K. Bellum Leather, Charleston, SC
I moved to the United States from Japan in 2002 as a teacher. When one of my students wanted to trade leather working lessons for Japanese language classes, I said yes and began my journey into leather designing. After several years of leather study, I gave up teaching to do leather working full time. I currently work out of a small workshop in Charleston where I design and produce all of my leather goods. I design my leather goods by hand without computer software.
I use both aniline-dyed leather and vegetable-tanned leather. I hand-dye the vegetable-tanned leather using both alcohol and acrylic dye. My designs are intended to be useful as well as artistic. I combine the best features of traditional Japanese aesthetic design and American artistic innovation to produce beautiful leather products that will last for years.