Leatherwork for bags
Cut, prepare, stitch and finish: the decisions that shape a leather bag.
EUROPE TODAY / Bags
Vegetable tanning in Tuscany
Before a bag is cut or sewn, a tannery decides how the leather will feel, bend and take colour.
- Where it is practised
- Tuscany, Italy
- Materials & tools
- Animal hides, plant-derived tanning extracts, water and the processing materials selected for the intended leather
- Used in
- Bags
A working craft, today.
In Tuscany, vegetable tanning remains a working material craft supported by tanneries, specialist knowledge and controlled equipment. The name refers to the plant-derived tannins used to transform animal hide into leather; the finished material is still animal leather. Extracts from trees and plants contribute to the material's character. The tanner works towards an intended colour, firmness and handle, combining a chosen recipe with mechanical action and carefully managed processing conditions. Contemporary production can use rotating drums as well as other vessels. For a bag maker, this is an upstream design decision: the material arrives with properties that influence its later cutting, construction and appearance.
Inside the process.
An introduction to the sequence. Materials, tools and working methods vary with the project.
01
Prepare the hide
Before tannage, hides pass through preparation that can include soaking, liming and mechanical removal of unwanted tissue. The purpose is to make the hide ready for the selected tanning route. This is technical tannery work, and its sequence depends on the material and production specification.
02
Build the recipe
Vegetable extracts are selected and combined for the required result. The recipe is considered alongside the amount of processing water, the vessel's mechanical action and the working temperature. A tannin's plant origin alone does not tell the maker how the finished leather will behave.
03
Control the tannage
The prepared hide is treated with vegetable tanning agents in a drum or another suitable vessel. Penetration into the hide's structure is central to the operation. Tanners manage conditions and time to reach the intended material, rather than working to one universal duration.
04
Develop the usable material
After tannage, the leather moves through the operations required by its end use, which may include further treatment, colouring, oiling, drying and finishing. The result is evaluated as a material for leather goods, ready for a different specialist to develop a bag.
THE DECISIONS BEHIND THE DETAIL
Where the skill shows.
- Recipe and process together shape firmness, colour and handle, so the tanner's contribution continues into the design of a finished bag.
- Temperature and mechanical action are working variables: consistent control supports a more consistent material across a production batch.
- Regional manufacture describes where specified operations occur; it does not by itself identify where the raw hide originated.
Made for use.
Leather panels for handbags and small leather goodsStraps, handles and other bag components selected for the required performanceMaterial studies comparing colour, handle and structural response
Follow the craft.
- Vegetable-tanned leather
- Tuscan vegetable-tanned leather technical specifications, second edition, 2021
- Tanning process
- Improving the traditional vegetable tanning process
PHOTOGRAPHS, FILMS & CREDITS
FILM · Vegetable Tanning process in Tuscany
An original consortium film follows vegetable tanning in Tuscany. Published in 2017, it shows material production before the bag maker's cutting and assembly stages.