Our Creative Metamorphosis

When we serendipitously met in 2010 at Faerieworld's we were awestruck by the spark. Bringing illuminated vision to each other's creativity, we decided to co-create high vibration wearable artwork forged in inspiration, artistry, and expertise.

As the muse would have it, the first incarnation of our creativity was the thriving, but humble leather craft business known as "Feathery Leathery". It was a whimsical name that rhymed, was easy to remember and quite accurately described the materials from which we create. However, the muse was not done with us...shortly after our meeting, we channeled our true name, Astral Chrysalis Designs. Feathery Leathery has been the small caterpillar intentionally weaving its cocoon, imaginal cells increasing with each new inspiration, Imagining ALL possibilities as we grew deep into our craft, new visions shifting us into the unknown, chrysalis revealed, awaiting our cosmic rebirth~ emerging to our highest winged form, to our highest potential as artisans. Astral speaks to the other planes of existence, that which is connected to the cosmic stellar light, that which emanates the divine energy of the stars. Chrysalis, the pupa of a butterfly, that space in which profound transformation occurs until emergence is beheld and what once was is no longer. Astral Chrysalis Designs is that sacred cosmic space where our creativity transforms and is born anew, ever unfolding, ever growing, ever evolving.

Our leather craft is handcrafted (designed, cut, engraved, sewn, painted) in our art studio at The Nail Factory surrounded by the natural beauty that is Nevada City, in the beautiful Sierra Nevada Foothills. We are blessed to own a laser cutter and engraver, which enables us to precisely cut our leather and create less scrap waste. It also gives us the ability to engrave our art onto the leather. We are proud to be an eco-responsible/sustainable laser cut leather business! Many artists are utilizing the laser cutter these days, but very few are doing it responsibly and filtering the toxic smoke. We understand that not all materials are as toxic as leather when it comes to cutting/engraving. We have met many leather crafters who are piping the toxic smoke right out into the shared air supply. We find this environmentally irresponsible and ultimately an unsustainable business practice in relation to the artists own health and well being. We are choosing to model the responsible use of this magnificent tool! We own a $4000 dollar filtration system that completely filters all the smoke. In addition, we use an Austin Air Filter to filter out any particles that may off-gas from the leather once it is removed from the laser bed. We infuse all of our pieces with love and we are often told that the vibrational frequency of our pieces are powerfully felt by the wearer. We support other artists in our community whenever we can, by co-creation and shared advertising. Lastly, we are modeling being successful working artists to our 3 artistic young children.

It is beyond exciting to be able to create what lives in our cosmically divine hearts & soul! Thank you for visiting and learning more about who we are!

With immense Gratitude & Love~ the A team!

"The task of art is to take hold of the shining, the radiance, the manifestation, of that which as spirit weaves and lives throughout the world. All genuine art seeks the spirit. Even when art wishes to represent the ugly, the disagreeable, it is concerned, not with the sensory-disagreeable as such, but with the spiritual which proclaims its nature in the midst of unpleasantness. If the spiritual shines through the ugly, even the ugly becomes beautiful. In art it is upon a relation to the spiritual that beauty depends....Beauty is not the divine in a cloak of physical reality; no, it is physical reality in a cloak that is divine. The artist does not bring the divine on to the earth by letting it flow into the world; he raises the world into the sphere of the divine."

~RUDOLF STEINER