is this. If you build your business around the work you do with your own two hands, what happens to your business when you aren't working? When you go on vacation your business stops. Every winter I am super cautious walking on ice. Because if I fall and break a hand I'm out of business until it heals. What happens if I get sick? Like I said earlier, I'm not interested in building a factory filled with employees churning out leather goods.

Cyanotypes offer a solution to this. The work I do in my studio with my own two hands creates originals. That labor is dependent on me. Once they are made a whole range of possibilities opens up.

High quality, archival, reproductions. In different sizes! Do you have any idea how amazing that is to me? For years I've made art that has to be wallet sized, and once it's done it's locked in. With cyanotypes I could make a cool image that could be as small as a greeting card and as big as a mural (at the same time and without me having to make new versions with my own two hands!!!).

But I'm here for leather work you think you think. What does this mean for that?

Two things. If I am successful at separating the income I make off my work from the income I make off my labor that is going to give me a lot more time to pursue different creative avenues in my leather work.

You have no idea the things I want to try. Pages and pages of ideas that I don't currently have the time or resources to tackle. The other part of this equation is that creating in a few different mediums feeds back in on itself. Leather work influences cyanotypes and cyanotypes influence leather work. So on and so on in an upward spiral. The more work I develop the greater pool of creativity I have to draw on.

So yeah. It's a lot. I am still not sure how to talk about it. But it feels right, and terrifying, and silly, and exciting all at once. It's going to be a journey. The path less traveled.

Week Two

October Residency

Last week I was focused on making a bunch of work.

In the beginning I don't really care if it is good or bad.  There is a certain critical mass that I have to achieve to make good work. When I'm designing in leather I have pages with the blank profile of whatever I'm working on.  If I'm designing a new satchel I'll have a grid of 6-8 isometric rectangles that I'll draw flaps, pockets, and different closures on. At this point there are no bad ideas. If it pops into my head I have to write it down.

I did the same here with my cyanotypes. I'm just running through paper and making a wide range of different styles and compositions. If I think of it I have to try it. Once I have a big enough stack I'll sit down and look over all of them to find things that I like. Often I already have a good idea of what I'm looking for since I've been developing my creative taste for over a decade with my leather work.

This is the thing I have been the most excited to see. I know what my style is when I'm designing leather goods. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to translate that into a different medium like cyanotypes.

I can see my style beginning to emerge as I sort though this stack of work. If you want a quick guide to my style here it is.

I like simple work. Simple but not boring. It can't be too busy or too noisy. So there is usually one strong element in a big empty space. But when you look at that apparently empty space you'll realize that there is a lot going on. This could be the whorls and marks of full grain cow hide, or it could be the subtle mottling you get from brushing wet sensitizer onto watercolor paper.

I'm also a big believer in limitations when it comes to cultivating creativity. I like to give myself hard limits on what I'm doing in a project. “Hmmm, what happens if I can only make things that are blue and brown?”

I think this comes out in my work too. If I'm going to put down a line it needs to have clean and clear edges. I like to have details that involve doing something very precise and meticulous. Conversely I also like a bit of chaos in my work. A little room for serendipity. But it must never come off as sloppy. Color and a good range of shades from dark to light are also important.  Most of my work is usually monochromatic or bi-chromatic.

So knowing what I know about my taste I start looking through the pile and finding things that check those boxes. I also take careful notes. With leather I keep files in Evernote, but with my cyanotypes (for now) I'm just writing in pencil on the back of the paper. Maybe someday I'll be famous and people will be able to read what I was thinking on the back of each piece.

My notes encompass how I made each piece with details about things like how I brushed on the sensitizer, how I let it dry, how long I exposed for. I also have project notes in a notebook where I track the arc of the greater body of work.

Here is where I will decide what I'm going to work on. I'll usually end up with a few ideas I'd like to try, but I'll pick one idea and (again with lots of detailed notes) shelve the others.

