Toast.

A new collaboration with Toast: Hand-tufted leather bag and pouch made out of waste yarns

Maria Sigma and together with leather worker Candice Lau, we created a tufted bag and pouch for the collection.

“The leather for the circular bag wasn’t in itself a waste material,” says Candice, “I had sourced an Italian cowhide, and putting the remains to work on the pouch meant that the zero-waste idea could run through the whole project, not just the fabric part.” Working with leather more ethically is an ongoing effort for Lau. While she almost always works with leather that’s vegetable-tanned (rather than tanned with chrome, which can be harmful to  the environment), it’s a challenge to use offcuts of leather, when making bags. “Piecing little bits of leather together is very hard,” she says, “and the fashion industry is full of rules for how leather bags should be made – like you can only make a bag from a single piece of leather. It isn’t very receptive to this kind of experimentation.”

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CREATIVE RESIDENCY

In collaboration with Toast and Crafts Council as part of the 'Creative Residency' in 2021, I delivered a cardholder making workshop using the offcuts from the production of this collection of bags and accessories.