REMADE USA by SHANNON SOUTH

ETHICAL AND SLOW

The characteristics that guide all of Shannon's work is that it be beautiful, soulful, well-crafted, made locally, and have the tiniest footprint possible.

There is so much perfectly usable waste in the United States. The primary material that she uses is discarded leather. It is resilient, it lasts, and the quality beautifully worn leather gives to a newly made bag cannot be replicated. It has a sense of history, yet is still new.

Aside from making beautiful products, one of her goals is to create awareness and appreciation of what can be done with discarded materials. Not limiting herself to just leather, she also works with denim and even doilies. She loves the challenge of transforming a persons desire for a product, simply through redesign and reconfiguring of the material. This is the biggest and most exciting design challenge of all and her dream is to see it on a large scale.

PRODUCTS WITH SOUL

One of the most interesting aspects about repurposing a used material is the fact that it had a whole other life before it landed in Shannon's hands.

Customers often share stories, when they send a leather jacket that belonged to a loved one or that they got on a trip abroad. Sentimentally valuable objects are hard for people to get rid of. A leather jacket may have been worn daily for ten years or a doily might have taken twenty hours to crochet by someone's grandmother.

The inherent beauty of these histories adds a whole new and deeper layer of value to an object. Giving an object new form and purpose honors its previous life, extends its story and is what makes her work worthwhile and always interesting.