Fish Leather Key Loop – black, open finish

A key loop made from an unusual material with an unusual story. Because yes: it’s fish leather. Handcrafted from Nile perch skin at the edge of Lake Turkana in Northern Kenya.

The Turkana region was hit hard by recurring droughts. Communities made the shift from herding to fishing, learning to work with the lake that had always been there. The fish skin that came with the catch was waste. Ira and James Ambani saw something else in it. They learned the craft, refined it, and built a workshop that today employs around twenty people, most of them women.

We love these pieces!  The texture, the feel, and the way the leather develops its own patina over time. This version comes in an open finish: the natural scale texture is tactile and raised, matte, raw, closer to the original material. Cooler than a thousand other accessories. Not because of what they cost, but because of what they carry.

Each one arrives slightly different. That’s the nature of the material.