I call this "running down my rabbits". Imagine a wolf in a field with a ton of rabbits. If he tries to chase after all the rabbits he's never going to catch one before he's worn out. If he picks just one rabbit and stays on top of it until he's caught it, that wolf gets dinner.  I've found if I try to chase after too many ideas at once I end up not really finishing anything. So instead I'll pick one idea and run that idea down until I have something to show for it . If the other ideas are any good I'll find them again later.

So do I have an idea of what the finished body of work is going to look like when I'm done at the end of the month? Yes. I finished some pieces last night that I think are going to form the idea I'm running down this time. Except it's still wet from being washed and I'm not about to accidentally tear it. So you'll have to wait a bit to see.

Week One

October Residency

This week I'm just focusing on sorting out materials.

Planning ahead is key. To make a cyanotype I've got to coat the paper, let it dry completely (in the dark) and then have enough sunny weather to expose them in the next few days. Old and unexposed cyanotype paper doesn't make for very good images. They look muddy.

This has lead to making a lot of images. Part of what I'm trying to develop is the muscle memory of quickly coating a large amount of paper while not making stupid mistakes. This has it's benefits. I'm a firm believer in Inspiration finding you working. I want to end this residency with a cohesive body of work. Not just a bunch of random images. Making a lot of work early on is going to help me figure out what is doing it for me at the moment. I'll take the little things I like that come up in this round and develop them in the next round of images. From that I'll develop  a theme.

I'm having to try out a bunch of watercolor paper this week too. I'd settled on a Bergger COT 320 as my paper of choice. It's been out of stock everywhere for the last few months. I finally decided to track some down and discovered that it has apparently been discontinued. So the hunt for new paper is on. Paper choice is a big deal. Blues will be darker or lighter depending on the paper. Some clear really well. Others leave you with light greyish blue where there should be white paper. The texture of the paper also has a big effect on the final result.

I've learned my lesson from building my business around one leather from one tannery. If there are any monkeys with wrenches at the tannery my whole operation has to stop and wait for them. So I am limiting the scope of my paper choices to papers I can find at any art supply store. The idea that I can just run out and grab some more paper is very exciting to this leatherworker who is used to having to wait two weeks (sometimes six to eight) to get more leather in.

On the nitty gritty business end of things I'm having the biggest struggle with just figuring out what to do everyday. It sounds great before you have to do it. I can do anything I want. But then you show up at work and daylight is burning and you have to pick the one thing to do out of all the things you want to do.  This tends to cause me to spend a lot of time worrying that I'm wasting my time on something. I had to get over this with my leather work as well. Ten years in and I know what needs to get done there. This will happen with cyanotypes too once I get used to the new menu of options I'm being presented with.

The other struggle I'm running into is figuring out how to document all of this. Leather work is good because there are lots of different things to take pictures of and movement to capture in video. I feel like you can only watch me brush sensitizer on paper so many times. Also a good chunk of my time is spent looking at images and writing down ideas. Not the most interesting thing to watch. But there is a story there. I just have to figure out how to tell it.

October Residency

Today I start my residency.

Hmm?

Well, you see for the last year I've been developing my cyanotype creative practice along side my leather work. It has been enlightening to see how they are influencing each other as I explore the possibilities in both.

You also might have noticed that I haven't been talking much about my cyanotype work and that as of today (Oct. 1st) I don't have any listed for sale in the shop. Which is strange on my end because I've been putting more than half of all my effort into something I'm not really talking about or sharing.

I've been struggling to establish my cyanotype work as a functioning practice. It’s like starting a second business. The creative parts of the two different mediums (leather and cyano) play well together. But the practical parts are completely separate.

Once the making the art part is done I have to do something with them. I have to figure out how to talk about them. How to share what I'm doing intelligently. Do I try to find some gallery space? How? What do I mail them in when they sell? What about getting reproductions made?

There is also an elephant in the room.

