Quality: I am committed to providing the best experience possible with everything produced. I consider it a privilege to serve my patrons and take quality initiatives to ensure each order is complete and to the standards you expect.
Collaboration: I take pride in my work, and a significant part of that is due to cultivating an environment of open collaborative dialogue. I encourage feedback from the community as well as other craftsman. This empowers me to be innovative in my designs and services as our customer outreach continues to grow.
Community: I strive to serve the community through our products and services. We encourage constructive feedback and view community involvement as a critical part of our continued growth and product improvement.
Established in 2023, The Artificers is a small boutique located in the greater Grand Rapids, MI area. I produce quality leather goods with premium full grain leather. Everything is crafted, and stitched by hand to ensure the highest quality standards. My brand is rugged yet luxurious giving you the the assurance that you own a one of a kind handmade item. Leather is a medium enriched with potential as no two pieces I create will ever look the same.
Creating quality handmade leather goods weighs heavily on the materials used in the production process. Which is why I only use full grain leather in all my custom leather goods. All of the materials used are hand selected with only the highest quality standards in mind to ensure you are getting the best I have to offer.
Believe it or not, yes! There are generally considered to be four primary types or "grades" of leather that you likely have encountered in one way or another. These grades are as listed from best to worst in the order of full grain leather, top grain leather, genuine leather, and bonded leather.
Full grain leather is the longest lasting, highest quality grade of leather available. This is due to the leather coming from the top layer of the animals hide capturing its tensile strength and unique characteristics such is moisture-resistant properties. Minimal processing is done to this leather capturing all of the hides beautiful natural imperfections like wrinkles, brands, and scars that give the leather is unique and stand alone profile.
It is because of all the unique characteristics and superior quality to the other 3 grades that we only produce our handmade leather goods from full grain leather.
Unlike full grain leather, top grain leather has a smooth uniform appearance and a slightly thinner profile lending it more desired for manufacturers that do not desire the natural imperfections seen in full grain leather. This is achieved by removing the top layer of the leather to remove imperfections and giving the leather a uniform texture for imprinting various designs and textures. However, the primary downside to this grade aside from losing those beautiful imperfections is that it also compromises the leathers integrity as the full tensile strength seen in full grain leather is reduced.
Genuine leather is essentially the entire top layer of the leather removed leaving the body of the leather with significantly reduced tensile strength. Artificial textures and colors are typically applied to give the leather a uniform appearance and is generally used as a lower cost alternative to top grain leather.
Bonded leather is created through the use of leftover pieces of leather manufacturing. Essentially 50% of this leather grade is required to contain animal hide. The scraps, shredded fibers, and other pieces from leather manufacturing are bonded into a solution and then placed onto some sort of backing material. The material can then be transformed into something imitating natural leather by undergoing a process similarly used in producing genuine leather through artificial texture and coloring. This leather is very low in tensile strength and used in less visible product components.
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