Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Olivier Boutaud. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Olivier thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

When Nathalie and I started working with leather, we went to a leather craft store to see what tools were available and watched some videos on YouTube. The staff from the store were very helpful to guide us at the beginning. We made our first leather bags and were very encouraged by the feed-back from the different people who saw them. We decided to stitch our bags by hand (not using any sewing machine) to keep the traditional technique alive and also because the quality of the stitching is much higher than when sewn by a machine. This technique is much trickier than it sounds and it took us some time before I could master it. At the leather store, we met some members of the South Central Leather Craft Guild located in Nashville. We became members of the guild and learned many techniques with the very knowledgeable members. It was an amazing learning curve for us.
As we started to sell our products, we became members of Tennessee Craft and attended several of their workshop about business development. We also met a lot of very talented crafts(wo)men who supported our professional development with their advice.
We are at a point where we feel quite comfortable with our craft now. We still have ways to improve, as learning a craft is never done, and the only thing that slows our learning is the lack of time, as Nathalie and I both have full time jobs.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

We are making hand-stitched leather bags (no machine used). We started to do leather bag when we became empty-nesters. At the beginning it was just a hobby, but after a while we had made more bags that we could give away to friends and family, and we decided to start selling them. Because we both have full time jobs, we only sell at fairs around Nashville. All our bags are made by hand. Nathalie designs the bags (no patterns used) with high quality leather using the patterns and marking of each hide in her designs, making each bag unique. Then I stitch each bag by hand using thread and needles. This assures that the bags are of the highest quality as possible and sets us apart from most of the leather crafters out there. Our bags are made to be used every day and passed down to kids or friends when the time comes. We also make custom orders when a client wants to have a piece made just for them or for a loved one. We do not make copies of other work, but we work with the client to understand their needs and their style, have them choose the leather that fits their tastes best and get them involved during the entire design process. Whether it’s for a birthday, anniversary, baby shower or graduation, we make sure the recipient gets a bag they will cherish for years to come.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Being a craftsman is not an easy job. We never realized how hard a life it is until we started selling our bags in fairs. You need to setup your tent at outdoor shows the night or the day before whether it’s freezing, storming or it’s 95°F. You must unload your material and set up your display at late hours or early in the mornings. It is not uncommon to be setting up until midnight 1 or 2 in the morning and then come back the same morning at 6AM to get everything ready for the opening at 9 or 10AM. Then you have to tend your booth for 10 to 12 hours before going back home (or in a hotel room). And the last day, you must break down and pack after a long day of work. We developed a lot of respect for artist and artisans over the years doing it ourselves. On top of all this hard labor, you have moments when you wonder why you are doing it. These moments are usually weather-related. For us, it was in the spring of 2021 during the Tennessee Craft fair in Centennial Park in Nashville. We got to the park around noon and started setting up our tent and displays. Around 5PM we were done for the day and headed home with some artist friends who were staying at our place for the fair. When we walked through the door, our daughter watched the Weather Channel and told us:” do you know that they are forecasting 50 mph winds in the next 20 min?”. We jumped in the car and went straight to the booth. We got there a couple of minutes before the storm hit us. We were in the tent trying to hold on it when the wind hit us straight on. Both Nathalie and I were holding on the tent, and it flew 10 feet away as if we weighed nothing. The whole tent was flattened up with the both of us inside (picture uploaded). We held to the tent as much as we could as the rain started to fall, trying to protect all our bags as best as we could. We were so lucky that day that nothing bad happened to us. The display was in chards, the tent was destroyed, but our bags were not badly damaged and both of us were alive and unharmed (except for few bruises). We were also lucky to have our friends at home. They came immediately with their van, and we were able to quickly load all our bags in their van and bring them safely home.
We were drenched, cold and hopeless. But we were not defeated. We went to a local sport store and bought a canopy. The next morning, we went to the park early, set up our new cheap canopy, our broken display and got ready for opening at 10AM. The next 2 days were sunny and dry, and we had a great fair. That day, 19 artists were not as lucky as we were. They had lost everything they owned. The worst part is that many artists do not have insurance and that even artists who had insurance were not covered because most of the insurances available at affordable prices are 3-day insurances that are used for the 3 days of the fair. Unfortunately for these artists, the storm came on the Thursday (setting day) and it was not covered by the insurance.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

There are a few ways our society could support artists better. Most artists have little or no insurance and health coverage. When you spend most of your weekends outside in the rain or cold or scorching heat, it strains your health. Also, you are exposed to thousands of people attending the fairs, and if they are sick, you are risking getting sick yourself. When you must pack your stuff and get ready for the next fair hundreds of miles away, you can’t afford to take days off: your livelihood depends on it. Creating a more affordable healthcare system for self-employed people would help our society as a whole and would be a great help to artists and artisans.
Another way to help artists is to give them possibilities to insure their art in a more affordable and/or fair way. The 3-day insurance for fair is a gamble. You have to choose upfront what days you want to insure. If you have the misfortune to have an accident, the day before or after these days, you have lost the money to pay for the insurance, and lost your art or booth with no way of recovering any of your losses. Insurances should provide coverage not only for the days of the fair but also for the days before and after.
Parks and cities, and organizations that host fairs should also be more respectful of the artists. Most of the rules are to protect the space and the visitors, often to the disadvantage of the artists. For example, most of the organizers will not close the fair if a storm is coming. They even have rules that if you leave early or come late, you will lose your ability to reapply the next year. They know very well that most artists can’t afford to not attend a show. Therefore, many artists lose all their belongings at fairs when strong storms come in. We were very grateful that Tennessee Craft cancelled the fair on the last day of Spring 2021 when the storm was forecasted. Not a single tent would have survived that storm. Even the professional Welcome Tent was torn down.
Nashville spent millions of dollars redoing Centennial Park where the fair is. A large part of the budget was to organize a space specially for fairs. They did a great job to create leveled spaces for the tent and paved walkways. However, they did not have the safety of the artists in mind when they designed the space. If they have included some buried metal hook where tents could be secured, it would have prevented the disaster caused by the straight wind.
Finally, the best way to support artists and artisans is to think about them when buying things. Go to craft fairs and buy from them instead or going to department stores or Amazon. You will know that what you bought is made by a local artist and you will support their livelihood.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @yourchoiceleather
• Facebook: yourchoiceleather

Image Credits
Sally Bebawy