Shop Talk! December 2022

It’s December ShopTalk! friends, and I am so excited to tell you about a project we have been working on all year! As many of you know, our family company acquired ShopTalk! in 2017, and since then I have been listening to you, our beloved community. I’ve talked with many of you on the phone, corresponded with even more of you via email and direct messaging, and have had the privilege to meet some of you on the road at various tradeshows across the nation. While listening, I quickly learned a couple of things about you: You are constantly seeking knowledge and wondering who you can learn from and where these learning opportunities happen. You are curious about who to get “such and such” leather from, where to buy “this type” of…

LYNN ASCRIZZI Lynn Ascrizzi is a freelance writer, artist, poet and home gardener who lives in a home that she and her husband, Joe, built in the woods in Freedom, Maine. In the past five years, she has written extensively for ShopTalk! Early on, she taught art and English in public schools and was senior editor, illustrator and art director for Farmstead, a national magazine for small farming and home gardening. Later, she was lifestyle editor, feature writer and syndicated columnist for Central Maine Newspapers. Her poems have been published in several journals and in two anthologies by Down East Books: “Take Heart: Poems From Maine,” (2013) and “Take Heart: More Poems From Maine,” (2016). NICK PERNOKAS Nick Pernokas was raised in New England. As a boy he cleaned stalls for a hack…

Silver Creek Leather has expanded its color offerings of cowhide laces, providing more options to support customers’ needs. These laces are made from US cowhides that are tanned to specification for strength, flexibility, and colorfastness. Laces are American made and cut at the factory located in Jeffersonville, Indiana, so minimums are low, and delivery is prompt. Common sizes are stocked and available in bulk, however, custom lengths and widths can also be ordered. To request your Realeather Cowhide Lace sample card, contact Mitch Hall at 270-991-7106 or email mitch@silvercreekleather.com…

• Competition asks young designers to think natural to break the fast fashion cycle• 2,000 students from 160 institutions and 40 counties compete for title• Judging panel spans from metaverse to high fashion including Hugo Boss MD, Mulberry Head of Sustainability and Institute of Digital Fashion Co-Founders London: The winner of Real Leather. Stay Different. International Student Design Competition 2022, in association with ArtsThread, was announced last night [2 November 2022] at a Live Final. Gal Benjamin, a Fashion Design graduate of Shenkar College of Design, Engineering and Art in Ramat Gan, Israel, was crowned International Winner. Their design, entitled ‘’Alexithymia‘’, was inspired by the condition of that name which describes the inability of men to recognise and express emotion as a result of repressive upbringings caused by the constraints of…

An idea to celebrate leather in a different way was discussed among some friends about a year and a half ago. This idea found echo, support, teamwork, imagination and implementation in the Leather Hour forum. A short story about the Leather Hour, started during the pandemic of 2020, we didn’t know if we would be able to get five people together in a room talking about the topic of leather. But hey, everyone was in one Zoom or another and so things grew. Nearly two years later, we have gone through thousands of hours of talks and followers on various social platforms. So many debates, postings, editorials, meetings, endless Zoom calls with such varied perspective and some obvious, but some taboo, subjects in to our industry such as agriculture, leathermakers, consumers, environmentalists, and…

Michael Magnus is an advertising professional who supports the growth of the leather industry through his marketing agency, Magnus Opus. Among his client partnerships are Silver Creek Leather Co., manufacturers of Realeather® Crafts and Lace, and Jim Linnell’s Elktracks Studio. Learn more at www.magnusopus.com or reach out at michael@magnusopus.com. One of my youngest memories is reading a 10-panel comic strip that my granddaddy had framed on the wall of his office. I always chuckled, never really fully understanding the depth of the message, however, it’s something that resonates with me frequently as an adult. Although I couldn’t find the comic strip, nor would we have the rights to print it, I’ll share with you the parable of “The Hot Dog Story.” There was a man who ran a hot dog cart. He took…