Why am I doing this at all? Is the leather working not going so well? It's doing just fine. There are a lot of good reasons to branch out in new directions. I'm going to write a whole separate post about it. Part of running a successful art practice is imagining what kind of future you are working towards while acknowledging that future is always going to be changing as you learn more.

So I've spent the last few months making extra leather work every time I put out a new collection. At this point I have enough saved up that I'm able to take the entire month of October off from leather. I'll have a whole month to not only try out all the ideas I've come up with over the past year, but also sort out the nitty gritty of how to run a cyanotype business.

It feels stupid to admit, but I'm not even sure how to describe myself at this point when people ask me what I do for a living. So October is going to be for answering big questions and little ones. After a lifetime of turning away from being an artist I'm finally going to lean into it. The leaves are ready and calling to be printed. It's time.

End of Summer Update

(First a quick shameless plug for this vase I bought from my friend and fellow artist Gina Desantis with a hydrangea bloom from Stems Fleur who are just below my studio.)

Summer is drawing to a close. The weather, as I sit here writing, is caught between summer and fall. It’s grey, wet, and some of the first leaves are beginning to drop, but the air is still clinging to me with its insistent summer ardor.

I’ve just wrapped up two new collections. This summer’s cyanotype collection came out in July and then I followed that with what I ended up calling the Scrivener collection. It is a series of notebooks and pen holders. I’m trying to focus in a little more on making things I’d want to own and I love me a good notebook.

I’ve got a few bag orders to wrap up before September is out. It’s nice to switch up doing something creatively intense like working on special collections, and doing something I’ve done many times before. Those long stretches of quietly stitching seams let my hands do the thinking and my brain take a rest.

I just finished stitching the interior pocket onto this Lamplighter. I always try to take a picture of this pocket since you can’t really see it once the bag is done.

While I’m stitching I’m thinking about what projects I’d like to work on next. The holidays are closer than I realize which means I should be starting to restock all of the standard colors. I also have yet to do an indigo collection this year. I loved last year’s but I don’t want to just repeat myself. I’ve been admiring some work dyers do with wax resists. I’d love to incorporate that somehow, but I fear the learning curve on that means it won’t be part of this year’s collection.

I also don’t really feel done with the Scrivener’s. I’ve taken up writing as a daily practice. I start every day in the studio by writing down my thoughts. It really helps me figure out what is important for the day and keep track of my larger goals. To be honest I’m mostly doing it because I’ve fallen down a fountain pen rabbit hole. It’s really interesting to me how enjoyable it can be to write with a nice pen on a good notebook. It’s one of those little life enriching activities that I love to find. I especially love the idea of having a giant stack of filled notebooks to look back through some day. Old man Jordan shaking his head at today’s Jordan.

Nine years ago today I walked into my day job for the last time. I had just spent almost a decade waffling around trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing with my life. At the time I thought I was starting a business that was much different that the one I'm actually running right now. I've learned a lot both professionally and personally. On the anniversary of my final shift I like to think back on what I've learned in the past year. This previous year brought a lot of lessons about understanding how a see myself and how that translates into how other people see me.

They way we define ourselves provides clarity. It also creates limitations that we set on ourselves. Don't let the way you currently define yourself box you in. Especially if it's leading you down a path that is unfulfilling. In fact I'd would say the more you step outside that box the more likely you are to succeed.

There is a point at which it is important to master your skills. But ultimately what people will recognize you for, or find you remarkable for, are the things that you bring from outside your area of expertise. People might like a really good baker, but a baker that is a amazing story teller or good at organizing their community will do better every time and I suspect be happier in doing so.

Another thing I think is important to success and one that I am still working on, is being remarkable. I don't mean that in the sense that you should be amazing and wonderful at everything you do. I mean it in the sense that if you want people to tell their friends about you then you need to do something that is worth remarking upon. People tell each other stories. So ask yourself what is it that you are doing that people would be interested in telling their friends about?

