Natural marks...
We from Ecopell think that naturalness mustn’t be hidden and that individuality is a sign of quality. That is why our leather also shows marks of an entire cow life and is neither embossed nor sealed with plastics. Just as an apple from natural cultivation differs in individual form and smaller unevenness from that of an industrially produced apple that appears ‘perfect’ but has wax and artificial light manipulating it’s surface, it is also with the difference between naturally tanned leather and industrial leather.
You can find more information about natural features
- here as PDF under customer data sheets
- or at www.naturmerkmale.de
What are natural marks?
Natural marks in leather
What are natural marks?
Cattle used for Ecopell live chiefly outdoors and naturally come into contact with sharp or hard-edged parts of plants, with pasture demarcations like fences or barbed wire. In hierarchy fights the animals can hurt each other with their horns. Piercing and sucking insects annoy the cattle just like us humans. Cattle can only repel insects with their tail. Nevertheless they have to bear the itching and paining bites.
Also in loose-house farming it can come to hierarchy fights at which time the horned cattle wound each other. In stanchion barns the tying belts can excoriate the skin. Skin parasites like mites or lice can badger the animals and their skin if it comes to infestation. All these influences can mark the leather that is tanned from the hide after slaughtering the cattle. In addition, there are processes like growth, weight gain, pregnancy, and illnesses that change the structure of the hide.
Lice grub
Scars
Scratches from currycombs
Dung area
Natural marks in leather
Natural features are often equated with defects in leather or more precisely with shortcomings. Ecopell draws the line at a point where the serviceability of the leather, or of the product employing leather, is objectively affected. This means that if leather goods or furniture display holes or open scratches, it represents a product defect.
Natural features do not reduce the functional quality of the product. The integral strength providing long performance is not compromised. Leather is a natural product. Rawhides naturally display larger or smaller irregularities that are due to the life circumstances of the animals, as well as the caution and skill employed during the first processing steps. According to the quantity and intensity of the characteristics and defects, the hides are divided into ‘assortments’ that determine their price.
It’s then up to the skills of the leather specialists to remove or mitigate the defective features when cutting and incorporating the leather. How and where the natural features are found in the finished leather products are therefore also due to the competence and aesthetic practice of the manufacturer.
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