Hey Jude - Happy Birthday!

I’ve been keeping this piece a little bit of a secret, since I know as soon as it hits my Facebook feed, the new owner will know it is for her.  Or, she’ll be tempted to ask me if she can buy it.  This Jude Travel Bag is a gift for my stepmother for her birthday – she has been a wonderful supporter (both by purchasing M&O goods and by taking care of my little girl so I can make them) over the last few years and she deserves something special that was designed just for her.

So, inspired by Hawai’ian quilts, I made this bag.  The pattern has little turtles (which she loves) worked into a symmetrical floral pattern.  I didn’t want the piece to be too turtle-y, so the flowers and vines seemed like a wonderful way to incorporate them into a pattern.  The colors are yellow, green, sage, white, bronze and antique black has brass hardware.  It’s available, as a made-to-order, piece through MOXIEandOLIVER.com if you’d like one of your own.

xo

c

Introducing the Musette Bag

Do you know what a musette bag is?  Yeah, neither did I, and if you google search it you really don’t find much that is helpful.  But at the request of my brother-in-law, I carefully examined his well-loved cycling musette bag and created a new one – a little more sophisticated than the canvass bag that they hand out to cyclists during the race, and a little more practical for every-day use.  It did take a bit of convincing, but I got him to let me put a flap on the bag, rather than leaving it open like a traditional musette (wouldn’t want your things to fall out, would you?).  He chose the Nice pattern with a wood grain and heart, and a simple snap closure.  So, new to the Moxie and Oliver made-to-order catalog is the Nice Musette Bag in two sizes – the large is the size of an original musette (about 11x14), and the medium is sized to fit an ipad (about 9x12). 

Oh, yeah, and I loved the design so much that I decided to make a second one – the Owl in the Woods Musette.  Also available in two sizes.

Enjoy!

xo

c

Are you bonded?

 

Bonded sounds like a good thing – if you’re going to hire a moving company or a contractor or something of the sort.  You look for the ones that are “Licensed, Bonded, Insured,”  right?  In this scenario it means that the company is backed by a bond company so that if they walk out on the job, or they steal your Moxie and Oliver purse, you can file a claim with the bond company (it’s similar to insurance, but covers the things that insurance doesn’t – in my understanding, it covers the criminal things that could go wrong)

So, what if you’re looking at a couch and it says “bonded leather” on it?  What in the world does that mean?  I have actually been looking for a few chairs for my husband’s office and recently came across one that said it was made of “bonded leather” and I – a leathercrafter by trade – had to look it up.

Bonded leather is the same thing as “recycled” or “reconstituted” leather.  Rather than being made of a single piece of cow (or other animal) hide, it’s made of the little scraps of leather that are too small to use for anything else.  I’ve heard the process of making bonded leather described as similar to making paper – if you’ve ever done this, it involves blending up old scraps of paper, mixing them with glue, and straining them. 

With bonded leather, the leather is ground up and then mixed with polyvinyl acetate (PVA) and then rolled and stamped to look like real leather.  It usually has a fabric backing to hold it together (much like the fabric backing on vinyl)  but if you’re buying a piece of bonded leather furniture, you wouldn’t see this until the piece tears.

Bonded leather can actually be as little as 17% leather but since it contains leather, for a chair or a couch, the tag may actually say “leather” on it.  Apparently it’s the subject of both controversy and confusion, so much so that the Federal Trade Commission has published guidelines for labeling bonded leather.

There are several purported advantages to bonded leather, but I have a hard time thinking any of them are real advantages.  It’s a product made with chemicals, plastic, and minimal leather, whereas vegetable tanned leather is a meat industry co-product/by-product that uses natural substances in the tanning process.  I read one site that said comparing bonded vs. real leather was like comparing ground beef vs. steak, and that’s about how I see it – instinctually, how can a bunch of pieces of leather and fabric be anywhere near as strong as a single piece of cowhide?

So, there you have it.  Bonded leather (also called recycled or reconstituted) is like paper, or fiberboard, but using leather (and possibly only minimal amounts).  So if you’re out at the store looking at furniture, book covers, or accessories, be sure to look carefully to see if it is genuine full-grain leather, or if it’s leather scrap.  As always, I use only full-grain vegetable tanned leather – the genuine leather stuff – so you’ll always know you’re getting a top quality, 100% leather, product.

xo

c

There is hope

So yesterday after being told that I couldn't make a shoe in vegetable tanned leather I decided I would find a way.

Then today I find, in the studio, a pair of continuous wrap sandals.  I asked the instructor what they were made out of.

"Veg tan"

Huh.  Couldn't you have just said that yesterday???

Then someone in class showed me abk shoes, based in NYC.  She is obsessed with the shoes, which are very simple, tooling hide shoes that aren't dyed on the inside.

Interesting, I think.  I could do that.  But with flowers.  And lace cut-outs.  The world is too beautiful to fill with brown shoes.

Night,
C