Join leather worker Andy Rumming and make the journey from soil to soles and create your own pair of leather sneakers using locally produced, fully traceable leather.

In this hands-on workshop, you'll make a comfortable and completely wearable pair of casual shoes from leather produced at Waterhay Farm in North Wiltshire. You'll discover the story behind the material you're working with and learn how leather can form part of a regenerative approach to farming.

You'll begin with a paper pattern prepared for your shoe size, carefully cutting the different elements of your sneakers from leather. You'll learn how to cut leather accurately, set neat eyelets and use leather stamps to add your own choice of decoration and detail.

Once your leather pieces are prepared, you'll begin constructing your shoes, hand sewing the leather uppers onto modern soles. The process is broken down into clear, achievable stages, with guidance throughout as your unique pair of sneakers takes shape.

Along the way, you'll learn more about different types of leather, how leather is produced and even the cattle your leather came from. The leather used in this workshop comes directly from Waterhay Farm, a Pasture for Life accredited farm where cattle are raised as part of a regenerative farming system focused on supporting soil health and biodiversity.

By the end of the workshop, you'll have developed skills in cutting, stamping, setting eyelets and hand sewing leather – and you'll literally walk away in your own one-of-a-kind pair of handmade sneakers.

Tutor: Andy Rumming
Date & Time: Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th October, 10:00am - 3.30pm
Venue: Brush Studio, New Brewery Arts
Price: £245 (£0.00 VAT)

You are welcome to bring a lidded bottle of water with you but we kindly ask that you do not bring food into the studio.

Refreshments are available at our on-site café Blend until 4pm.

For more information:
Visit our FAQ page

Who is this workshop for?
This course is designed for people who want to make an intermediate level leather project and have some experience in hand crafts. You don't need to have done any leatherwork. You need good manual dexterity. You need good eyesight. The hand sewing can be quite strenuous on the fingers.

Please note that this workshop is for those aged 18 and over.

What you will need:
All tools, materials and equipment will be provided.

You will need to choose colours, sizes and laces - we will ask you about this when you book. In order to order materials in good time, bookings made less than a month before the workshop date may have limited colour choices available.

Please bring an apron or wear clothes you don’t mind getting dirty.

Meet Your Tutor - ANDY RUMMING

Andy is a farmer and leatherworker, specialising in using leather from his own cattle. Andy farms with his family on the banks of the Thames a short distance from Cirencester. The cattle are 100% grassfed and farmed in a regenerative way, so producing superior, traceable beef and hides. The hides are then taken to a pit tannery in Bristol where they are vegetable tanned using tree bark to make amazing leather. Andy has been making things with leather for over 10 years, specialising in belts and water moulded items.

Andy started making sneakers after seeing them on the Great British Sewing Bee, and made a pair to illustrate a talk he gave on sustainable leather at the Groundswell Festival. Interest rapidly grew in them and he has been running workshops for the last 3 years, with the idea that people can make a comfortable pair of sneakers themselves and learn about the leather and the key skills needed to work with it.