LEATHER CRAFT: PAT DELANEY, CO GALWAY

“In a small business, you’re head of everything. I lead the manufacturing set-up, marketing and general running of the business. No two days look alike.

“We’re at Mishnóc 10 years now and I was 37 when I started it. It took me 37 years to realise I couldn’t hold down a job, so working for myself was the only option! The business began with selling leather goods at markets and stalls, and that grew organically into creating our own brand.

“Leather is what we call a noble material, like silver or gold, in the sense that all these materials have an inherent value ... it was the integrity of the material that inspired me to work with it.

“Leather is enduring and it has been for the past 5,000 years. There is a reason why books were always bound in leather, and why leather was used for clothing. It’s the durability and natural properties of the product. When you start to use polyurethane (leather look) fabrics, you’re into a fast fashion culture, and if the materials you’re working with are inherently cheap, you just do not care about the product. If it doesn’t sell, you burn it. With leather, you have to honour its value.

“Function comes over form at all costs for us ... where art comes into our products is in the tanning of the leather. All leather starts out the same thing but the amount of finishes you can produce on it is endless. “We maintain three craftsmen full-time. That’s a great thing. We produce and sell a lot of notebooks and belts. The notebooks go all over the world. We personalise them, so they make a really cool gift.

“From a hind of leather, we would get maybe 20 belts, and with the rest, we can make keyrings or sell the spare leather in the shop as scrap, so someone else can make something out of it. Using raw materials right to the end, with no waste, is so important.

“We have a short supply chain too. Our leather comes in from Italy, we manufacture it here, and it’s straight to the customer.

“Just the fact that we exist and the fact we make here in Ireland is a big deal. It’s a difficult thing to do.” mishnoc.com