May 2022 Artist In Residence- Marvin Nolte
A few months ago, I was looking through our Wild Hide orders and noticed that one person had continually ordered parchment every month. That person was Marvin Nolte. I decided to send him an email thanking him for his continued support and offering my services if he ever needed any help. Much to my excitement, I found out that Marvin, an expert leather craftsman of over 50 years, was experimenting with parchment for the first time. I asked Marvin where his sudden interest in parchment came from, and he said
"My interest in parchment is the result of ignorance. I have been crafting leather for 50 years. In that time I have worked with all types of leather. Or so I thought. I cannot remember the specific instance, but I realized that I knew very little about one type of leather: parchment. So curiosity is what prompted my current enthusiasm for everything parchment."
During our conversations, I offered Marvin to be our featured artist and share his results/ experiences with our other readers. He declined my initial offer and said, "Perhaps some months from now, when I have completed my tests and prototypes; when I feel that I actually have something to share." Well, a few weeks ago, Marvin emailed me and said that he was ready. So, it is with great pleasure that I get to tell you about my conversation with Marvin and share his insights into working with parchment. Please enjoy the following write-up of my interview with Marvin Nolte.
Marvin Nolte's first experience with leather came from his time in the Army. In 1973 he had gone to the Special Services building to use a band saw for a wood project and happened to see some people make leather goods. He walked over to see what they were doing and was hooked. He got his first Tandy Leather Kit and was off to the races. After serving 11 years, Marvin resigned from the Army and moved his family to Wyoming, where they still reside today.
Marvin said that he first discovered parchment in books on leather. He said there would be a short blurb about parchment, and then it would never be mentioned again. In an effort to learn more about parchment, he went to the first place everybody does now to learn more, google. From there, Marvin found Pergamena and some of our videos. This conversation led Marvin and I into an interesting discussion of "is parchment leather or not?" of which Marvin came down on the side that parchment is a form of leather. Marvin argued that the answer depends on the definition you use. For example, some definitions say that leather is an animal skin that has been tanned, while others say that it is an animal skin that has been dressed for use or prepared to prevent the skin from rotting. Thus in broad terms, parchment is leather; apparently, Marvin has argued this point with a few people before.
I asked Marvin what his first projects with parchment were. He said that he started with a small tool pouch and wallets. We then talked about how he approaches beginning projects and if there were any similarities between parchment and leather projects. Marvin said he effectively evaluates the same characteristics when deciding on materials: thickness, feel, and appearance. When talking about the appearance of parchment, we got to Marvin's favorite quality of parchment, "the wild side." Marvin very excitedly told me that he loves the wildness of parchment and the fact that you can see the natural character of the skin, most of which is lost in the tanning process. Marvin happens to be the owner of one of our most exotic skins, Ostrich. As an experiment, we made one Ostrich parchment skin that had set in our tannery for years, and finally, Marvin came along and snagged it. I, of course, asked him what he plans to do with it, and he said, "junior legal pad covers, but I'm too scared to cut into the skin, so I haven't started yet."
Marvin has a background in science, both educationally and professionally, and he approaches his craft very scientifically. Marvin has done extensive experiments with parchment, both in application and in dying, finishings, sewing, and adhesives. Unfortunately, dying the parchment did not go well. He was attempting to use leather dye and could not get the dye to penetrate evenly, and ever since then, Marvin has opted to buy dyed parchment from us. As for sewing parchment, Marvin is using a commercial leather sewing machine and has found that he has to drastically lessen the tension and increase the spacing of the stitches to avoid the parchment tearing. Marvin has very kindly shared his finishing and adhesive test results with us, and you can view them here.
Finally, as we wrapped up our conversation, I asked Marvin if he had any plans for more large-scale projects. He said that he was currently stumped as to where to go next. So we talked about what other applications I knew of for parchment, and I told him about parchment's use in furniture and interior design. He was absolutely floored, so maybe we will see some furniture from Marvin in a few months. In the meantime, please enjoy these photos of Marvin's works. Additionally, if you would like to get in touch with Marvin you can find his contact information below.
