Raglan creative takes her wares to the world

Kay Buchanan is a woman of many talents. Sometimes she uses her hands to create, other times she uses her mind, body and breath to find balance. Her camera helps her frame creativity and, on the odd occasion, she pulls a mermaid tail over her legs and dives into the deep blue sea.

The 34-year-old has always been a free spirit. She’s never settled into a classic 9-5 job. Instead, she juggles three part-time jobs on top of swimming around in a tail for charity and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Kay’s main income comes from her leather creations - beautifully hand crafted accessories that she creates from her home in Raglan and that she now sells globally.

“I’ve always loved leather. I used to ride horses and worked with horses a lot and I loved the Western saddles and costumes and characters.”

Kay travelled a lot in her early 20s and on her travels she met a man who trained horses and raised his own cows on his farm.

He believed in living off the land. He had a massive garden and sorted his own home kill for food, and because he believed in using every inch of what was available he would use the cows’ hides for leather.

“He was fully self-sustainable and really involved in each process. I was interested in the leather work and he invited me to come and use his workshop for a few days. He didn’t show me what to do, he just gave me a couple of tips."

Kay had already started making things from leather, but loved the opportunity to use a workshop.

“I was in his workshop for three days and it took me the whole three days to make one guitar strap.”