Hello. My name is Mikiko. I moved
to the United States from Japan in
2002 as a teacher. When one of my
students wanted to trade leather
working lessons for Japanese
language classes, I said yes and
began my journey into leather
designing in Nashville Indiana. After
several years of leather study, I gave
up teaching to do leather working full time. I moved to
Charleston, South Carolina last year with my family, and I am
excited to be doing art fairs in the Charleston area. I work out of a
small workshop in Charleston where I design and produce all of my
leather goods. I design my leather goods by hand without computer
software. I use both aniline-dyed leather and vegetable-tanned
leather. I hand-dyed the vegetable-tanned leather using both alcohol
and acrylic dye. My designs are intended to be useful as well as
artistic. I combine the best features of traditional Japanese aesthetic
design and American artistic innovation to produce leather products
that are beautiful and will last for years.