You can find a boat load of coasters on the crafter’s market these days… We thought we’d
bring you inside the shop to see how we make ours.
First, we start with a piece of 7-8 oz. natural vegetable tanned leather. Veg Tan leather is gorgeous, it’s easy to work with, and its manufacture, though more expensive and much more time consuming, is much easier on the environment. One of the reasons for choosing the natural veg tan leather is because it reacts so much with its environment. We are big fans of naturally formed patina, and these coasters will start warming up and darkening with exposure to your lifestyle.
We die-cut our coasters the old fashioned way with a mallet and die, and a bunch of elbow grease. Seriously… most people who work regularly with leather would use a die and a press called a clicker which is basically a mechanical and highly efficient evolution of this process.
Using an electric branding iron, we burn our signature baying hound into the lower right of each coaster. This takes a bit of practice getting a consistent brand. We use the same irons we use on our reclaimed wood products.
Next, we hand-bevel all the rough edges and prep them for hand-burnishing. Burnishing is a process of applying a little moisture and friction to smooth the rough exposed leather grain around the edges. We get a little weird satisfaction out of this step. It’s because it really gives the leather a nice finish and feel in hand. It’s a step many don’t do, as the die-cut edge could very well be considered finished, but to us the beveling and burnishing just makes it ‘feel’ more refined.
We follow this up by applying a thin coat of bee’s wax / propolis blend to the edges and top. This helps add a little bit of durability to the exposed surfaces. The product we use is natural, it nourishes the leather but still allows it to breath.
Finally we burnish the edges a second time after they’ve been waxed to get a real silky smooth finish on them.
We really pride ourselves on making items people will enjoy. These coasters will surely be a conversation piece in your home. We hope you will enjoy using them as much as we have enjoyed creating them.
Get your's HERE