Andy Bates is a leading leather craftsman, educator and writer of over 40 years’ experience. Based in North Yorkshire, UK, he creates bespoke handstitched leather goods for a wide range of clients and industries. With a specialist interest in historic artefacts, Andy has acquired a repertoire of forgotten craft skills, allowing him to create unique and rare pieces, often incorporating a mix of other materials, from wood and metals, to antler and bone. His work has caught the eye of internationally acclaimed artists such as Grayson Perry and he works as a craft mentor for the award-winning BBC TV series ‘Make it at Market’.
Andy has shared his craft with Exiled on a number of leather products.
Q: Tell us a little about your journey into working with leather?
A: I began working with leather some forty years ago. My degree was in English and archaeology, and through this I started reconstructing historical objects, sometimes for museums. I quickly became entranced by the material and began to study all that I could about it, taking on pretty much any commission that came my way to develop and refine my craft. Before long, I was making bags, cases and pieces for theatre, TV, film and opera. There are so many possibilities for working with leather!
Q: Working across a number of disciplines, how would you describe your approach to craft?
A: A practitioner of a craft should have humility and openness. Even when considered a master, a craftsperson should still be prepared to learn from a novice student. And there should be respect there also; for those that have practiced our craft before and for the material itself. We should not forget that leather was once the skin of a living creature and we should handle it sensitively. And to practice more than one craft provides us with a great repertoire of techniques. Those of one craft can inform another.
Q: What appealed to you about Exiled?
A: I was invited to give a lecture at York College on the history of leather and about my career working with the material. Present at the lecture was Rebecca O’Leary, Exiled’s Textiles Manager, who invited me to design and prototype some goods using leather recovered from former use by one of the household names of the luxury car industry. This opportunity and Exiled’s ethos really appealed to me.
I love the fact the brand is taking what would otherwise be waste material and creating incredibly stylish and desirable products from them. Working with team has been wonderful, too – they are so skilled and fired up about what they’re doing.
Q: How does the luxury car industry leather differ from other sources you have worked with?
A: These leathers are different to the types I would normally use in my work. They are tough, incredibly resilient and will repel any kind of staining or penetration by a spilt liquid. They are perfectly suited to the purpose Exiled products embody – to last and be cherished for the long term.
Q: What are some of the creative and technical challenge, or rewards, working with this type of leather?
A: The main challenge for me initially was how this leather would respond to being worked, cut, shaped and stitched using traditional techniques. The leather I usually create pieces from has a more organic feel and responsive to being manipulated by hand. After some experimentation, I got to know the leather, how it behaved and then everything just flowed from there. This process was very rewarding.
The fact this leather is reclaimed and recycled is of course also deeply satisfying, demonstrating a sense of environmental awareness and responsibility that is rare in my trade. To be able to use my knowledge and experience and skills to turn such material into beautiful objects was a privilege.
Q: What do you hope people feel when they hold or use something you’ve made?
A: I hope first of all that people will recognise the preciousness of the leather. I also hope they will see and feel the skill, sensitivity and experience that has been passed into the leather from me as I have created with it. I am only the carrier – the inheritor – of skills and knowledge that have been passed down by men and women in a continuum of craft since the very beginnings of humanity. As people detect the leather’s subtle scent and understand it is a living material, I hope they feel all the more connected to and appreciative of what they hold.
