Recent College Grad Opens Leatherworking Studio and Branding Bar in the Santa Fe Arts District

Vintage matchbooks, postcards and woven tapestries hang in curated clusters on the walls at Ember & Stitch, a new leatherworking studio and branding bar in Denver. 

Above the checkout counter, there’s a collage of photographs of a man with brown hair brushing across his forehead. He’s smiling in front of a picturesque snowy mountain scene and staring into the camera, looking effortlessly cool as he dons aviator sunglasses and leans against a red pickup truck. 

That man is David Guthrie, the business owner’s father. 

“ He’s my big inspiration for life and how much I love Colorado,” says Ember & Stitch owner Tessa Guthrie. “He had the attitude of following your dreams all the time. He was very much supportive of anything I did.”

He grew up in Aspen in the 1970s and inspired Ember & Stitch’s aesthetic. Guthrie points to the khaki work aprons with vintage name patches hanging on the wall. Her father worked in construction and used to find similar patches to sew onto his coveralls. 

Guthrie studied journalism, and along with running Ember & Stitch, she writes for Westword. She said no matter what she was doing, her father was her biggest cheerleader.

“ When I was in high school, he carried around my little high school newspaper for like a month and was like, ‘Read it. Everybody read it,’” she says. “It was so cute. He would’ve been so stoked with this store.  He was my big inspiration.”

Guthrie’s father passed away from Alzheimer’s last October, and she dedicated Ember & Stitch to him. 

Her business development moved on an accelerated timeline. Guthrie completed her journalism degree from the University of Stirling in Scotland last summer. With the volatile job market, she worried about going into journalism full-time. 

She decided to continue freelancing while building her own business and came up with the idea for Ember & Stitch in mid-October, signed her lease in the Art District on Santa Fe the first week of November, and opened on December 19. 

“If I get an idea in my head, I’m doing it,” she says. “No one can really talk me out of it.”

Guthrie worked in retail for eight years, so she knew how to find wholesalers and run the day-to-day operations of a store. However, she doesn’t have a background in business. 

YouTube and her community have been invaluable. 

“ I wanted to be in the Santa Fe Arts District because it’s very communal and obviously very artsy,” Guthrie says. “I really relied on teaching myself, but also reaching out to other business owners. There’s a store down the street called Afterglow Vintage, and the business owner, Alejandro, has given me amazing advice for just the area and stuff like that.”

Ember & Stitch sells leather goods, including statement belts, workbags, purses and keychains sourced from a wholesaler. For customers who want to get crafty, the shop offers leather workshops to create wallets, totes and journals. 

The small business also hosts ladies’ social nights where women can mingle while creating leather jewelry dishes. Guthrie said it’s perfectly fine to attend a ladies’ night alone. In fact, she encourages it. 

“ I’m a total advocate for doing activities by yourself, solo dates and stuff like that,” she says. “I think it’s a great way to meet new people, and I always hear people in Denver talking about how much they want to meet new friends.”

One of Ember & Stitch’s most popular offerings is its branding bar. Customers can purchase or bring in their own leather goods and have Guthrie brand letters and symbols onto them. 

Guthrie was inspired by Kemo Sabe in Aspen, a store famous for branding cowboy hats. But she wanted to go beyond cowboy hats and boots to a more “elevated Western aesthetic” with items she would actually wear every day, like leather bags and belts. 

Guthrie also wanted to offer a more affordable option, since Kemo Sabe’s hats can start at over $400. She charges $5 to brand items purchased in-store and $15 for pieces customers bring from home. 

“ People like that aesthetic, and I think it should be more attainable,” Guthrie says. “I think everybody loves a little bit of customization.”

Keeping with her determined outlook, Guthrie taught herself how to brand leather and ordered custom branding irons on Etsy. 

“ It’s super addicting. I call it tattooing for leather because I have a bunch of tattoos, and once you get started, you want to do everything,” she says. “I’ve done it to all my personal belongings, and it’s almost excessive at this point. It’s like everything I own has my initials on it.”

Guthrie likes that the branding process isn’t always perfect — there’s beauty in knowing something was made by a human instead of a machine. 

“ It looks handmade, it looks cool,” she says. “That’s why I like it.”

Ember & Stitch, 918 West 8th Avenue, is open Thursdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.