From the Bench: Leathercraft Notes by Heirloom Leathercraft
Notes on craft, leather, and the work behind the work. Written by Beatrice Amblard, Hermes-trained master leather artisan, from her atelier in San Francisco.
From the Bench
Why Hand-Stitched Leather Lasts
Two stitches that look alike fail very differently. The structural reason a hand-stitchedbag outlasts a factory-stitched one by decades, and what the difference looks like at therepair bench.
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What the Acquired Podcast Got Right About Hermès — And What It Means for Our Bench
In February 2024, the Acquired podcast released what became one of its most popular episodes ever: a four-hour history of Hermès. Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal traced the company from its 1837 saddlery origins through six generations of the Hermès-Dumas family to its current standing as a $200 billion company. What made the episode different from the usual luxury-brand coverage was the sourcing. David didn’t just read the annual reports. He sat down with people who had done the work. One of those people was our founder, Béatrice Amblard. From the Faubourg to Clement Street David introduced Bea’s story midway through the episode, during a section on Jean-Louis Dumas and the artisan culture he protected from management consultants who wanted Hermès to outsource production like Gucci. Bea was hired as an artisan at Hermès Paris at the start of Jean-Louis’s tenure. She worked in the atelier at 24 Faubourg Saint-Honoré, the most storied address in luxury. When Jean-Louis’s son Pierre-Alexis, now Hermès’s artistic director, came to train as a teenager, he sat next to Bea at the bench. When Hermès opened its San Francisco store, Bea moved to the West Coast. Not to sell. To repair. She was the sole artisan responsible for every repair on the West Coast of North America. One person in New York handled the East Coast. That was it. They came from the Faubourg, and a few of these people went around the world. David asked Bea what made Hermès special as a place to work. Her answer was unequivocal: when she was training and decided she wanted to go into this field, Hermès was the greatest company anyone could hope to work for. It wasn’t even close. He then asked why hand craftsmanship matters to the customer. Her answer has stayed with us: a product made by hand has a soul. A product made on an assembly line does not. Jean-Louis Dumas himself knew every artisan by name. When Bea was new, he ran into her in the elevator at the Faubourg and said, “You’re Béatrice Amblard. Welcome to Hermès.” When she eventually left in 1997 to start her own shop, he called her personally, shocked. Nobody ever leaves. Later, when the San Francisco Chronicle profiled her, Jean-Louis found the article in France, cut it out, and mailed it to her with a handwritten note of congratulations. Why This Matters for Heirloom Ben Gilbert put it plainly: if you want something saddle-stitched in the traditional way, your options outside Hermès number in the dozens. Hermès employs 7,000 artisans. The independent makers doing this work worldwide might number 1,000 or 2,000. He named April in Paris, Bea’s former shop, as one of only a handful of makers doing Hermès-caliber work independently. That’s the lineage Heirloom Leathercraft carries forward. The saddle stitch that Ben described in the episode, the one where you can barely see the hole, where the thread seems to vanish into the leather, is the same stitch we teach in every class and use on every piece that leaves our bench. It’s not decorative. It’s structural. Two needles, one thread, each stitch locked independently so if one breaks, the rest hold. Hermès has proven that hand craftsmanship doesn’t just survive at scale. It’s the reason for the scale. Jean-Louis Dumas understood this. Bea understood it when she trained at the Faubourg. And it’s what we practice every day at Heirloom. The Tradition Continues Bea now teaches the next generation of artisans at Heirloom Leathercraft in San Francisco. The same techniques. The same standards. The same insistence that every piece have a soul. If you want to learn from someone who sat at the bench in the most famous atelier in the world, join one of our classes. If you want to see the work, visit the shop. Listen to the full episode: Acquired — Hermès: The Complete History and Strategy
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What to Expect in Your First Leathercraft Class
You have never worked with leather. You are not sure what to expect. By the end of two hours, you will have handled the tools of a tradition that predates industrial manufacturing, and you will understand, in your hands rather than in theory, why some objects last a lifetime. Here is what your first session at Heirloom Leathercraft looks like. You arrive at 15 Clement Street in San Francisco's Inner Richmond. The studio is inside April in Paris, the boutique Beatrice Amblard has run since 2012. The atelier is in the back. Workbenches, thread, awls, pricking irons, and full-grain leather are laid out for the session. The Tools in Your Hands In a two-hour workshop ($175), you work through one of two current sessions: Core Skills in Pattern Making & Minimum Waste Cutting, or a Seasonal Workshop where you create a Personalized Valet Tray. The session starts with tool orientation. You learn the names and purposes of the hand tools used in traditional French leatherworking. These are the same tools Beatrice used at Hermes. They are not decorative. They are working instruments, and you will use them properly from minute one. Then you move to technique. In the Pattern Making workshop, you learn to read a pattern, cut leather with minimal waste, and understand the relationship between design and material efficiency. In the Valet Tray session, you build a finished object from start to end. The Saddle Stitch The foundation of everything taught at Heirloom is the saddle stitch. Unlike a machine stitch, which uses a single thread locked by a bobbin, the saddle stitch uses two needles and one thread, each needle passing through the same hole from opposite sides. If one thread breaks, the remaining stitches hold. This is the technique used in Hermes leather goods. It is why those objects last decades. You will practice this stitch repeatedly. Beatrice teaches it exactly as she learned it at the Chambre de Commerce de Paris and refined during her years at Hermes. The emphasis is on tension, consistency, and angle. It will feel unfamiliar. That is expected. What Changes in You This is the part most people do not anticipate. You walk in thinking about leather. You leave thinking about precision. The workshop does not just teach you a craft technique. It recalibrates your sense of what "done well" means. You will notice stitching on bags you pass in stores. You will see shortcuts you never saw before. Whether this leads you to Level 1: Foundations ($5,000) or remains a single afternoon of focused work, the shift in perception is real. What Happens After Many students leave a workshop and continue. The next step is Level 1: Foundations ($5,000), which builds technique across multiple weekly sessions. There is also the Introduction to the AMBLARD Method ($800), a single-day intensive covering core principles in concentrated form. You do not need to decide anything during the workshop. It exists to let you experience the craft and the teaching. What You Will Not Find Here This is not a craft night. The atmosphere is focused and professional. Beatrice teaches the way she works: with precision, without shortcuts. Students who thrive here want to learn a discipline. That said, the community is warm. Graduates from 2012 still come to Open Studio sessions. Students become friends. The rigor and the warmth are not in tension. Practical Details All tools and materials provided. Wear comfortable clothing. 15 Clement Street, San Francisco, CA 94118. Street parking available. Muni serves the Inner Richmond. Book at heirloomleathercraft.com.
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