Month: April 2024

April 26th is know as World Leather Day, a day to celebrate the quality, beauty and versatility of full grain leather.  Leather can be a sound choice as a more sustainable up cycled product that is more environmentally friendly than some alternatives like plastics.

Leather is one of the oldest products that man has made and it’s still very useful to this day.  From clothing to boots to wallets, full grain leather still has many key uses in modern society.   It is a versatile and durable product that outperforms and outlasts many modern materials like plastics or synthetic fibers.  By replacing plastics and other synthetic polymer based fibers leather can help keep micro-plastics out of the environment and the food chain.  Also full grain quality leather can be repaired to extend it’s lifetime or it can be recycled or up cycled into other products, further reducing it’s environmental impact.

All leather is actually a byproduct of the meat industry.  Leather starts off as an animal hide that would be discarded in a landfill if it wasn’t converted to a useful product.  While the tanning process does produce waste chemicals the industry has made great strides on minimizing their waste and treating their contaminated water runoff to mitigate environmental impacts.  The tanning industry has made great strides in reducing their carbon and environmental footprint in recent years.

Full Grain Leather’s Impact

Whether it’s a leather garment, a leather boot or a carved leather notebook like the one shown above, the environmental impact that genuine full grain leather can have on the world should not be dismissed.  There is still a wide variety of uses for leather in our modern world and it’s a material that should be embraced.  Here on World Leather Day we celebrate this most versatile of materials and how it continues to improve and enhance our daily lives.

I was at my local library yesterday and ran across a book called “Art of the Buckle” by Jim Arndt and Mary Emmerling. It’s a pictorial book depicting various kinds of custom and handmade belt buckles.  Many are silver with mounted stones like turquoise.

This book caught my eye because of the silver and turquoise work but also when I opened it I ended up in a section of hand engraved silver work for Ranger belt sets.  The artistry was definitely eye catching and in ways it was inspiring too.  It definitely made me want to build a Ranger style belt for myself!

Custom leather belts have long been a part of the customer leather work we do here at C and B Leather.  I’ve made floral carved belts, geometric stamped designs and even belts with tooled mountain scenes.  Since my early days, making belts for customers has been a part of my work.  Looking at a book like this is inspiring because I look at the various buckle designs and wonder ‘what kind of belt would I make to match this buckle’?  The artwork on these buckles can definitely make me think about leather art designs for custom belts that I never would have thought of before.

If you are interested in a custom belt contact us to get the process started.  We take your measurements and make a belt specifically for you.  You can also choose from our existing floral or geometric designs or present us with your design ideas and we’ll do our best to make them come to life.  For more information about what goes into making custom leather belts check out this blog post for more details.

If you are interested in getting a copy of this book you can get in on Amazon here.  Please note I am also an Amazon Associate and I earn commissions on qualifying purchases.