Ever wondered what it takes to run a leather goods brand?
Sales, marketing, customer service, PR, content, social media, finance and accounting, logistics and last but certainly not least: design and craftsmanship.
Most modern leather goods brands that you see coming past on your social media feeds, Google, or on your shopping in the city, have a large scale team for everything. A team in charge of marketing, a team for customer service, a department for finance, PR, design and logistics. But almost all of them have one thing in common: They outsource the craftsmanship and manufacturing of their designs to a third party.
What many people might not know is that at Karu Atelier we are actually just a team of 2. The two of us do everything that needs to be done to keep our small leather goods business running.
So, let us introduce ourselves:
We are two 26 year olds, Daniela from Turku, Finland, and Bart from Utrecht, The Netherlands. We value traditional handcraft, nordic lifestyle, lasting quality and most importantly, sustainable practices. We met on the east coast of Australia in 2012, and have been inseparable ever since.
We are your customer service reps answering your messages and Instagram DMs, even at 11pm on a Sunday night. We are the marketing team that updates our social media channels and creates our Facebook ads. We write all our own content, from this blog post to every single detail on our website. We design our own pieces, and above all, at the heart of our business: we craft every single bag and accessory by hand with a lot of love, patience and attention to detail.
Without you, we wouldn't be able to do what we love. This is why we want to take this time to thank you guys. It is your continued support that allows us to craft and do this for a living. To do this in a sustainable way, to be a brand that wants to be a part of the solution, not the problem. Thank you for being with us every step of the way, and we hope that you will continue to follow us along, as we are planning on doing this for the rest of our lives.
As a thanks, for all of you that have been dying to get your hand on a Karu Atelier bag, we might have a little surprise for you in the coming weeks. ;)
See bags for women | See bags for men | See accessories for women
Want to know why we packed up our stuff and moved our atelier to Spain? keep on reading...
In 2018, both not studying anymore, working 30-40 hours a week to pay the bills, and still running Karu Atelier on the side, we noticed that our brand, which meant so much to us, was stalling a little bit. With our jobs taking up most of our time, we were not able to make Karu Atelier grow the way we wanted.
We were stuck in a bit of a paradox: on one side, we could only grow by spending more time on it, which would mean quitting our day jobs and work full time on the brand we both loved.
On the other hand, Karu was not big enough to put food on our table and keep a roof over our heads. What we did know was that this is what we loved doing, and what we saw for our future, and so after a few weeks of debating, the decision was made.
We scraped together all our savings, belongings, tools and leather, bought plane tickets and moved to Spain, to a city neither of us had ever been to before. Valencia.
All we knew was that it was by the ocean, it was sunny for most of the year, and the people were friendly. Above all, we knew no one there, so we would be able to fully concentrate on the thing we wanted to be doing: Making high quality leather goods that last a life-time, without compromising on sustainability.
That was about 6 months ago now. I am not going to lie, it has been hard. Sometimes, in a slow month there is crying and frustration, not knowing how we are going to make it to the next month, as with any entrepreneur bootstrapping it. The next month it picks up, and we are feeling on top of the world, because everything is working out just right, only to have the following month be really slow again. Ups and downs as they say.
With your support, we can continue to do what we love and make products for that you can cherish forever.
Thank you for reading.
]]>Below you can see some of the previous bespoke items we have made.
Bespoke Carryall Tote for a client who wanted the perfect large tote she can carry every day. Made to fit everything she needs on a normal day, a laptop, accessories, extra clothes and workout gear. She also really wanted to add a bit of chain to make the bag pop.
Karu goes for high-end quality.
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As we strive for high-end quality, craftsmanship is one of the key pillars that Karu is firmly placed upon. We have chosen to keep the entire process in-house. All our bags and accessories are made entirely by hand in our own atelier, from the very first drawings and concepts, to the hand-stitched, finished product, ready to be united with its new owner.
By keeping the whole process in-house, we can guarantee consistent quality, and make sure that our production line is as sustainable as possible. When crafting our products, we use traditional French and Italian methods that have been used in saddlery and bag making for centuries. These techniques are very time consuming, as it takes anywhere from 6 to 32 hours to make our different types of bags. The resulting aesthetics, quality, and durability, however, are unparalleled, which makes it all worth it a 100 times over. In fact, we believe in these methods so much that all our products come with a life-time warranty!
All the steps add up to quite a significant amount of hours.
Below is an outline of our production process:
Firstly we select the best possible leather for the specific item that we are going to craft. Here we look at the tensile strength, temper, colour and general appeal. After the right leather has been selected, each piece is cut out by hand with special knives and scalpels.
