The Tools
Casey’s shop is filled with vintage machines and unique tools. Sewing Machines aka Casey’s Babies.
✯ Adler 67-GK-373 “Chandler”
✯ Techsew 2750 PRO Cylinder Walking Foot Industrial SM
✯ Adler 30-70 Leather Patcher
✯ Vintage Singer
✯ Landis K.12 Outsole Stitcher
✯ Landis Line Machine
Leather
Casey Curtis Designs begin with leather. Why leather? Leather is made to last and smells as good as it looks. In a world of fast disposable fashion, it is beautiful to offer items from a material such as leather, that is made to withstand the test of time. Each hide is hand chosen and serves as a blank canvas for the leather art featured in the shop. The leathers that are incorporated in designs are natural veg tan leather and pull-up leather hides. Natural vegetable tan leather comes from the tannery.Once it reaches the Casey Curtis Designs studio it is carved, burned, stamped, painted, and conditioned to preserve the quality. Another favorite leather is pull up leather which is colored through aniline dyes and sealed with natural oils and waxes. The effect of these leathers is a 2 tone, dynamic and offers products that get better with age.
Effort, thought, and consideration goes into the sourcing of leathers to make sure that the supplies and leather used in designs matches our company ethos. The leather used in the designs is a by-product of the meat industry. As a made in America brand the hides hand selected and incorporated in designs are manufactured and produced in the United States whenever possible.
Paint + Dyes
Casey creates art that can breathe. Art that is free to walk the streets with leather as the canvas. Leather allows Casey’s fashion degree to combine with her experience in acrylic painting to fashion art you can wear. The leather is painted and hand dyed in the Casey Curtis Designs studio where layers and layers are applied until the item is just right. The result is a bold, beautiful statement from afar and a masterpiece up close. Beautiful leather art is achieved from pairing rustic hides with quality trusted dyes and paints. Some of Casey’s favorites: Fiebing’s leather dye, and Golden paint.
Tooled Leather
In every item you will find a modern artistic approach to traditional tooling. Mastering leather craft and tooling have taken a lot of dedication, time, and hard work. Leather, unlike fabric, is unforgiving. Leatherwork humbles you. When you work with leather you will make mistakes. You will make ugly things. Loving the traditional tooling of the old west inspired Casey to learn leather, however, she wanted to pave a way and create her own style of tooling. Leather was a way to combine her passions. To make a tooled leather belt like all the other leather artists would take a ton of time, dedication and hard work. Casey decided to take the time, energy and dedication to create her own style of leather work. It involves tooling, burning, cutting, painting, and stamping. Casey’s leatherwork is intuitive: a mix of tradition, with art, and fine fashion making her work stand out from the crowd.
Turquoise
Turquoise used in her designs is all hand chosen by Casey and sourced directly from the mines to ensure authenticity with the majority of stones coming from Arizona and Nevada.
Recycling
What is old is made new again, recycle and look good doing it! Casey loves hunting for dreamy vintage items including; pawn silver, cowboy boots, tooled western belts, and southwestern textiles that have just gotten better with time. Her passion of fashion treasure hunting is shared through incorporating vintage items of the old west in her designs.
