“The Global Citizen Series of Charms”

Posted on April 23, 2012 by fouad

"The Global Citizen Series of Charms"

This line of charms is a co-creation between Sevine Samadi and myself, inspired by our own travels and our love and respect for all cultures, we wanted to allow people from all walks to choose something meaningful to them – We did our best to represent all corners, (we do however know we only touched the tip of the ice berg)-

As we created this we found that often the same symbols were sacred to multiple cultures – Sometimes with the same meaning and sometimes a different one -
We named it the “Global Citizen” series as a way to embody the cross pollination that is happening all around the world – Where humans are becoming what’s important not nations-
We invite you to choose the charms that speak to you, and to wear them with intention, as a reminder of the magic and potential you hold inside.
Since God gave us CHOICE why not live a charmed life

Ultimate Handy “Chew Toy”

Posted on March 21, 2012 by fouad

It is a glorious sunny day in Beirut, Lebanon (where our administrative office is) – and it’s “Mothers Day” here, I have been a step mother to my husband’s two wonderful sons for 18 years and last year we had a baby, what an amazing experience it is, they are such a little miracles.

"Baby AZLAN Chewing on a Union Bangle"

My Sons name is Azlan (the lion with a big heart) he is 6 months old. As any parent knows babies want to put everything in their mouths, when they are small , which leaves parents often caught out needing “toys” to entertain their little one’s.

My Union bangles - rarely leave my arm (I have worn them constantly since I invented them in 2009.) they provide endless fun for Azlan whenever I find myself caught out, they are totally organic, made only with plant and animal based substances - safe for babies to chew on – in fact I have actually had more than one mother of a teething baby contact us in search of a piece of leather scrap

Happy Mothers day to all of you mothers out there xo Rowan

Free Monthly Q & A webinar/conference call with OL Founder Rowan Gabrielle

Posted on March 15, 2012 by fouad

Rowan Gabrielle "Founder of Organic Leather"

1st Thursday of every month 6pm GMT (10am West Coast time, 1pm East Coast time)

Having been in the industry for 10 years now, I have learned so much and am eager to share this with others, as the leather industry is still one of the top polluting industries in the world. It is a vast and sometimes secretive business, but I have developed a good network of advisors and I love to constantly educate myself in this field, I also value your knowledge, so think of it as an open discussion as well.

This call is predominantly for designers and educators, but any one is welcome-

Webinar will be live on the “OL Channel” under the “Media” Tab on our web site- (Webinar will show in place of current top video).

Becoming an OL featured designer.

Posted on March 7, 2012 by fouad

Our goal at OrganicLeather is for it to become “The HUB of all things organic in leather”

"The Snake Belt" By Michi McOliver

When we began our ambition was to create and inspire a new industry, now that it is established, our aim is to market and promote that industry – It is now 10 years from the day we registered the domain name OrganicLeather.com and it feel’s like it is this year that the “fire” really began to spread like wild, all the big leather conferences are now talking about Eco-Tanning and it seems like every one is wanting organic leather-It is definitely the cutting edge when it comes to leather- So with that in mind we have build a robust shopping experience that allows us to add designers and allows OrganicLeather.com to act kind of like the “amazon.com” of the leather world, where by we market the goods, but they are shipped straight form the designer-

If you are interested in being a featured designer please email us: info –at- organicleather.com

"Muriel..wearing Michi McOliver"

The Making of a Union Bangle

Posted on February 20, 2012 by yassin

: Union Bangles on Rayan Terro

The hides are 1st hand cut into strips and then edged with an edging tool (a sharp grooved knife) to give them the soft rounded edges, dyed with a natural edge dye, then hole punched and fitted together with a sterling silver ring.

Being made from leather the Union bangles have a life of thier own, then change and mold to you as you ware them, getting better and better with each day they are with you- we have some customers that never take them off, they swim/shower and everything in them, and they still just keep getting better- if you are ready for your Union Bangles we have Black, Brown and Dark Brown in stock.

Black Union Bangles with Dragon Fly Charm

”Union” – A wonderfully simple marriage of Sterling silver and a rather distinguished Britishleather – two interlocking circles – nothing more nothing less. The circle begins where it ends, and ends where itbegins – just like life.

Add charms of your choice and start living a “charmed” life.

Where do your hides come from

Posted on February 11, 2012 by yassin

Organic Free Ranged Cows

Question from Customer Danielle: One question – have you ever visited the farms that supply you? That would be interesting to just confirm that they are also animal lovers and take care both with their lives and death.

