ELBOW WORKSHOP | Meet Elliat Rich and James B Young
We met Elliat Rich in 2007 at an intensive textiles workshop and have been fangirls ever since! A great thinker and incredible designer, Elliat teams up with her (also incredible) life partner and craftsman James B Young under their studio practice - Elbow Workshop. With their combined creativity and skills, they collaborate on a collection of leather bags and accessories inspired by an extraordinary place and the stories of where they live in Alice Springs - the heart of the universe.
We’re so honoured for this rare opportunity to present Elbow Workshop as part of Mrs Woo 20th Anniversary Showcase.
MRS WOO: Actually, why Elbow Workshop? Can you give us a bit of a background story on how it all began?
ELLIAT: Our origin story began in 2001 when we set off on foot for a whole year around NSW with some pack camels and donkeys. JBY was a design school drop out and ERD was yet to graduate. It was a coming of age moment that allowed us to put our burgeoning ideas and values into practice - and have an adventure at the same time...
Elliat Rich Design has been up and running from Mparntwe Alice Springs since 2006 across resource development, graphic design, set design and increasingly collectible editions works for national institutions and private sale through Sophie Gannon Gallery in Melbourne. JBY trained as shoemaker in Adelaide in 2012 as a sabbatical from working in land management and cameleering.
Upon return to central Australia, we made the conscious decision to place making and creativity at the centre of our family life, and set up a studio and workshop space in an old plumbing supplies shop in Hele Crescent, Elbow Workshop was born!
MRS WOO: The Crescent Range is your signature collection of leather bags - they look so impressive in photos but gosh, they’re mind-blowing in real life! The workmanship is incredible, the quality… so clever and skillfully made. It feels like you’ve both found a way to work creatively together. What are the benefits and challenges of collaboration - how do you think it has fueled your originality?
ELLIAT: Thank you! We’re really proud of this range and still get a thrill when one of our bags is ‘adopted’ and goes out into the world on someones shoulder.
Regarding collaboration, because we both have independent design and making practices Elbow Workshop has been a light counterpoint to JBY's austere traditional shoemaking and leatherwork and the conceptual rigour of Elliat Rich Design Studio. It’s been a valuable interface with the local ASP community where our independent practices have more of a disparate / niche reach.
Elbow Workshop has enabled us to channel our shared experiences and reflections of living in Central Oz thorough a creative process and then share that through our products.
Initially it was challenging to form boundaries around the three distinct identities and modes of practice as our independent creative lives were still taking form. After 10 + years we now have a complimentary skill set and clearer idea of what works in both material and process. It is a space where we can be more playful and at times experimental.By staying small and nimble we haven't had to squeeze ELB W through a hard commercial filter, which requires more compromises than we’re willing to make. This has allowed us to stay close to the products and projects that most resonate with us and allowed the right people to find us organically over time. This has also meant we haven't had to sacrifice quality for scale as many brands are forced to.
MRS WOO: There’s traditional crafts-making in your products but the designs are almost beyond contemporary. Not even the most high fashion brands like Hermes or Vera Wang leather bags come close to the calibre of your work. We love seeing the photos too of your hard-wearing bags as they patina with use. What can you tell us about having strong making and design skills, and how it’s important to your sustainability views and practices?
ELLIAT: Well, thanks that is very generous!
At a very base level, our products are informed by the very first camel/donkey trip we did when we made our own saddles, pack bags, dry-goods sacks, buckles! That taught us how important it is to be able to depend on things. Everything we do is informed by the practical rigour that utility objects demand and the knowledge of field testing items for thousands of hours in environments that are hard on gear.
We only use Australian vegetable tanned leathers - there is a whole conversation around the ethics of leather that is important to be had. In Australia the reality is that 100% of the value in leather is created through the process of tanning. The raw hides before processing would otherwise end up as a waste stream of the meat industry which is the reality for the majority of animals killed for meat in Australia.
Vegetable tanned leather is a completely non-toxic product (unlike most chrome tanned commercial leathers). Because veg tanned leather patinas over time it actually looks better with age which is the inverse of most leather goods from almost all high end brands. Throughout our design process we take into consideration the cutting patterns and panel sizes so that our full range of products makes best use of all remnants - we don’t even really consider them remnants!
Our view is that sustainability is created through long term use, small-scale direct to consumer production, high quality materials and craftsmanship, and the offer of ongoing maintenance. When you consider every aspect of what you do and align it with your values, all those aspects reinforce each other.
MRS WOO: You officially launched Elbow Workshop in 2017, is that right? Going on 10 years, and getting stronger. What do you enjoy about Elbow Workshop that drives you to keep doing what you do that you’d love us to know?
ELLIAT: We launched in 2013, actually! Because we are so small, every sale is truly personal and we cherish the connection between us as makers and the people who are using our products.
We are proud to have the values of craftsmanship and design underpin our work and family life, that our children have grown up within this environment… and we get to make beautiful products! Together!
ELBOW WORKSHOP beautiful pieces are now available in High Tea with Mrs Woo's NEWCASTLE and SYDNEY stores.