Our Materials
All IEFrancis pieces are handcrafted using the finest quality Australian leather available. This leather is sourced from a local tannery, within 60km of the IEFrancis studio in Collingwood, Australia.
To justify the use of such an inherently valuable material, IEFrancis pieces are made only from leather that comes from the by-product of other industries. IEFrancis choose not to produce leather products for specific phones or computers, due to the limited life expectancy of these electronics as opposed to our products.
Kangaroo Leather
Kangaroo leather is used wherever possible, due to its low carbon footprint and durability. This leather is up to 8 times stronger than cow leather, all while coming in at under 1mm thick. All kangaroo leather is sustainably sourced from animals in the wild, which are culled when their population reaches high numbers, in order to protect sensitive ecosystems around Australia. As these animals are not farmed, they have a much lower environmental impact and carbon footprint when compared to any other leather.
As kangaroo leather all comes from wild kangaroos, scars and marks may be visible in the leather (will not effect the strength or longevity). We accept that this is a normal part of using this material so it is likely to be present in our products.
Cow Leather
For products that need a thicker leather, we use a 4mm thick cow hide which is also produced locally in Victoria. This cow hide is tanned using a combination of vegetable-tanning and chrome tanning, which results in a truly incredible material with much better water resistance than full vegetable tanned leather.
Our Loop Pendant is produced from a 4mm full vegetable-tanned leather, as it needs to be able to be stretched while wet to achieve the shape of the pendant lamp.