For intricate patterns we might use a paper template. Larger pieces are cut out free-hand or with a ruler. When all individual pieces have been cut out, we glue the full-grain leather pieces directly on the the soft lining leather with eco-friendly glues. This creates highly durable leather panels that serve as both the outside, and inside of your bag.
When the panels are ready, some of the edges have to be painted (up to 8 layers!) as they would be unreachable after the bag has been assembled. After this step we hot-stamp our logo into the leather, either with silver foil, or regularly embossed.
To be able to stitch the bag by hand, each of the individual components needs to have every single stitch hole perforated before the assembly process begins. For this we use a line groover to line out where the punctures have to be, and a pricking iron to make them. This tool has 1-6 sharp prongs in a row and can be punched through leather with a rubber mallet. This creates an even line of diamond shaped holes. depending on the size of the project, the number of holes that need to be perforated can be well into the thousands.
When all the panels have been perforated, it is time to ensemble them together. Unlike most contemporary brands, we do not use a sewing machine! To do this we use a traditional saddle stitch. This particular way of stitching bags is done entirely by hand, and has been used in the craft of saddlery and bag making for centuries. This technique, however time consuming, results into a stitch-line that is unrivalled by a sewing machine in terms of both durability, and aesthetics. Depending on the intricacy of the design this means that our products have anywhere from a hundred stitches, to many thousands of stitches, all done by hand.
Once the product has been stitched together, there is still a lot of work to do. Firstly we sand all of the edges, to make sure they are smooth, and as even as possible. After this, we use an eco-friendly edge paint which we apply by hand with an edge paint roller. Once the first layer has naturally dried, the edge glazed with a hot iron and is then lightly sanded again, and another layer is added on top. Depending on how many layers of leather are stitched on top of each other, this process needs to be repeated, anywhere from 3 to 8 times, or until the desired edge is achieved.
When we are satisfied that the edge has enough coatings, we use a special heating tool to glaze all the edges one last time . This ensures that all separate coats bond to each other, and to the leather edge. After the heat glazing, beeswax is applied to all the edges and burnished. A small amount of natural wax polish is used, and the bag is buffed. The bag now has perfectly smooth, shiny edges, and is ready for its final inspection, where after it is packaged.
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Hope this blog post taught you a little bit more about what it means to craft a bag with traditional techniques. Keep an eye on this space for our next blog post. But for now, have a great day!
WE ONLY USES THE VERY BEST, FULL-GRAIN, VEGETABLE TANNED LEATHER.
At Karu we care deeply about sustainability, both environmental, as well as social. And because we are committed to only using the very best quality materials available, we strictly use organic, full-grain vegetable tanned leather from our chosen Artisanal tannery.
This tannery is one of the remaining 5% of tanneries in the world, that strictly use vegetable tanning methods to produce their leather, and their process is certified non-toxic and organic. They exclusively source their hides from their local agricultural industry, and no animal is used just for its hide.
When leather is vegetable tanned, it means that the leather is prepared using only plant and tree extracts, opposed to the use of metal salts and toxic chemicals in chrome tanned leather.
The aesthetic of vegetable tanned leather is unparalleled and the patina that it develops with use over time cannot be produced any other way. It is also the only way to produce premium leather of desired quality while at the same time respecting our environment. The tannery has been given the STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX® Certificate, which guarantees that the tannery is free of heavy metals as well as any substance that could be harmful to the environment of when in contact with human skin.
But unlike chrome tanning, which can take a raw hide and tan it within half an hour by using heavy metal salts and toxic chemicals, vegetable tanning is a long, artisanal process. This process requires an immense amount of skill, and can take anywhere from 3 to 6 months to complete depending on the size and thickness of the hide. Therefore it is an expensive method, that reflects in a higher price point than chromium tanned leather.
OUR LEATHER CREATES A BEAUTIFUL PATINA OVER TIME, BUT WHAT IS IT?
Patina is the hallmark of a high quality leather item - a patina, a soft sheen that develops on the surface of the leather, imparting a character, and personality to the product. It is like a unique stamp of ownership, - entirely different for every user, and every product.
A naturally developed patina is the ultimate goal for your leather goods - but it takes time, as all good things do. The darkening in some places, the honey glaze in others, and even the accumulation of scratches and scuffs that come with natural usage - all of them go into creating an aura of weathering that is truly beautiful to behold.
A thumb rule is - the less the leather is processed, the better and more pronounced the patina will be. Conversely, highly finished or painted leather will hardly, if ever, gather a patina.
All our leather is vegetable tanned and coloured with an aniline dye (a dye that leaves the natural look and grain of leather in tact) which is one the best candidates to develop a nice patina, pull-up leather is the next in patina hierarchy, while finished, chrome-dyed leather will never develop one.
