News | ROWLAND LEATHER

Store Closing

Posted: Dec 15 2017

After 28 years we have closed our storefront in Merrickville. After 28 years we have closed our store front in Merrickville. Thank you to all who came out to say farewell! With the store closing we have been quite busy so there is very limited inventory available online. We will be working on re-vamping the website for the new year. Please stay tuned as we navigate the future of Rowland Leather. Rowland Leather Original bags will be available at the Knock Knock Shoppe from now until Christmas. Happy Holidays from all of us at Rowland Leather!

Change is good

Posted: Mar 20 2015

It has been a long winter full of changes here at Rowland Leather. We said goodbye to our Kemptville location, moved the workshop and renovated our Merrickville store. Thank you to everyone who came out to wish us well as we closed the Kemptville store. It was wonderful being a part of such a great community for 12 years, it will be missed. Our Merrickville store has undergone a top to bottom renovation. We are so excited for you to come and see the changes for yourself! We are not going to spoil it by putting pictures up. The workshop is still a work in progress. There is so much involved in trying to set it all up properly so that the creation can flow easily. As I am sure many of you can attest, it was hard to get motivated when the weather was so cold. So instead of staying around these frigid parts Michael...

Rowland Leather Celebrates 40 Years

Posted: Oct 20 2014

An Exercise of the Imagination - Birdhouses

Posted: May 15 2014

In 1996, there was a birdhouse competition at the juried One Of A Kind craft show held each April in Toronto. My first birdhouse, made entirely out of leather and findings I use to make my bags, won one of the prizes at that competition. I've always wanted to do a series of birdhouses, so this year, during the always quiet month of January after the busy Christmas season, I did just that. By spending a few days devoted to the project of designing and building bird houses, I was able to creatively exercise my imagination.

Visit to Ausonia Tannery

Posted: Apr 02 2012

Rowland Leather Trip to Italy Ausonia Tannery On my recent trip to Italy I visited the Ausonia Tannery in Santa Croce sull’Arno near Florence. Rowland Leather has been buying leather from this tannery for about eight years now. Travelling by train through parts of Florence and Tuscany, I arrived at the station in San Romano. I was warmly greeted by Maurizio, the gentleman I have been dealing with at Ausonia over the years. The tannery is a beautiful, state-of-the-art, computerized complex. With Maurizio as a tour guide, I learned how Ausonia processes the raw leather they purchase from France. These leathers are organic products, easy to recycle. As well as supplying Rowland Leather, Ausonia supplies leather to the world’s top designers at Gucci, Hermes and Louis Vuitton. Before leaving Ausonia, I sat down with Maurizio to select and custom-order the beautiful leather. This leather has now arrived and I'm...