The last big lesson I feel like I learned this year is about rest. It sounds dumb to have to say it out loud but you really do your best work when you are well rested. This could mean getting plenty of sleep or taking an extra day off in terms of physical rest. But I'm also talking about the mental rest of not thinking about your job all the time. As a creative person I like to think about my job. I like coming up with cool things to make. But if I try to draw water from that well too many times I'll end up pulling up dry buckets. So putting it all down, not trying to grow or develop , and just giving my brain some time off has proven to be really important. Go do some weeding.

Dye Tests

Like Two Trains Passing in the Night

I did a collection back in the fall using vinyl tape and indigo dye. I loved it and even stole one for myself, but I was limited to doing a single color with a contrasting natural stripe.

What I really wanted to do was two different colors. I did a few tests back then but I couldn’t figure out the right way to do it. Either the colors were bleeding into each other or they weren’t lining up correctly. There would be little gaps that didn’t get dyed at all.

A failed dye test. See how the brown spreads into the grey.

But over the past few months I’ve been doing some tests in my spare time. It turns out there’ s no trick or anything to it. Just lots of practice. I’d cut long strips of leather and dye lines on them over and over. After a few months I started getting the hang of it.

So now I’m working on turning that into a new collection. I’ve already started dyeing leather and drawing out ideas. I think I’ll go with a W&R classic of brown and blue to start things off.

Side Projects

Through a Pinhole

In January I started taking a self portrait every week. I've found that having little side projects like this nurtures my main creative practice. Sometimes this is in very obvious ways, like using cyanotype printing and adapting that to leather working, but often the benefits are more circuitous.

It is no coincidence that I'm doing this pinhole project in January when I spend time planning for the year to come. I think about where my business is and where I hope to be going. In shooting these self portraits I am getting a new perspective on what I've built and where I fit into it.

Shooting with a pinhole camera is a unique experience. Traditionally you can build them yourself out of coffee cans and VW buses. I use a special kind of lens on my digital camera. Imagine a lens cap with a hole drilled in it. Over that hole is a piece of metal with a very tiny pinhole drilled through it. That whole thing fits over where a camera lens would normally go on your camera. This tiny hole is just small enough to project an image into the camera without the need for glass or all the other things that make up a camera lens.

The result you get is a very soft, almost painterly image. There is no way to focus the pinhole. So everything is just a little blurry. Because the hole is so small the time it takes to expose the picture is usually 5-10 seconds. Anything that moves in that time will be a blur in the final image. The picture is also too dark for me to see in the viewfinder. So I can't focus, can't see what I'm taking a picture of, and (because theses are self portraits) I have to run in front of the camera and I hope I'm in the right place when the shutter opens up.

Sounds like a mess, I know. After shooting a bunch in a row I'll start to get these truly candid pictures of me in the middle of trying to make something interesting. Sometimes I'm mid step, or looking a little frustrated after waiting for the timer to go off. Often I'm holding my breath so I don't move too much while the picture is taken. It's all highly staged but in the act of making it I get these chance moments of truth.

Caught mid step, a little frustrated, and holding my breath is about as honest a portrait of being a small business owner that I can think of.

Workbench Philosopher

Around the Curve

This damn curve. It’s a pain every time I stitch it. There are little stitch holes on both pieces of leather and they have to line up perfectly for me to stitch them in any kind of straight line. And as we all know from Mario Kart, things that travel along the inside of a curve cover less distance than things on the outside.

So here I’m working on this bag, two weeks of work, and I’m just starting in on the big final push. Then along comes this curve and the holes stop matching up.

Fortunately I’ve done this enough that I know to plan on being frustrated during this part. I know they will line back up once I’ve made my way around the curve. 

That’s one of those little philosophies you find in craft work. There are going to be curves. They are going to be hard and frustrating. But if you plan to expect them, and remind yourself that they aren’t permanent, you’ll get through to the straight side again. Just because things are hard doesn’t mean they are bad. 

