New: The Wild Leather Lounge Chair
The Wild leather lounge chair is the latest new release from our studio and workshop. It is also the first lounge chair to feature in our collections. Along with the magazine rack it is made from hardy cattle hides, of cows who have been left to browse their natural fodder; grass, brambles, trees and wildflowers. In turn, their dung has been allowed to feed the soil. These creatures play an essential part in rebuilding the rich habitats humanity so urgently needs with land that absorbs carbon through grazing.
One of the barriers to finding leather like this is finding small farms or conservation projects willing to go to the effort of supplying the hides (which otherwise get shipped to India), then finding a tanner. Tanneries are hard to come by in the UK, so meeting both the The Horned Beef Company and Billy Tannery was key to this project being possible. Often, the small scale, self-driven producers and growers are the ones pioneering change, with open minds. The hides these animals yield is unconventional by current commercial standards. The Wild leather we use is bramble-scratched, smaller in size and home to as many natural blemishes as the wood in our dining table is knots.
Cosumers expect ‘perfect’ hides. But perfect hides come from herds of cows in non-organic systems where natural parasites are chemically eradicated. Feeding cattle soy and grain while they stand in their hundreds on a metal grid, dung draining into an open slurry pit, upsets natural balances like greenhouse gases. Much of the cattle in the world is reared in this ecologically damaging way.
How ruminants live and eat determines their ecological impact. In glorious contrast, the Horned Beef Company rear their hardy cattle on tenanted Cumbrian upland scrub and record the wildlife returning to the land they farm. Billy Tannery is an ambitious micro-tannery making beautiful leather goods from the by-product of the goat milk industry. They are the only people in the country using this waste skin, and it’s only made possible by their willingness and passion, to do it themselves. They make beautiful bags, shoes and accessories from skins otherwise destined for landfill.
Leather is not just a co-product that’s nice to use, with the right farmers, tanners and consumer attitude it can be reiterative and biodiversity-boosting material, sequestering carbon and part of a waste-avoiding circular economy. Animal skin has been part of our material culture for millennia and can continue to be if we produce it correctly.