It all started with one handbag.
Claudia Krieger was a stay-at-home mom and building manager, and leather was simply a hobby when she walked into a second-hand store and purchased an old hipster bag with multi-coloured flowers on it.
She had no idea it would set off a chain reaction that would eventually lead to her partnering with Monique Ouellette to establish their own business selling handmade leather accessories based in North Vancouver.
Krieger bought the purse for eight dollars and repainted the flowers on it with white petals and a yellow centre.
"Every single time I used that bag somebody would stop me on the street and their comment was always, 'Oh my God, I love your bag, where did you get it?'" Krieger said. "I think probably after the 500th person who asked me, I was like, 'I'm going to make this bag because somebody is telling me I need to do this.'" Krieger taught herself how to make a pattern, started working with leather and eventually made her first bag. She enjoyed working with leather and went on to make key chains, dog leashes and belts.
Her bags appeared under a different business name in a few select Vancouver boutiques, where Ouellette admired them, but the two didn't know each other yet. It would be five years after that, in 2009, that the two finally met and had a connection.
"I just had this gut feeling, like somehow we're going to end up working together and I'm going to learn how to do this," Ouellette said.
Like Krieger, Ouellette had a creative history but never had any formal training in working with leather or creating handmade accessories. In 2011, the two started Trace of Grey Designs, for which they create one-of-a-kind leather accessories, including bags, cuffs and necklaces, by hand. That means all the patterns, sewing and binding are done without the use of any machines.
"For me, there was a pretty steep learning curve right at the beginning," Ouellette noted. "Claudia is very talented and creative, and was a great person for me to learn from, get the basis of how it works then your own creativity has a springboard to go from and that's what happened for me."
They each work on their own pieces and bounce ideas off one another.
"Our pieces are individually constructed by each of us," said Krieger. "So they are slightly different and yet cohesive because we have slightly the same esthetic."
Working with Krieger has been educational for Ouellette.
"I continue to learn something probably every day, but I definitely can see a progression in the work," she said. "And we work well together and our pieces are sometimes co-designed." When coming up with a name for their business, the duo originally considered Shades of Grey, but it already had a copyright and they didn't want to be confused with the popular book 50 Shades of Grey. "We thought of a Trace of Grey because life is not black and white," Krieger said. "Things are not one or the other. There's always a shade of grey running through."
Krieger usually writes something inside the bags to celebrate the individuality of the person, the item and the hide of the animal used to make it.
"So carrying that philosophy forward to Trace of Grey Designs, the whole idea that things are unique and the uniqueness is often what's beautiful," Ouellette said. "We believe that people are all different." That belief is what drives the two to create each handbag, belt, necklace, cuff and briefcase as a unique item. The two utilize the finest leathers they can find and work with the hide organically to create each piece.
"Our reputation is on the line when we make something," Krieger noted. "If we make something and it's not quite right, then we remake it." While they create items to sell at markets, festivals and other events, their time has been more and more occupied by custom orders.
"We're doing this because it's a creative service that we're providing for people and tying into that whole concept is helping other people celebrate their individuality," Krieger said.
"We can make this for you, this bag you've been hunting for forever that doesn't exist and you have it in your mind, and you want it to be this way."
They've filled orders for briefcases, personalized guitar straps for musicians across Canada and the world, and even a pedalboard case. Their products will also have text featured on them, either poetry or phrases.
For more information, visit atraceofgrey.tumblr.com or search for Trace of Grey Designs on Facebook.