State of the Studio

Side Projects

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want my business to look like. Seems like there is a lot of noise out there. There are a lot of people doing a lot of good work and it all looks the same.

When I started doing this in 2012 the online leather working community was new. There were old hands who knew what they were doing but mostly it was people trying things out and learning together. Now it seems like the culture has become codified. There are best practices and jargon handshakes. You know what Tokonole is, right bro? It feels like this has lead to a lot of closed mindedness. That there is a best way to do things. Where ignorance is something to be embarrassed of. At best this leads to a community all following the same guidelines to make the same work. That’s never good for any creative community. I’m sure you’ve seen it in other creative arenas. Don’t know the best kind of ink roller/ distortion pedal/ microphone? Then you don’t belong there. Its just another form of gatrekeeping. I’m not really interested in being a part of it.

So I’ve been turning my attention to other types of work. I’ve gone back to my photography roots and produced a bunch of work that I’m not interesting in profiting off of. I’ve been experimenting with cyanotypes. It’s been satisfying to learn something I’m too ignorant of to hold myself to much of a standard. I’ve done a few that I then painted over with watercolor. I like them a lot but they are still to new to share. Maybe after I get a little more confident with them.

I’ve been shooting a weekly pinhole self portrait. If you aren’t familiar with pinhole photography you take a normal camera, but instead of having a lens on it you use a black card or tin with a tiny little pinhole in it. Believe it or not this works as the lens. You get these really soft almost painterly images. The camera takes 6-10 seconds to shoot the image. So even though I’m standing still I’m going to be a little blurry because I have to breathe and balance and stuff. The other thing is that the pinhole doesn’t give me enough light to see through the viewfinder on the camera. So I have to guess at what I’m taking a picture of.

Self Portrait December 21, 2021

All this to say that I think 2022 is going to be about a lot more than leather work at W&R. I’ll still be doing plenty of that, but there is a lot more that I want to explore with this business. I don’t see any good reason not to. When everyone is doing the same thing it is time to try something new.

Natural Goatskin

Texture for Days

I’ve really only worked with one type of leather since I started this business. Undyed (called crust leather), vegetable-tanned, steer hide from Wickett & Craig tannery in Pennsylvania.

It dyes beautifully and the range of colors I’ve been able to get out of it has kept me busy for years. But when I heard about the leather coming out of Pergamena in NY I had to check it out.

Pergamena is a small, family run tannery in the Hudson Valley. The thing that caught my attention is their Leather from Farms program. Working with local farms and abattoirs they are able to source many of their hides from within the region. Traceable, ethically-sourced leather is virtually nonexistent in this industry and I’m very excited to see where they are taking this.

I contacted them about ordering some of their goatskins (something I can’t get from my other tannery) that had not yet gone through the dyeing process. They were able to sort some out for me and I just got my first shipment in. The texture on this goatskin is unbelievable. Kind of like a really smooth, subtle pebbling.

I can’t wait to see how this dyes up. I hope to check back in soon with some of my early tests with this leather,.

State of the Studio

Spring 2021

I’m just coming out of a creative period. I work in seasons. There is a time to dream things up. A time to make them. A time to learn from what I’ve made. Then the whole thing starts over.

I think this period was especially productive because I had a lot of pent up energy leading up to it. I normally take a little time in the beginning of the year to look back at what happened the previous year and plan what I want to do next year.

Didn’t happen this year. A bunch of bag orders had me working away through that period. So when it came time to stretch my creative legs I had a lot of not-yet-fleshed-out ideas floating around. One of the best tricks I’ve picked up in the past few years is creating a good system for recording those half formed ideas. I have lots of scribbled notes spread over a bunch of notebooks to go over.

One of the first things I wanted to take on was a review of the forms I use. Wallet shapes are constrained by the shape of the credit cards you will put in them. When I was just starting out I was focused primarily on function. Over the years as I’ve developed my creative chops I’ve started feeling those constraints more.

