Welcome friends, new and old.  I am a leather artist/craftsman.  Or craftsy artist.  Or artsy craftsman.   I present to you today a gallery of items I make out of Ostrich Leg Leather.  

Ostrich toe wrist band/cuff

Dinosaur Leather

Of all the exotic leathers I work with, Ostrich Leg gets the jaw drop response and "I never heard of such a thing" from people the most often. A heavily textured leather with a row of scales running down the center, I hand color it to create highly dramatic leather goods. When asked by someone “What kind of leather is that” I often tease “It's dinosaur” or “organic raised dragon hide.” Although calling it dinosaur might not be that far off given current dinosaur theory.

Ostrich leg waist/belt bag

 

Ostrich Is Luxurious And Expensive

Ostrich leather is a highly prized and generally expensive exotic. If you have a car with ostrich seats, it’s probably not a Ford. The same goes if you have ostrich boots; you didn’t get them on sale at Wal Mart.
Each tanned leg skin is 18-20 inches long, (longer if the toe is attached) 4-8” wide making it about a square foot of leather and generally can be had unfinished and uncolored (called “crust” or “in the crust”) for $20 a skin. The older the bird when it was butchered, the rougher and more gnarly and showy the scales.  Thats what I like to work with best.
 

Sunburst Card Wallets     

Farm Raised

Now don’t get the idea that this leather is from birds shot on some African safari. Ostrich is raised around the world (I have bought ostrich hide from Israel, Australia and the USA) for meat production.  

 
If you are a meat eater and have not tried ostrich, you should. It is more like beef then chicken, being a red meat, but lower in cholesterol and fat then either beef or chicken.

Eyepatches Made Of Ostrich Leg Leather

 

I try to bring out the stunning drama of the leather by hand coloring each piece. I do several different “bursts” –sunburst, red burst, brown burst-- color schemes as well as more bi-colors like black cherry and solid colors as well.

Phone Cases 
 

Ostrich leg is a versatile exotic leather that can be put to great artistic and practical use.

In part 2 I will show you the steps to make an Ostrich leg eyepatch (or wallet...we will see).  

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