Leather chandeliers offer warmth and comfort, lighting up a room with both illumination and imagination. Thousands of years before Louis Vuitton and Jimmy Choo put their bags, shoes, and fashions on the market, people used leather for decorative and utilitarian purposes.
Someone thousands of years ago in antiquity saw added value in treating animal hides. We don’t know how they prepared leather back then, but the origins still influence the processes used today. The hides are cleaned of bristles and hairs before they are soaked for weeks in water and intense tannins.
Because most hides are the same color after tanning, they must be dyed to order. Master processors are skilled in sorting products for their oily feel, flexibility, dryness, resilience, and more. Strong products may be valued by farmers, equestrians, mechanics, and others. Supple touch and malleable textures are cultivated for high quality furniture, clothing, accessories and products.
A prime opportunity for those pursuing a Mid-Century collection, the Redford features two hoops of satin brass, each industrially fitted with short candle sockets. But the modern bands are imaginatively linked with cordovan dyed leather belts.
Each belt is baste-stitched with a delicate thread. The upper hoop connects to the lower hoop by three hand-folded belts. The Redford is rustic and western, but it’s also medieval and romantic. Nostalgic, yet very modern in look and feel. It works well with deep, rich colors, and other natural textures.
There isn’t much traditional about the Alleta pendant. Bold and brash, it presents a striking bouquet of fragile glass globes. Four lamps illuminate the ten 6" diameter crystal clear globes allowing the glass to refresh and refract the light.
Rich brown leather straps wrap the central shaft, increasing in volume through the bottom third. Contemporary cool, the Alleta is warmed by its brown leather and whimsy. Use it in the kitchen, over a casual dining table, paired with another over a formal table, or in the master bath, the Alleta mixes and matches with many decor themes.
Leather has pulled us through history, and with it comes touches of all those eras. And, functional as it has always been, it still carries a sense of soft and gentle elegance and wealth. Trends in leather chandeliers introduce the rugged and rich to homes today.