One of the perplexing questions I encountered was, “What is the leather industry doing with all the leftover pieces if they are mostly considering the perfectly smooth leather as acceptably beautiful?” Because you see, when you stand in front of a full hide, it’s impossible not to face all that this leather has been through from the time it was actually a part of a living creature. Even before we started creating our BK original leather artifacts, Baum-kuchen has been a proponent of embracing a wide range of leather characteristics, thanks to the knowledge our leather craft partners have shared with us in the past, and to our own research. What looks like a “slash” is from cows rubbing their skin against environmental elements, and what looks like “dots” or “wrinkles” is from their natural skin conditions. Also, some scratches and marks can occur during leather production, including vegetable tanning, skiving, and general handling before the hide reaches our studio in California. When we start eliminating these parts from our manufacturing process, we will end up with a lot of discards.
When I ponder in front of the leather parts that might be considered “undesirable”, I am reminded that these marks are just like the ones on my skin. Despite cultural constructs of “Beauty” I feel (and sometimes feel pressured by), I am grateful for my scars, sunspots, and wrinkles on my face because they are the living proof that I have had a full life for the last 47 years.
So, when it comes to choosing which leather parts to keep and which to leave out in our production, Frido’s and my hope is to keep more of them “in” unless the leather’s condition would interfere with a product’s functionality. Frido shared his POV in this story as a designer/artisan inspired by both the Bauhaus and wabi-sabi philosophies. As a production team of Baum-kuchen, Frido and I are going to embrace the idea of “wrinkles and the like shouldn’t determine the product’s value”. It’s the opposite of what we are conditioned to believe as a society, but we practice this value every day to see beyond it and respect leather as an organic material.
I can’t remember exactly where I heard this, but it feels relevant to share this quote to end this love letter. The guidance in this quote has been my lighthouse for many years whenever I need to make a decision grounded in truth rather than in norms.
“What’s true is universal. What’s normal is cultural”.
-wakako
always a metamorphosis in progress...
Topanga // May 1st, 2026
**This story is from the BK Love Letter for May 2026. If you would like to read the entire love letter we sent to our community, including links to featured stories and the new and updated BK artifacts, you can browse it via this link.
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