For example my style involves showing off what you can do with hand dyeing. The exteriors of my work are always made to contrast or accent the interiors which, unfortunately, you can’t see because they are on the inside of the wallet.

I’m addressing this by changing the form of the design. If the side of the rectangle gets nudged in a little creating a gentle curve then this lets you see just a little bit of the inside when the wallet is closed.

Just a little nudge.

I love the way the stitching looks as it travels along the curve. I was even more surprised by how much I like how it feels in your hand. I’m imagining the curve making a great thing to run your fingers across while you’re waiting at the cash register wallet in hand.

I tested all of this on iterations of the Ensign wallet. I’m now working on adding that nudge to all the shapes I use. It takes a little bit of thought. It has to be scaled up correctly or it looks heavy handed.

Along with that I’m taking a second look at some of my other designs. I’m thinking about redesigning the Hillard in an even slimmer version. Also the Card Sleeve hasn’t been touched since day one. While I value not messing with things for the sake of messing with them, I also think it’s important to experiment with old ideas. It doesn’t hurt to draw things out. Worse case I renew my faith in the existing design.

Oh, and I am finally putting some of my own art up on the walls. The pandemic slowing things down gave me time to start exploring a career I gave more than a decade ago. I feel like I’ve come full circle on that. From giving art up because I wanted to pursue something more practical to finding ways to make practical things more beautiful.

More on that to come.

My System for Creative Development

The Creative Toolbox

I have a toolbox I use at my studio but you can't see it. I carry it around with me all day and no one knows. It is the most valuable thing I own and no one can ever take it from me.

There is this thought that I heard on the Creative Pep Talk Podcast. Creativity isn't coming up with something that no one has ever seen before. It is taking two existing things and putting them together in a new way.

With that in mind I began to deliberately assemble my toolbox a few years ago. Each tool is a creative process or concept that I've found and developed.

I've always hand dyed my leather work. So that was the first tool in my toolbox. As I explored that process I began to develop new tools. From hand dyeing came color blocking and two tone dyeing.

Two Tone Ensign. Indigo + Chestnut. 2019

From there sprang indigo dyeing and walnut dyeing. Watching the way dye soaked into the leather gave me the idea of scratching the leather to let the dye seep in more in certain places. That gave way to sgraffito.

Each step I take develops a new tool. When I need to come up with a new idea I look at the tools I have and decide which two to put together.

Working with the color blue is a tool I use a lot. What happens if I combine blue and sgraffito? Or can I do blue and walnut.? What kind of blue? I have a few in my toolbox.

I think this is part of what makes a successful artistic practice. Constantly developing new tools but also having a very clear understanding of what those tools are.

Sgraffito Baseball Stitch Card Case. Chestnut. 2019

Picasso has a blue period. VanGough applied paint with a palette knife. Thom Yorke uses falsetto. Tim Burton has the musical. Each one a tool picked up and combined with something else in a way that no one has done the same way before.

I suspect that if you asked your favorite artists what their tools are they could list them out. The really cool part is that it's those tools that come to define the work. The tools you have and the way you use them is what defines your style.

Some of the tools in my toolbox:

• Shades of blue (Indigo, Prussian, Sapphire, Aquamarine)

• Juxtaposing cool colors with warm colors (blue and brown)

• Color blocking

• Mottled surfaces

• A wide range of shades from light to dark

• Clean lines and simplicity

• Using natural light

• Using empty space

• Embracing idiosyncrasies of natural processes (celebrating the marks and scratches)

• Creating lines and scratches (sgraffito)

Some tools I'm working on developing now:

• Batik wax resist

• Leather paint

• Old photographic processes

• Story telling

• Goat skin leather

What is in your toolbox? Can you make a list? It will be hard at first but that is because you are just starting to define your tools. Pick something and develop a small body of work around just that one tool. Repeat that process until you have a couple tools in your toolbox. Then start combining.

A Guide To

Basic Leather Care

Leather Care.

