What is Pueblo Leather?
Looking to buy Badalassi Carlo's Pueblo leather? You can find our full range here
One of the flashiest and most eye-catching leathers used my makers today is pueblo leather. Without a doubt pueblo perfectly walks the line between rustic and sophisticated
Pueblo is an Italian leather from the Badalassi Carlo tannery, which is a member of the Genuine Italian Vegetable Tanned Leather Consortium.
The Consortium is made up of over 20 of the finest tanneries in the region of Tuscany. Being a part of the Consortium means to be recognised as a maker of fine veg tan leathers.
Seen here is their handprint marker. Click here to view their website
Badalassi Carlo is known to produce leathers with incredible character, none more so than their pueblo leather. Undoubtedly you have seen projects featuring this leather, particularly small goods such as wallets and clutches.
What features make Pueblo so great?
The most obvious feature of pueblo leather is the unique rustic patterning on the grain side of the leather. This gives the leather an almost suede style look, yet feels smoother than suede to touch, with only a slight graininess.
Accompanying this is a great selection of colours that help make that rugged pattern finish stand out. Some notable popular colours are olive and blue.
The colours are dyed through to maintain the look from the grain side to the flesh side.
Seen here are edges from State Leather Co. on a pueblo wallet
Pueblo is cut from the shoulder of the hide, which gives it a fantastic tensile strength and shows up just the right amount of growth and fat marks.
While working with pueblo though you will need to be careful of any moisture seeping into the leather. This leather is porous and will quickly absorb any edge finishes that happen to get on the face.
However, this can be an advantage as waxing the leather and buffing it out can achieve darker colours with a smoother, slightly glossy face.
Pueblo is incredibly fun to work with. Some perks are:
- Burnish to a clear polish with a wood slicker
- Use a cloth to burnish darker
- Cut clean without any loose fibers
- Stitching stacks in the leather beautifully once tapped in
What project is Pueblo ideal for?
As pueblo is a vegetable-tanned full aniline leather it will change and adapt to its uses over time, so we recommend keeping this in mind when selecting this leather. Thanks to its softer nature, pueblo can be used from bags through to wallets at many different weights.
We would recommend 2.0mm for larger bags and 1.0-1.4mm for smaller goods such as wallets.
Pueblo is flexible and won’t ruin from being turned, so it would also be suitable for turned bags like totes and dopp kits.
Because of its soft nature, it may not be ideal for belts, straps or briefcases without extra backing.
So how does it age?
Pueblo will darken greatly over time as it is great at absorbing oils. This results in a fantastic rugged look when combined with the already unique appearance. Additionally, the patterning on the grain side will slightly buff away and will become much glossier from consistent rubbing.
If you wish to avoid this, early waxing and waterproofing can reduce the porousness of the leather and maintain a consistent look, but will cause an initial darkening.
Pueblo; a leather with character
Pueblo is certainly a favorite of many makers around the world. It is a fantastic way to add some flair into work while still maintaining a classic rustic look.
It is fair to say we are very impressed with the quality of this leather from Badalassi Carlo.
Final profile
Finish - Smooth, slight graininess
Shine - Matte
Dye - Through
Tannage - Vegetable
Firmness - Moderate
Cut - Shoulder
