Crafted Part Deux - The leathers coming
A post from Mr. PQ
Really Brian, Part Deux? Yes, really. After Mrs. PQ's last post we got a wee bit of feedback from our French loving friends. Surprisingly they were not that excited that she placed the French language and swearing in the same category. So I thought maybe pay tribute to French in the title of this post (aka damage control).
This is the second post about why Kari, myself and the team are really passionate about the word 'Crafted'. In my previous post I mentioned our hard fought battle to find Buckram cloth that was not butt ugly. We finally did and could not be more proud of the Cartella Linen Case for the Macbook Air that utilizes a gorgeously strong linen buckram cloth.
Another battle was to find leathers that we felt met our high standards to be both durable and gorgeous. We have some amazing products planned that utilize these leathers. Therefore the leather has to be awesome. Touring various tanneries in Mexico we saw in full detail how leather is made, what types of quality are used and why. How quality affects construction and durability. Here are a few images from our visit.
Finished product getting ready for shipment on the 'horse'.
Various dyed hides in the drying process
What is top grain, full grain, Nappa and bonded leather? Why are American hides better then Mexican? We found out we really had no idea! This was a entire education process by itself. Once we started to fully grasp the art and science that is leather crafting, we began to search hard for the perfect colors, textures and types of leathers. Again, we (Maybe I...) drove our folks to the south a bit nutty at times as finding those 'right' leathers is not easy. Not too mention my horrendous Spanish. Thank God I married a woman who paid attention in Spanish class.
Anyhow. After much prototyping, the final leather concepts we arrived at are mind blowing! Seriously, they are so beautiful you truly have to hold them to appreciate the luxury and elegance. That opportunity is coming soon and we cannot wait to show you! I think in my next post I'm going to shift from talking about Crafted materials to discussing our passion for the craftsman.
Talk soon,
Brian
