A veteran in the leather industry, Diego Diaz’s career begun at one of the most established and traditional tanneries in Argentina when he was just 15 years old. Today, Diego works closely Timothy Oulton to create world class leathers of natural beauty. Constantly pushing the boundaries of leather craft, unorthodox methods are woven with age old hand-finishing techniques to explore new ways of living with leather.
A Q&A with Diego
Diego, what is it about leather, why are you so
passionate about it?
I have always loved leather - especially leather jackets and
boots. When I was young, my grandfather gave me my first pair of
leather boots as a present. Somehow, somewhere, I do still have
them! I was always into rock music and motorcycles, and leather is
naturally part of that.
"One of my customers once told me "You are an artist; your canvas is the leather",
Where does your inspiration come from?
It could be an old pair of boots, a piece of wood, stone,
anything really. I experiment in my laboratory or 'magic room' as I
like to call it. My experiments have involved putting the leather
through a concrete mixer and pouring different concoctions over the
hides. It's a trial and error process, I make adjustments along the
way until I come up with something really interesting.
How do you process the leather?
We don't ever use pigments, because you need to apply lots of
layers of coating which means the end result is very plain and
unnatural. We use transparent natural dyes instead, they give the
exact colour you want without adding extra layers to the
leather.
Was the task of arriving at a vintage look with leather
a difficult one?
It was more the touch that was problematic. In order to get the
cracked vintage look, the material has to be hard so it will break.
The task was then to smooth and soften the leather which we achieve
by stretching the material.
What distinguishes good quality leather from bad
quality?
The finishes are what matters - that's why we do everything by
hand. Our aim is to showcase leather as a natural, beautiful
material. People forget sometimes that leather is a natural
product. We take a by-product from a much larger industry and
create something beautiful - pieces that last for generations and
actually get better with age and use.
What is so special about the way you work with
leather?
What's more important is the amount of time we spend on each
piece - how much 'hand label' we put into it is what really
distinguishes us from the rest.
Do you consider yourself more of an artist or a
craftsman?
One of my customers once told me "You are an artist; your canvas
is the leather", which I took as a very special compliment, because
that is exactly what we strive to do - create something unique and
beautiful. It's a creative process.
the art of leather
Find out more about our unique leathers and explore our leather
collections.
