Riley leading Harry the stockhorse, wearing his RG Leather bridle, and Grace with Peppa the kelpie, sporting her custom dog collar. Photo: RG Leather.
“I’m a rational person”, the softly spoken Riley Turner explains, “I’ve always liked good quality, handmade stuff.”
Riley hails from Koorawatha, between Cowra and Young, and together with his partner Grace Kaveney, runs a rare new business.
The duo create handmade leather products, taking the entire process into their own hands – from hunting to stitching.
RG Leather is the brainchild of Riley and Grace’s shared love of a rural lifestyle – hunting, camping, horse riding and farming.
“He’s always loved agriculture, and he worked on a farm near Braidwood for a few years after high school,” Grace says.
“In my spare time, I always made the things we needed, like bridles and saddles, and people always seemed to be really impressed with it,” Riley says.
The business seemed a natural extension of the curiosity they were constantly inspiring from friends and family, and a way for Riley and Grace to bring attention to a forgotten artform, as Riley says he has observed the skill of leathercraft fading away.
“It really is a shame; so business opportunity aside, we feel it’s an extremely good thing to do,” Riley says.
“Genuinely handmade things made with Australian materials are hard to get now because everything is produced overseas,” he adds.
Riley and Grace met five years ago, but after Riley’s enlistment in the armed forces and Grace’s move to Wagga to study agricultural science at Charles Sturt University, their lives grew apart.
They rejoined forces last year, leading similar lifestyles, and began making bridles, belts, dog collars and saddlebags for themselves.
The rural communities that Riley and Grace live and work in serve as the sounding boards for their products.
“We started the Instagram account to see if all the curious people had an interest in actually buying what we were putting out,” Grace says.
“I help with finishing touches and stitch on random bits and pieces, but I also do a bit of the design – I tell him what he should make and what’s going to sell. He’ll suggest a new product and I’ll say ‘how can we make it pretty?’” Grace explains.
“I want to get into the girly things,” the 23 year old laughs, “envelope purses, card holders and more bags in different sizes.”
When RG Leather was born, Riley would shoot, skin, tan, cut and hand-stitch the leather himself.
“Riley befriended an old couple who own a saddlery in Townsville, where he’s posted at the moment, and sources some leather from there. They’re like second grandparents to him, it’s so cute,” Grace says.
When demand began to increase, much to their delight, the pair sought out a supplier for their calf leather.
In keeping with their vision of Australian made materials, they enlisted the help of Greenhalgh Tannery in Ballarat.
Founded 150 years ago by Ralph Greenhalgh, the tannery is now run by his fifth generation descendants.
As Australia’s only dedicated vegetable tannery, it was a no-brainer for Riley and Grace to stick with their vision and source their leather from there.
“It’s a side hustle at the moment, but we’re hoping for it to take off,” Grace says.
One of Grace’s goals is to put RG Leather on the map and become a partner of Buy From The Bush, a grassroots marketplace for Australian rural businesses that built its wildly successful platform in the midst of the 2018/19 drought.
Twenty-four-year-old Riley aspires to establish himself as an agricultural contractor in Wagga in the coming years.
“He wants to target the smaller farms that the big contractors avoid, the little guys who often miss out on services they desperately need because their only options for contracting are profit-driven companies,” Grace says.
Until then, the duo plans to build a website, buy a border stitching machine and set up a workshop on Grace’s family farm near Young.
They also hope to start bringing their products to markets around the Riverina towards the end of the year.
“Everything we make is completely from scratch, designed to last forever,” Riley says, adding, “these practical things that are used every day by Australian people living on the land should be produced in Australia.”
Find out more about RG Leather and place your custom order here.
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