SCAD’s School of Fashion recently took a group of students to visit American Tanning & Leather Co. It’s only a few hours away from Savannah in Griffin, Georgia. I have been to several tanneries before and this was by far the most clean and spacious - with incredible amounts of natural light as well.
First, a little info about the company. AMTAN is the oldest and largest exotic leather tannery in the US and 1 of the top 5 reptile tanneries in the world. The company has been owned and operated by the Plott family for 4 generations. They began dealing in fur and exotic skins in the 1920’s and transitioned exclusively to exotic reptiles in the 1980’s. Conservation and farming programs in Florida and Louisiana during the 80’s increased the supply of raw alligator skin and created a sustainable system. AMTAN works directly with alligator hunters to ensure that they get the best raw materials possible. The entire alligator line is 100% sourced and produced in the US. They provide leather to some of the biggest names in luxury fashion and accessories worldwide.
Members of the family oversee different areas within the company. We’ve had the pleasure of working with Christy Plott Redd, the global sales and marketing liaison. She’s visited Savannah and shared her extensive knowledge of exotic leather and the luxury fashion industry with the students of SCAD.
The tannery we toured was renovated by the company in 2002 and occupies more than 60,000 square feet.
Raw alligator skins in the ‘cooler’ room.
Skins in the beginning of the tanning process.
A drum of skins farther along in the process.
Detail from previous photo.
Wet-blue skins. These have been chrome tanned and are waiting to be shaved down and whitened.
Piles of white skins in the ‘crust’ room. The plastic tags signify that the gator is legal to sell. Every skin is tagged by the hunter and the tag goes through the entire tanning process until the skin is sold.
Horn back ‘crust’ skins.
Still more ‘crust’ leather, the amount was overwhelming.
Beautifully organized dying station. Makes me want a peg board in my studio.
Dye bottles.
Light table for checking skins.
Dyed skins drying on racks. The size variation is incredible.
Dyed skins waiting to be polished.
Polishing room. All of the glazed finish leathers are buffed with these machines. An agate stone roller applies pressure to the skins and brings out the shiny finish, no laquer or coating is applied.
A pile of samples in the polishing room.
The sales room with all of the finished skins.
So many amazing colors.
It was such a great experience to see the AMTAN tannery and meet everyone. I hope to be working with some of this leather soon. Even though AMTAN supplies some of the biggest names in luxury fashion, they are happy to work with independent designers and even students to fill small orders.
I made this bag as an example for my students during a structured handbag assignment.
The design was inspired by a vintage vanity case.
I wanted a very retro, 60’s pop look for the bag, so I hand dyed natural leather this electric blue color. I accentuated that with a cream leather lining, silver hardware and black hand stitching.
Back view, riveted leather hinge.
Open view, hand stitched pig skin lining.
Detail, hand stitched handle.
Detail, closure with hand stitched tab.
I’m pleased with the results, it’s a fun little bag. It makes me think of spring but maybe that’s because I took these photos in 76 degree weather (in February!).
I’ll finally be making some shoes for a design project I’ve been working on for several months. Will post something on that soon.
I wanted to make some simple leather goods as presents this year and decided on belts as it’s something everyone can use. I went for classic, minimal designs - straps of thick leather held in place by screws and rivets.
I started with vintage belt buckles, so that each belt would be unique and used different design elements to further customize them.
Here are some photos of the finished belts. Only managed to shoot a few of them, as I was finishing a couple right up until Christmas Eve.
And a few shots from the studio.
Buckles.
Punched holes for hardware.
Hand skiving.
I have a few footwear projects in development and will be sharing those soon.
In my position at The Savannah College of Art and Design, I teach more than just footwear - mostly bags and small leather goods. It’s been nice to think about other accessories again, after focusing on shoes for so long.
To keep my own skills sharp for teaching, I’ve been working on a few bags myself. This is the first one I’ve completed. It’s a small drawstring backpack with a bucket bottom. I combined a thick coral cotton with black leather and silver hardware. It’s just a bright, fun bag - perfect for biking.
More projects to come!
Here are some shots from Fantastic Mag with model Dudley O’Shaughnessy styled by the wonderful Katie Mcdowall. It was great working with her and I’m really pleased with how the photos turned out.
Check out the entire feature here.
Insole channeled.
Making holes in insole for stitching.
Beginning to stitch the welt to the upper and insole.
Stitching the toe.
Finished stitching.
Trimming excess upper leather.
Stitching welt to sole.
Stitching around toe.
Exposed stitching on the sole.
Herringbone stitch on side seam of jodhpur boot.
Cable stitch on back seam of monk shoe.
Attaching horn quarters using back stitch.
Stem stitch on dress oxford.
Inside detail of stem stitch.
