Rachel's Classic Cross-Body

This classic cross-body was made for Rachel. The leather is an American stoned oil tan, very water resistant and quickly distressed. This is a great leather for bicycle saddle bags. I don't usually put a welt in the shoulder bags, but it's an option.

Tan Cross-Body

Coin Pouch

Here's a small pouch that I often make. It belongs in the hands of a 16th-century Venetian trader, full of gold florins, or maybe full of silver dinars in a Moroccan medina. Of course, it would work just as well for a whole host of other things, should you find florins in short supply. Stones, herbs, buttons, cards, nuts, coins, or... anything at all, really. Think of all the things around your person which are stored in some disposable little cotton or plastic sack. They could be in this exquisite and enduring leather. Items like this are also available as authentic movie props, made specific to an era and/or locale.

My Bag

This is the bag that started it all. This is my personal Classic, the first one ever made. It's been on my shoulder for almost 11 years now without so much as a single stitch needing repair in that entire time, and that's with daily use by a hard-traveling nomad. About 6 years ago the steel belt buckle broke, so you could say that the stitching is stronger than steel. Now I use solid brass for the buckles.

This bag has crossed the Indian ocean on a small sailboat, lived on the back of an old BMW motorcycle all over Europe, driven across the Sahara, and bicycled all over New Mexico. It's been stuffed full of kilos of Olives in the Rif mountains of Morocco, oranges in Spain, stones in Mexico, and pine pitch in the Rockies. This bag has been my pillow 500 times. It has carried wine out of every Trader Joes west of the Mississippi. That sheen on the back is from sweat.

The leather just gets more and more beautiful. People always tell me they want one that feels exactly like this one. I tell them to buy a new one and carry it around the world for 10 years. I guarantee that everything I make will last long enough to gain the beauty and character that only comes with time.