YEYE from Taiwan Presents Plant Textures with Leather

City dwellers often rely on the healing power of plants to create relaxing corners at home. Unfortunately, some houses may not be suitable to accommodate greenery and some people do not have the skills to take care of plants.

Design brand, YEYE, from Taiwan combines plants and leather to create green displays of leather plants. With their realistic textures, these elegant plants don’t look like they are made from leather at all.

Founded in 2018, YEYE has designed and launched a wide variety of leather plants, from eucalyptus to ferns. With the addition of scents to match the plants, the experience become multisensory.

Textures and marks on leather become design features

Designer duo Maxwell Yeh and Hank Lai started the project with hotels in mind. For various reasons, this never got off the ground but they enjoyed the idea so much they started a crowdfunding campaign to put the concept into practice.

“We studied leather for three years before we come up with this design, so we are quite familiar with its features. People are used to seeing beautifully produced leather, but they tend to forget that it is a natural material with marks and lines. Each batch arrives with different levels of flexibility and we find it appropriate to make it into leaf shapes, as veins and imperfections are common on leaves. Also, we can use all scrap materials without waste.”

Vegetable tanned leather keeps qualities in natural materials

Maxwell and Hank tried to grow plants before, but without a suitable environment, they failed. “That’s why we make leather into plant specimens, so they will last and do not wither.”

Making leather diffusers is not as simple as imagined. Their designs require vegetable tanned leather. Due to climate and water quality restrictions, vegetable tanned leather is mostly imported from Argentina and Italy. They also use leathers with higher costs but fewer surface colourings. Most scents in the market are based on alcohol, but alcohol often decolours leather. As a result, Maxwell and Hank develop proprietary scents for their products.

Scent staghorn ferns as art installations on the wall

Though challenging, this process delivers great results, such as the popular “staghorn fern” in the crowdfunding campaign. Not only a diffuser, it is also an art installation at home. Oil-based scents also ensure leather quality without cracks or molds. Those natural marks on leather after use are also fascinating.

In the future, Maxwell and Hank plan more designs based on native plants of Taiwan.

By Ian Liu/ Damanwoo

YEYE ：https://www.hankmax.com/pages/yeye

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/yeyeworks/

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