Handmade belts and bags are lovingly craf ted by Katy Warriner using traditional oak tanned leather and vintage tools to create accessories that last a lifetime
THE PUNGENT SMELL of cow hide and leather balm hangs in the air as Katy Warriner punches belt holes in a thick strip of leather. Sitting at the workbench in her neatly organised, beamed studio, on the edge of Dartmoor, she focuses on each tiny detail as she coaxes her favourite natural material into a product that she hopes will last a lifetime.
Reached down a 2-mile-long wooded track, eight former outbuildings have been converted into studios for a small artistic community clustered around the courtyard of a centuries-old farmhouse. Katy moved her studio to this tranquil location last summer after four years of working from her home, which is a 15-minute drive away. Her dog, Murphy, can usually be found snoring in his basket while she works.
She set up her leatherwork business in 2018. “I’ve always been surrounded by leather,” says Katy, who grew up in Cornwall. “My father was a musician and spent most of his life in Stetson hats and cowboy boots. I started horse riding at the age of four and was a professional horse rider until my early 20s. I still walk into a leather tack room and think, ‘what an incredible smell’.”
It was when Katy failed to find suitable replacements for her cherished biker boots – worn out from her mountain-climbing and muddy festival adventures – that she decided to concentrate on fashioning products that were made to last. She booked herself on a course at nearby Dartington with master leatherworker John Hagger, then followed it up with hours of research from books and online videos.
In the time off from her other job of festival site manager, Katy began making shoulder bags, belts and dog collars. “Belts were the big thing for me. I like to call them the unsung heroes of the world. Everyone all over the world has a belt, and they remain my biggest income,” she says.
Telling stories
Traceability is key to her ethos. “I wanted to be an educator and storyteller at the same time,” she says. “Finding out where your leather has come from is extremely difficult. I quickly understood that the tanning industry in this country has died. J & FJBaker, in Colyton, Devon, is the last oak bark tannery in the country.” Katy buys all her hides from there at present. It is a traditional family business founded in 1862, although the site’s history of tanning is thought to date back to Roman times. Katy makes the short journey to the tannery to select her hides, up to six times a year. She feels a responsibility to tell customers the origins of leather and how it is processe