Well maintained leather is leather that gets more beautiful as it ages and lasts for generations. If you want your leather to last and look good while doing so, you are going to need to do a bit of basic maintenance.

But don't worry. I'm going to show you how.

The first step to maintaining your leather is to treat it well. Don't over-stuff it. Don't let it get soaked. If you get something on it take a second and wipe it off.

The next thing you need to do is condition it. Leather is a porous, natural material. Over time and use the oils and fats in the leather will dry out. This is bad because it's those oils and fats that keep the leather strong and prevent it from cracking. Once those oils are gone it is very difficult to get them back into the deepest parts of the leather.

So how do you prevent this?

Leather conditioner applied every six months.

I like to do my conditioning with the changing of the seasons. Once in the Spring and once in the Fall. When the sweaters come out so does the conditioner.

Start with a natural conditioner. Avoid anything that comes in a spray, smells like alcohol, has mineral oil or petroleum jelly in it. A good conditioner smells like beeswax. I have used Obenauf's Heavy Duty LP and Skidmore's Leather Cream in the past and have been pleased with both.

How To Condition Your Leather

To condition your leather:

• Take a soft cloth (an old t-shirt works great) or saddle brush and brush off any surface dirt or grime.

• Get a little conditioner on your fingers or a soft cloth if doing a large area. Your hands work best for this as the warmth from your hands will help melt the wax as you apply it. You don't need much. Make sure to take off any jewelry that might leave scratches on the leather.

• Gently rub the conditioner onto the surface of the leather.

• Pay close attention to getting into high wear areas. Like along any stitching and where the leather bends.

• Once the leather item is covered in a light coating let it rest for 3-5 minutes.

• Take a soft cloth and buff off any conditioner that is still on the surface.

Depending on the oil vs. wax content of your conditioner the surface of your leather may have a dull finish. This will go away with a few days of use as the oil penetrates deeper into the hide.

I find treating leather to be very relaxing. It's pretty straight forward and once you are done the difference is pretty clear. Not many tasks like that around. Enjoy and happy conditioning.

Eight Years Ago

My very first event.

A little over eight years ago today I did my very first event. I had been making a few items as a hobby and dreamed of owning my own business.

I found a story about an upcoming market in Fresh Water Cleveland. I applied and got in. I didn’t know what I was doing.

The week before I had to figure out how to take credit card payments. I don’t think I had any packaging. If you bought something you just put it in your pocket. We put price tags on things after we got there. I think I was still pricing my work using the “Hmm, how much would I pay for this?” method. The table my display is on isn’t mine.

I made $337.00 that day. That was more than I made in a day waiting tables (my day job at the time). I forgot to account for the weeks worth of labor that led up to that day.

I remember selling a leather double wrap bracelet to Rick (of Rick & Randy ((HI RICK AND RANDY)). I made my first vendor friends. I learned all about how much I didn’t know.

After this first event I would do at least one event a month for the next five years. You pick up all kinds of useful skills. How to park aggressively and in unusual locations. How to properly ballast your show tent in high winds (4” pvc tubes filled with cement). How to make friends at 5am in the rain

The most useful lesson is one of resilience. It’s hard to spend a day not selling a thing, worrying about your future, and still keep a friendly smile on your face. Once you have a year’s worth of shows under your belt you’ll learn there is no rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes you kill it. Sometimes you don’t even sell enough to cover the fee you paid to have a table there.

I don’t do events like this much any more. The landscape has changed. When I started there weren’t many markets around like this. Then there were too many.

I miss them a little. I don’t miss setting up a tent at 4am. Nor do I miss standing in a field of asphalt all day in the middle of the summer heat.

But I miss my friends. I miss the camaraderie of being in it together. I miss the excited faces of people seeing new things. I miss getting to watch people interact with something I had made.

Running your own business is the path less traveled. You spend much of your time out in the weeds hoping you’re going the right direction. But then when you take a look back at where you’ve come from all those twists and turns make more sense.

There is nowhere I’d rather be.

