My Story

Back in the mists of time, well 1987 if you're really counting the years, I became a professional leather craftsman. In my mid teens my father would send me to Gilford, 3 miles away, on my bicycle to buy the newspapers and my comic. It was there I discovered a shop called "Shane's Leathers". I was drawn to the beautifully crafted bags in the window and would spend ages looking at them in wonder, smelling their beautiful leathery smell and wondering how they were made and by whom.  Eventually Shane noted my enthusiasm one day and handed me the brush and thus began a world of learning. I watched, listened, asked questions and did small jobs.  I learned about leather work and I learned how to use my hands. Then one day Shane announced he was moving to London since that's where his clients like Harrod's were and I was disappointed.  However I got busier working on my fathers farm, learning the old hand skills, fixing things, learning time management and doing my o-levels. When I left school I worked on the farm and began leather craft as a hobby for those winter evenings. I bought my tools and materials through adverts in exchange and mart and began making everything and anything using the patterns from the books the leather merchants supplied.  I made small plaited wristbands for myself and people I met bought them and suggested selling to a shop in Belfast called Fresh Garbage.  Thus I began supplying them with wristbands, studded and concho belts, bootstraps.  The youth culture was booming back then, post-punk, gothic, metal.  By the late 80's I was supplying alternative shops all over the UK and Ireland.

That market petered off somewhat but luckily a new trend came in prompted by jean adverts from companies like Levi.  Once again the quality belt with an americano type buckle came in vogue and I was supplying shops like Guiney's and Arnotts in Dublin.  All the while my experience in fix and repair grew as I was asked to fix everything for every sport, profession and hobby.  My main custom base though was for custom work for the biker scene.  I'd been advertising regularly in BSH Back Street Heroes since 1987. The was fortunate for by 2000 the jeans belt market had petered off but the biker market was booming with the into of the new Harley Twin Cam engine.  The market grew, the shop grew. I was importing stock from Indian Larry, Exile Cycles, Easyriders etc.  It grew and grew, and Grew! and then went bust around 2010 or so.  I closed the shop, but the stock online and went back to collage to study art and graphic design, graduating in 2016.