Pittards tannery visit

My visit to Pittards Factory was incredible. I did not actually realise the factory was an actual tannery, better yet, a modernised tannery which used modernised machine spraying facilities - which is what I wanted to see and compare to traditional tanning. 

Pittards actually import in already dyed hides from Ethiopia but they strip them back down to re-tan the hide and make it of a better quality. Some of the hides have discolouring or natural marks in which Pittards try there best to hide by using a pattern for example for the sports wear gloves. They use hides from Ethiopia as they are of much better quality than British hides. 

Pittards are known for there gloves, however, the production manager was telling me they are expanding on there range of products and are currently producing hand bags, wallets, purses, slippers, shoes and a small range of clothing. It was interesting to hear that they are aiming to be as big of brand as Mulberry, who is also a traditional heritage leather manufacturing company. 

It was also interesting to hear that they are beginning to manufacture more products at the tannery as they found people now want quality British goods that have been made with craftsmanship. They currently have a contract with Jack Wills who is also known for there British quality manufacturing. From this, I gathered consumerism is now turning to British quality craftsmanship; this is what I will be portraying throughout the project. 

The production manager showed me around the factory and told me the ins and outs of all the machines and the process from the hide coming into the factory to the final product. These processes including shaving, applying mordant, tanning, drying, buffing, stretching, grading and manufacturing. 

It was interesting to see machines such as the measuring machine, each hide is place through the machine, the machine is able to scan the dimensions of the hide and give accurate measurements. This just shoes the power of technology and what it is able to do. 

It became apparent not all traditional methods can be modernised such as the buffing of the finished leather hide, this requires a skilled craftsman, no digitalised modern machine could replace, as the production manager said. 

I took lots of photographs of the leather hides in the Pittards shop. The hides all colour coordinated and folded where so inspirational, I will take these images and use them in design development.