The goods. Feb 23rd. 2013.

Time to Reflect and Breathe

End of the Year.

What a year.

Twenty days into 2021 and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.

Around this time last year I was hanging pictures on the walls of my studio. I had notebook pages filled with plans for what I hoped to do in 2020. A month later I would be reading about about Covid in the US. A month after that I would pick my son up from preschool for the last time. Shortly thereafter I went to my studio, packed up what work I thought I could do for the next few weeks, and prepared to follow quarantine rules.

March 22nd, 2020.

In the ensuing weeks my problems compounded. I was nearly out of leather when everything shut down. My tannery which normally takes two weeks to get me a leather order was down to a skeleton crew. More leather wasn’t going to arrive for at least six weeks. Rent was due soon and I didn’t have much to sell.

I have a page in my notebook called “How the Hell do I Make Rent with What I have?” Underneath is an inventory of all the leather I had on hand. I knew exactly how much I could produce but I had to make sure that everything I made I sold or I wasn’t going to be able to cover all of my expenses that month.

To design, produce, and completely sell out a collection in under two weeks is a tall order. I knew I had to make something remarkable, something that coudn’’t be found anywhere else, and still be able to offer it at a fair price.

The 2020 Pandemic Collection getting made.

So I went to my “toolbox” and pulled out all the stops. I hand dye everything. The two toned items are always popular. I did a sgraffito project a while back they people loved. I took those two ideas and drew up some ideas for my best selling designs. I got to work.

The collection sold out in 16 hours.

I’m not telling you this to brag. I want to illustrate an important lesson I learned. When you push yourself to produce the work that you are uniquely suited to make and then channel that into what your customers are asking for you end up with extraordinary results.

So this year I’m looking to liberate myself from what my peers are doing. I’m focusing on what I can do. Part of that will be a mental shift from thinking of myself as a craftsman and more of as an artist. I’m looking to expand the creative work I do and let that influence the leather work I do.

Most importantly I’ve learned how resilient we all are. So much has changed and there is so much uncertainty. But when you keep showing up you find that there are other’s who will show up with you.

For 2021 I wish you more of the same. More slowing down and exploring our surroundings. More sincere connection with loved ones. More being mindful of how we choose to spend our time and money. More time outside and more time thinking about what kind of future we’d like to live in.

The Finished Bag

Making a Mercer Part 6.

Start to finish it takes 2-3 weeks to get here. From starting with sides of un-dyed leather to the final stitch.

The last step to anything is to condition it and give it a final polish. The importance of proper conditioning can’t be overstated.

Well oiled and moisturized leather is strong, beautiful, and flexible. Once the leather dries out it will crack. Once that happens there is nothing that can be done to fix it.

I recommend continuing to condition the leather every six months hereafter. Over time the leather will grow a bit softer and darker. The repeated application of conditioner + time will result in the deep rich patina that only vegetable tanned leather is capable of.

I think of everything I make as a collaboration between me and those that will use my work. What I’ve made here is the starting point. What this bag finally becomes is up to the person that uses it.

Thank you for following along.

The End.

The Big Stitch

Making a Mercer Part 5.

So far we’ve cut. We’ve dyed. We’ve shaped. Now it is time to put the whole thing together.

This is done with a special stitch called a saddle stitch. One long thread, with a needle on each end, is passed back and forth through the slanted holes that will make up the seam. Since both the front and back of the seam are stitched at the same time this technique creates a unique situation in which each stitch is held in place by the stitch before and after it. This is a much stronger and more durable stitch that anything that can done on a sewing machine. It can only be done by hand.

It is a slow and steady process. To give you an idea, a three foot long seam done on a machine might take 20-30 seconds. The same seam done by hand can easily take 2-3 hours depending on the complexity of the seam. When you look at the bigger picture however, 2-3 hours on a seam that might last a few decades doesn’t seem like that much time.

If you were to ever wonder why handmade leather goods are so damn expensive this is why.