Bedfordshire maker wins Leatherworker of the Year Award 2024
29th November 2024 | ANNOUNCEMENTS | OUR STORIES
Bedfordshire leatherworker Natalie Thakur has won the inaugural Leatherworker of the Year Award, supported by the British Leather Industry Development Trust, including a £2,000 prize and trophy awarded at a special presentation at Eltham Palace on Tuesday 26 November 2024.
The award, supported by British Leather Industry Development Trust, celebrates a heritage craftsperson who has made an outstanding contribution to leatherworking over the past year. It recognises a contribution that is far beyond the ordinary, based on a proven dedication to a particular leatherworking skill.
After studying Contemporary Applied Arts at Middlesex University in London, Natalie Thakur went on to study leatherwork at the London College of Fashion. She initially started out working in bespoke leather interiors, before starting up her own brand Natthakur and pioneering techniques such as hand-painted leather marquetry, specialist leather moulding, and hand-crafted sculptural relief. She has been stocked in some of the most prestigious shops in the world, including Selfridges, Le Bon Marche in Paris, Takashimaya and The V&A, and was selected for ‘The Best of British’ at Liberty’s London.
The Leatherworker of the Year trophy was made by Katy Warriner, featuring oak bark tanned leather from J&FJ Bakers tannery – one of the UK’s last remaining oak bark tanneries. The base and belt show the basic skills needed as a leatherworker, and the engraved half round knife, donated by George Barnsley & Sons, is one of the main tools of any leatherworkers’ bench. The judging panel for the award was made up of Kerry Senior (Director at Leather UK), Yusuf Osman (leatherworker) and Anu Bankole (accessories and product designer).
The two other finalists for the award were Andrew Hastilow, a saddler who has trained five apprentices and teaches saddlery at the North American Saddlery School each year, and Brad Smith, a leatherworker at Geoffrey Parker who has he has hand-crafted products for brands including Cartier, Dunhill, Aspinal of London and Tiffany.
The British Leather Industry Development Trust supports ongoing training and development activities for the benefit of the UK leather producing industry, and its partnership with Heritage Crafts also sees a new training bursary for an early-career leatherworker to be launched in January, and a symposium on endangered leatherworking skills to be held next year.
Heritage Crafts also ran a new Young Leatherworker of the Year Award for practitioners up to and including the age of 25, supported by the Leathersellers’ Foundation, which was won by Preethi Kosanam. Preethi is a graduate of the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Chennai, where she specialised in leather garments and accessories, and now studies at the London College of Fashion. Most recently, she won the prestigious Dents Prize for the most commercial and innovative glove design.
Photo: Natalie Thakur, winner of the 2024 Leatherworker of the Year Award, and Kerry Senior, Director at Leather UK. Photo by Robert Wade.