Answer: When we 1st started this we knew the exact farm our leather was coming from, it was the best one in California where they have their own slaughter house on their land and the animals are not shipped any distance before slaughter- However the tannery we were working with was ancient, and closed down-

The path between the Farm and the tannery is not at all direct, the cattle, and then the hides go through numerous hands- and so far it is very much challenging to track the individual hides as they go through this process-

We are in the process of coming up with a system to track them and I believe with in a year we will have a much better tracking system.

This is why for now we have chosen to work with South America for getting our Eco Friendly Leather hides where we at least know the animals are free range, and lead good lives- We know nothing of the manner of their death though and wont be able to comment on that until we go down there later this year.

As for our Organic Leather hides, these hides come from the U.K , were we work closely with the organic farm and the tannery. The cows are raised on open pasture lands (with organic feed when necessary in the winter months). The farms we work with are all certified organic. Check our O.L channel where we had done an interview with the owner of the main farm we work with.

As this is a complex and deeply “entrenched in it ways” system- we have chosen to tackle things one at a time-

Our 1st priority is not adding any further pollution to the environment through the tanning- since the leather it’s self is a byproduct of an existing industry, this is the 1st area where we can really have impact in changing things- so now we have that in place and are able to supply an ecologically tanned product to get us all started, we can start improving other aspects of the chain.

“Originally posted on July 15, 2010 “

Charmed Living

Posted on February 4, 2012 by yassin

Second High Chi, Organic Leather Co-Branding Shoot- Life at Stinson beach is definitely pretty “Charmed” and a day of shooting there with exceptional women was a joy indeed.

Organic Leather Union Bangles and Organic Sheepskin Jacket

"Union Bangles" with "Chi Charms" and High Chi Jewelry, Custom Organic Sheepskin Jacket.

Deborah Stuart and Sonia Lub, Living the Charmed Life in Bangles and Jewels.

All Photographs and Article by Rowan Gabrielle

“Originally posted on July 12, 2010 ”

Live a Charmed Life

Posted on January 25, 2012 by yassin

: Joey House wearing “Union Bangles” and High Chi Necklace

Organic Leather’s Ethos is all about living in harmony with our natural world and expressing our true nature – we believe in living a charmed life, full of wonder, and we try to embody that in our shoot’s and of-cause in our Designs.

Here you get sneak preview of some of our upcoming lines, the hand made silver piece, “Lovers” two gorgeously simple hand made sterling Silver Heart’s, and “infinity” the Silver leather keeper for wearing leather rope on your wrist. Stunning Co-branding shoot with HighChi.com done with the crazy and wonderful “lens baby” (gives it that dream like quality). It was a magical day, a window into the possibility of living a charmed life in the midst of this ever changing wild and wonderful world we live in, it is the choices we make daily that brings a charmed life to us. Our “Union Bangles” with the Charms you add to them are meant as a simple reminder to live the life you dream of.

"Lovers" silver Hearts and "Infinity" leather rope Keeper.

"Union Bangles", "Chi Charms" and "Lovers" Necklace.

All Photography and Article by Rowan Gabrielle

“Originally posted in July 9, 2010″

How “Organic Leather” Started

Posted on January 19, 2012 by yassin

Welcome to the Organic Leather Blog

Ultimate Luxury - Organic Sheep Skin

– When I first came up with this concept in 2002 there was no organic leather any where to be found, over the following years I just started talking about it and looking for it and eventually hooked up with people tanning leather in the traditional ways (All organic) like Matt Richards from Braintan, and Nicki Port from Organic Sheep skins, between them and the Oak bark tannery in Oregon that was from 1810 (and is now closed) I managed to get my hands on enough leather to create a sample line that was launched at Eco-Petal Fashion Show in 2006. We did this with the intention of getting press, and making the larger community of tanners and designers aware of these ideas and options. Since then we have been working on finding sustainable sources of eco Leather and organic Leather to be able to supply designers and ourselves in creating organic and eco leather products. Most of the Leather we sell is what I would call 99% eco, there are still issues in doing this on a large scale basis and there are lots of people now working on creating solutions to the issues still involved, we have come a long way from chrome tanned though and the designers we work with can feel good about the decision they are making in working with this leather. Post by Rowan Gabrielle

“originally posted on June 13, 2010 “