Featured Shop: Gazur Studio

Hello, we are Shahar and Noam, partners in life and business. Gazur Studio is our eco-conscious brand of limited-edition bags, wallets and accessories made from high-quality, upcycled leather. We dream, explore and create in Berlin, Germany.

Our journey started about five years ago, when we decided to quit our jobs and travel around India for several months. There, among many wonders, we met people who lived off of their creations. It opened our mind. After India, we decided to continue to Berlin for 10 days. We ended up staying for three months and deciding we wanted to live there. When we returned home, we dreamed of creating our own designs. Meanwhile, Shahar was working as a designer at a furniture design studio. Realizing the amount of waste the industry produces, she started collecting leftover scraps and planning the first models for our bags. A few months later, we got our chance to kickstart our business: a friend called to tell us that an upholstery workshop was changing locations and that we could collect leftover scraps. We rushed over on our bicycles and went home with nine bags of leather!

From these scraps, we created our first collection. Six months later we moved to Berlin. Living in a foreign country isn’t easy: there’s a new language and new rules. Luckily, the city of Berlin supports and encourages new businesses and welcomes foreigners. We love living here because it’s so inspiring, and so ready to accept us as we are. We’ve met a lovely community of creative people who came to Berlin to live the life they dreamed.

We make all of our products from leather scraps left over from production – mainly upholstery – because we believe that the production process should have a less negative impact on the environment. We’re always looking for channels to get special new (old) materials to work with; the search is not limited to leather. We never know what we will find, and that’s part of the magic.

Most of our designs are triggered by a need. When we’re working on a new product, we cut and combine leather scraps into a model, which usually sits on the studio floor for about a week. We walk around, moving pieces here and there until the shape is formed. Next we sew a rough prototype, which we use or give to friends to try out before we finalize the design. We place a lot of importance on stability, sustainability and making products that will last. Nothing makes us happier than seeing a client pull money for a new bag out of a wallet he bought from us two years ago.

Germany is full of craft fairs, and in the beginning of our business we only sold at our local market. Later, we started moving around Germany and Austria, meeting a large audience with different needs and wishes. We opened our Etsy shop in 2012 in order to reach an even larger audience. To us, Etsy is a window to the world – it brought us the opportunity to grow at our own speed, be confident in what we do, and be everywhere. Being in contact with our clients is important to us, and we try always to give the best solution to any questions, as if we were talking face to face. Someday, we would like to have a store that sells our designs in every major city in Europe and the USA. Then we could visit them all!

Follow Gazur on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

All photographs by Benjamin Rennicke.