Free US Shipping / International Flat Rates / Over $85 USD

Free US Shipping / International Flat Rates / Over $85 USD

Search

Original, unique designs to help with lifting and carrying your bicycle

Lifetime leather bar wraps in five styles for every type of handlebar and bicycle

Best-selling "commuter essentials" for making the daily commute easier

Stunning handcrafted bicycle bags carry the essentials and turn heads!

Our original best-selling Travel Cribbage Boards have fans worldwide

Play dice anywhere you go in a handcrafted brass keychain or necklace.

Uniquely functional for travel: hand-drawn domino playing cards (2 sizes!)

Our newest folding leather board and favorite game: Travel Backgammon!

Leather handles in 8 styles, 4 leather colors, and 3 metal finishes

Strong yet soft, durable and sustainable, no-bumps and no-bruises

Add a label to handles and pulls for superior organization

Flexible but sturdy, creative solutions to tricky problem corners

We wrote a free educational series about our favorite material, delivered to your inbox.

When it comes to leathercrafting projects, we wrote the book on it for DK Publishing!

2020 Year in Review: Survival

2020 was a year for the record books. As we reviewed our biggest stories of the year, it was overwhelming how many there were. This was a nonstop news year! So perhaps it makes sense that we count just being able to keep going as a success. One of the first self-taught business lessons we learned some years ago, is that half the success of business is just staying in business. So day-in, day-out, we kept the business open. Making and shipping your orders made us feel useful as we sheltered in place, worked from home, kept informed on what was going on in the world and did our best to give back, went to bed and did it again the next day.

This is our 2020 year in review:

Right at the beginning of the year, on January 5th, we had a personal tragedy, losing a great shop cat, Huskey. Huskey kept the workshop mouse-free and was a part of our family for 12 years, as long as our marriage. It was a terrible start to the year, and we wrote a moving tribute to him on our blog.

During the year, we brought in two new shop cats, Best and Tanuki, father-and-daughter hypoallergenic Siberian forest cats. We even created their own Instagram feed with more cat photos for your quarantine enjoyment.

We tracked the many developments of the year on our blog, with our ever-evolving Note on COVID-19 as we tried our best to do the right things and give back in a tough year. Beginning in March, we:

  • Stayed at home under a self-imposed, highly conservative shelter-in-place
  • Donated our N95 woodworking masks to front-line medical workers
  • Raised money for No Kid Hungry
  • Donated leather to Help Heal Vets for free craft kits for veterans
  • Mailed out free leather bookmark craft kits to quarantined families around the world
  • Gave our time and talents to local hunger and black-led social justice organizations on the North Oregon Coast
  • Held a site-wide sale since the beginning of lockdown (our first ever) for our Walnut community
  • Advocated for #BlackLivesMatter, #StopHateforProfit, the Portland protests, the USPS, and wildland firefighters
  • Voted; and we encouraged others to vote, too with free mini leather VOTE signs in October

Although it seems like social, political, and current events seemed to preoccupy most attention, throughout much of the world, local natural disasters took precedence. Here in Oregon, we survived historic Oregon wildfires, weeks of sooty air, and too many power outages to count.

Wildfire smoke obscured the workshop 250ft away during September.

That's why environmental sustainability is of utmost importance to us, and this year we were proud to announce that Walnut now offers 100% carbon-offset order shipping. Also in 2020, we planted 20 native trees on our land and eliminated single-use plastics from our packaging. We will continue to improve our always-evolving sustainability program in 2021.

New Products

Big issues dominated our thoughts. But what about the actual business we do, the products we sell? In 2020, we:

  • Brought back two designs from years past: the UpCycle Cage adjustable water bottle cage for bicycles and the Jim Golden Art Poster.
  • Introduced 2 new colors of the Bicycle Print Bandana, one of our most popular products this year: a mask substitute that was available even when PPE was scarce.
  • Introduced a new hardware color for our our entire line of leather drawer pulls: Matte Black.
  • Improved our Drawer Pull hardware kits, which now fit a wider range of surface thicknesses.
  • Created a stand-alone listing for our sturdy, weatherproof Waxed Thread, which is useful for whip-tyingthe ends of leather bar wraps.
  • Updated our Travel Cribbage Gift Sets with a new deck of cards: the Bicycle 1885 deck, with gold accents and vintage bike-y fun.

Turning to 2021

Everybody is glad to turn the page on 2020 and thinking hopeful thoughts for 2021. Here are some encouraging trends we see:

  • Vaccines. COVID-19 vaccines were developed in record time. We can't wait to take ours, when it comes to our area and demographic. It may be taking longer than we'd like, and there have been difficulties with the distribution and transitions, and it will take time for everyone's vaccines to work, but nevertheless, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
  • Phoenixes.Walnut was born in the Great Recession, so we know first-hand that out of destruction comes rebirth. Disasters can be catalysts for much-needed change. What kind of change do you hope to see? As IMF historian James Boughton said on the subject, "Only in a crisis are governments able to rally people to accept necessary but painful reforms. Every crisis is also an opportunity."

1 Response

Cynthia Card

Cynthia Card

July 11, 2023

Hi Valerie and Geoff,
I enjoyed your newsletter and all the things you accomplished in 2020! Wishing for all good things to come your way in 2021!!
Stay safe and be Happy.
Cynthia Card 😊
Plant City, Florida

Leave a comment (all fields required)

Comments will be approved before showing up.

Search