Leather connoisseurs value patina to an extent that some leather producers, makers of leather products, and the owners go to great lengths to develop it artificially!
WHAT ABOUT SCRATCHES AND SCUFFS?
Yes, the scratches and scrapes that gather on the surface are also an integral part of the patina. Whilst you maintain and condition your leather item, these marks will fade out slightly, and become part of the overall patina that the material accumulates.
However, you may be the type that likes to retain the new, store-bought look on your leather accessories for as long as possible. In that case, you may want to select leather products with more artificial surface finishing, or coated leathers.
Up next...
In our next blog posts you will learn the difference between a truly hand-made and hand-stitched leather product, and one that has been made using a sewing machine.
But for now, have a great day!
Greetings,
The Karu team.
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When choosing your next leather bag or accessory, there are two main things that you need to inform yourself about:
In our next few blog post we will take you on the journey of our craftsmanship, but first we would like to tell you the story of leather.
To understand how truly special our leather is, you need know a little more about the history of leather.
The earliest references to tanning (preserving the animal hides) appear around 8,000 BC - These pioneers of leather tanning scraped the hair from the hide and then treated it with urine or brains to preserve and soften the material. This process remained the same for several thousand years.
History credits ancient Greeks with developing a revolutionary tanning formula using water-soaked leaves and certain tree barks to preserve leather. This process, called vegetable tanning, uses the tannins (thus, the term “tanning”) that occur naturally in the leaves and bark. The tannins bind to the collagen proteins in the animal hide, coat them, and cause them to become less water-soluble, which makes them resistant to bacteria and prevents the hide from putrefying. Vegetable tanned leather became a well-established trade in Greece around 500 BC, and the Romans made wide use of leather for a range of different applications.
After the industrial revolution however the combination of new demands and new technology led to the development of chromium tanning (or “mineral tanning”), which irreversibly changed the craft of tanning leather. Mineral tanning uses chromium sulfate, is faster than vegetable tanning, and produces a more stretchable leather, which was better suited for mass production.
But, chromium tanned leather is very un-suited for, branding, tooling, painting, or carving. Another problem with leather made in this fashion is that it is not as durable, and aesthetically pleasing as Vegetable tanned leather. The industry of chromium tanning even has a dark side, as the process is extremely toxic for both the environment, and the people producing the leather.
Even so, after the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of chromium tanning, the practice of vegetable tanning nearly died out.
In the contemporary fashion world, Vegetable tanned leather has become the most desirable type of leather again, due to its aesthetics, durability, quality, and sustainability. But not everyone has the skills to produce it, making it rare and highly regarded.
Up next...
In our next blog post we will let you in on which leather we use, and why it is so special.
But for now, have a lovely day!
Regards,
the Karu team.
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Karu is a luxury brand that specializes in leather bags and accessories for men and women. Karu is inspired by the Nordic wilderness and our products are artfully crafted from exquisite Vegetable Tanned Leather and other natural and sustainable materials.
We focus on traditionally handcrafted leather goods, inspired by Scandinavian life-style, minimalism and sustainability.
All Karu products are made entirely by hand in our own studio, from the very first design concept until the finishing touches. Measuring, Cutting, and Sewing all done with traditional methods - by hand.
We use the highest quality, sustainable vegetable tanned leather' and oversee every step of the production process, to ensure items that are made to last a lifetime.
Natural, minimal and functional.
We believe in products that are made to last: in both quality and style. Leather has been used throughout time because of its durable and flexible nature. Our products are designed to be functional using minimal design, and left looking natural thus emphasising the beauty of the leather. Karu is inspired by the beautiful, tranquil Nordic nature, and stays true to its deeply embedded Finnish roots.
Our journey in leather working began quite some years ago now. I needed a new wallet, but like any other student, I couldn't afford buy exactly the kind of wallet I wanted. So rather than spend my money on something I didn't really like, I waited. Until one day, I came across a lovely little fabrics market in the city I now call my home, Utrecht. After spending a little while there I found the greatest thing of all: A stand full of leather hides and scraps. And there the spark of an idea began.
"I can make one from leather myself"
So I bought some nice pieces of leather, went to a handful of craft stores around the city and got my self some basic leather crafting tools, whereafter I started straightaway.
We have grown a lot in skill since our first successful Crowdfunding campaign to get Karu of the ground. Now we are a team of two self taught craftsmen, making every single one of our pieces by hand in our Atelier in the historic city centre of Utrecht.
At the moment we are planning some exciting partnerships with retailers, and we are working hard on increasing the offerings in our standard collections. But remember: we love making bespoke and custom items, so that our customers can get the bag they have always dreamt of.
Watch this space for upcoming blogs on us, Craftsmanship, and Sustainability and much, much more!
Regards,
The Karu team
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