Ivan Volschenk's Contact Details

Ivan Volschenk's Company Details

Els & Co. Fine Leather Craftsmen

Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa • 3 Employees
Arts & Crafts

When investing in an Els & Co. product you are not only buying a top end leather item, you're also buying into a belief that we can all make a difference, one small bit at a time.Els & Co. is a small leather studio nestled on the foot of the Simonsberg mountain range in Stellenbosch. The drive up to where we are based in "The Old Dairy" on Rustenberg Wine Farm is truly idyllic; green pastures, grazing cows, old oak trees and the hustle and bustle of a working farm. As you finally walk through the doors of our studio you will find the welcoming smell of leather and beeswax and hear a lively chatter coming from the craftswomen happily stitching away at the next extraordinary leather product.The backbone, heart and soul of Els & Co. is our incredible team of Xhosa craftswomen who have been trained from scratch and now have the skills to run the entire production process from start to finish. Each product is entirely handmade by a single craftswoman; from dyeing the leather, cutting the stitching groove, bevelling the edges, moulding the leather, drilling each stitching hole and finally hand stitching the product. Upon completion each product is proudly embossed with her initials.It's become our mission to build a company that does not only produce exceptional leather products, but also one that cultivates a strong social conscience. By giving one woman an opportunity to uplift herself, we know it's an entire family that will benefit from it, and so slowly, one woman at a time, an entire community is uplifted - making a genuinely notable difference. As we continue to grow, knowledge gets transferred from one craftswoman to the next as they train each newcomer. We believe that this strong thread of sustainability that runs through our company DNA will ensure that we will still be here 100 years from now, uplifting women.