“Leather making and working are part of our national fabric and I am proud to be one of the few makers still employing these traditions of crafting and using the leather that we are famous for throughout the world”.
The Tanner Bates Studio, the new leather company founded by John Hagger, is located at the Cider Press Shopping Centre in Dartington: the Tanner Bates ethos is to preserve traditional leatherwork skills, incorporating contemporary design and naturally tanned leather, to create items of unusual quality and desirability.
It is a great honour and pleasure to take our students to Tanner Bates in Dartington this summer ! And to engage them in a leather project led by very skilled and highly professional craftsmen !! Working at the Tanner Bates Studio is not just doing something: “the Tanner Bates ethos is to preserve traditional leatherwork skills, incorporating contemporary design and naturally tanned leather…”
Such a project doesn’t come up suddenly one morning: it is the result of a long process involving knowledge, passion, determination.
So, this is for John Hagger: “I started working with leather after a mid life change. My grandfather was a leather guilder and before him the family were glovers. I trained in Walsall as a saddler and bridle-maker because I wanted to learn how to work with leather in the traditional way…”
John shows his method of working on YouTube: visit his Studio and see John in action during a “Learn Leatherwork” course.
Welcome back, John!