Attaching horn toe piece with braided interlock stitch.
Cow horn is one of the most prominent decorative and structural components in my collection. It’s a material that I had always been drawn to in the past but had no idea how to go about using it.
This material was something that I really had to search out and develop my own techniques for using. An integral part of this process was my relationship with Abbeyhorn. They are the last remaining hornworkers in the UK and I found them during my initial research.
I contacted them and arranged a trip to their shop/factory in the Lake District. They were incredibly welcoming and were able to show me the various ways they manipulate the horn and even helped me make a prototype for my first design. They also allowed me to purchase raw materials from them in order to work the horn myself.
Here are some photos fron my trip to Abbeyhorn.
Insanely large pile of raw horns.
Cut and sorted.
Press for flattening the horn.
Open flame for heating the horn to shape it.
Finishing area of the workshop, with owner Paul at the polishing wheel.
Some of the amazing products Abbeyhorn manufacture.
**All of their products are made with cow horns that are byproducts of the meat and leather industry. No horns from rare or endangered species are used.**
The color palette for my collection is mostly black, grey and neutral, so it was very important for my to incorporate pops of color. I chose thread for all of my handstitched details in blues, green and purple. In order to make the stitching stand out while on display (and to add some playfulness) I decided to get my linings custom dyed to match the threads. After doing some research and talking to a few of my classmates, it was clear that Metropolitan Leather was the best choice.
Metropolitan Leather (www.metropolitanleather.com), is a lovely company run by Roy Winnard in Northamptonshire. They were incredibly welcoming during my visit and are willing to work with individuals (even students) to help you get exactly what you need, even if that means telling you another company to go to. They specialize in bridle leather and every thickness of veg tan that you can imagine, but they also have a great stock of chrome tan, etc.
The colorist, Stuart was very helpful and was able to match all of my colors perfectly. I decided to use a very thin, supple veg tan as the base. The results are just incredible, I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. This is a company I will definitely work with again in the future.
Here are some photos from my trip.
Dye mixing area.
Spray booth.
Hooks for hanging leather in the spray booth and to dry.
Piles of veg tan.
Roy feeding a piece of leather through an amazing old measuring device. Probes ‘feel’ the leather as it goes through and calculates the square footage on the dial.
Style 5 Mock Up
I think this boot might be my favorite of the collection, despite the fact that it took ages to make. In order to get the seamless front (vamp), I had to hand block a large piece of leather on the last over a period of several days. Then patterning was tricky because you have a flat pattern and a 3 dimensional piece of leather that you need to cut it from.
There are a few issues I will be correcting for the final. The top of the vamp leans back a bit too much and rubs against the calf when worn, so I will be changing the shape of my block. There will also be some handstitching at the side overlay. Also the final leather will be nice and smooth, this mock up got quite beaten up during the blocking process. The horn used for the final will be a bit darker as well.
Style 7 Mock Up
This mock up is still a bit unresolved, lots of questions to answer before I can move on to the final. I really love how the big piece of horn sits over the vamp and the hinge worked out well. I’m not very happy with the straps that hold the horn onto the shoe or the black and cream color combo (even though it worked really well in another shoe). Luckily the technical aspects of the horn worked out, I really just need to go back and make some design/aesthetic decisions.
One more mock up to go!
The amazingly kind and talented team at Carreducker have been advising me on all things technical for my final collection. They have given me countless resources for supplies and shared their vast knowledge of welting and general shoemaking.
They recently mentioned me on their blog, which was completely unexpected and really inspiring.
http://carreducker.blogspot.com/2010/10/trouble-with-elves.html
During the first half of August, the studios at school were deserted and most of my classmates were away. I decided I needed a break from my collection and wanted to make something just for fun.
I’ve been promising my significant other a pair of shoes for a while and I thought it was really important for me to make a pair of fully functional shoes that I could see being worn and target any comfort / craftsmanship problems.
I wasn’t completely happy with the mock up I made for my Style 2 shoe and decided to make a simplified version of them. They turned out great, all the issues I had with the mock up can be attributed to the awful leather I was using.
I took a few short cuts to speed up the project. Instead of hand welting the shoes, I used randing, which gives the appearance of a welt but is just glued into place. I also used a pre-made heel. Aside from those things, I made everything by hand.
I stitched my own randing, so that the thread would match the stitching on the upper. It is normally just white/natural color.
Randing glued into place. Just needs to be trimmed to fit.
The finished pair.
I waxed his initials onto the soles - a personalized touch.
The shoes in action.
It has been so nice to see him wearing them around. So far they seem to be very comfortable. I’m most excited to just watch them age and get worn it. Hopefully there won’t be any major issues and he’ll be able to wear them for years to come.
