Bonner Studio

Jeremy and Carla established Bonner Leather Studio in 2015 and have a workshop just outside Cirencester. They took up leather work during Jeremy’s recuperation from neurosurgery. Largely self-taught, they use traditional hand tools and leather working techniques to complete each stage, taking particular care with the stitching. Concentrating on simple form and design they create contemporary pieces of function and utility.

They use leather from two tanneries in the South West of England - J&FJ Baker of Colyton, Devon established in 1862 Britain's last remaining oak bark tannery whose methods of tanning by hand are largely unchanged since their founding; and Thomas Ware & Sons of Bristol established in 1840, our largest leather pit tannery processing hides from British beef cattle, notably Herefords.  Like Bakers, working by hand the tanning process can take in excess of fifteen months. Any bright-coloured leathers supplied by stockists in Northamptonshire are sourced from family tanneries in Tuscany and are also vegetable-tanned.

The buckles and fittings are usually brass or stainless steel and come from a foundry specialising in equestrian hardware, known as Loriner, in Walsall.  The birch plywood from which they make boxwork and cases is FSC certified and is sourced locally with sheet timber merchants in either Bristol or Stonehouse, Gloucestershire.

Find out more and follow Bonner Studio:
www.bonnerstudio.com

@bonnerleather