I wanted good leather goods that I couldn't afford, and I kept looking at them thinking, “I could probably make that.” I'd spent years woodworking and woodturning, so making things by hand wasn't new. Leather was just a lot more affordable to get started in.

My first wallet was very terrible. Ugly, honestly. But I kept making things, one after another, until they started to look good, and then until they looked the way I wanted.

What keeps me at it is how tactile leather is. A good piece is about how it feels in your hand. It wears in instead of wearing out, it can last for generations, and I get to draw my own patterns instead of following someone else's.

Everything is made in my garage shop in Post Falls, Idaho: full-grain veg-tan, chrome-tan and oil-tan leathers from US cowhide, solid hardware, and every seam saddle-stitched by hand with Ritza Tiger thread. If a stitch ever breaks, the thread won't unravel the way a machine stitch does. Build it once, build it right.

Thanks for being here.
Ian Vanzant