Collection of leather crafting tools and supplies on a red background, including metal wooden tools, a black leather wallet, a small tin of Smith's leather balm, and various leathercrafting tools.

Meet the Maker

Young woman with short dark hair, wearing a black suit and white button up shirt, smiling in front of a textured gray and black background.

My name is Ying Stock-Bordnick, and I am a former student at Tulane University, where I earned an M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering and a B.S.E. in Engineering Physics. I'm also a New Orleans local with a lifelong fascination for natural materials—wood, stone, water, and leather to name a few. There's something deeply captivating about the beauty, texture, and character of nature that has always drawn me in.

That appreciation truly blossomed during my time at Sewanee: The University of the South in Tennessee, where I studied before transferring to Tulane midway through my sophomore year. I spent much of my soccer off-season hiking through the forests, soaking in the sights, sounds, and quiet rhythm of the outdoors. I never expected those experiences to reshape the way I saw the world, but they did. Nature's ability to be both beautifully simple and endlessly complex continues to inspire the way I think, create, and design.

Leathercraft gives me the opportunity to bring those inspirations together with my engineering background, entrepreneurial spirit, and love for thoughtful design. I've always had an eye for aesthetics, and I'm grateful to have found a craft that allows me to blend creativity with functionality. Every piece I create is guided by the same philosophy: it should be beautiful without excess, functional without compromise, and built to last a lifetime.

Below, I've shared a collection of quotes that have shaped my perspective on life and design—and I'll continue adding to them as I discover new ones. Ponder them at your own leisure; you might just find something that resonates with you :)

Don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to learn more about me and my craft, if you have any questions, or if you just wanna chat. I’d love to hear from you :)

Thank you for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy your visit!

Contact Me

  • "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

    Leonardo da Vinci

  • "If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere."

    Vincent van Gogh

  • "Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

    Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

  • "The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity."

    Douglas Horton

  • "Design is not just what it looks and feels like. Design is how it works."

    Steve Jobs

  • "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."

    Lao Tzu

  • "Form follows function."

    Louis H. Sullivan

  • "Nature is the source of all true knowledge."

    Leonardo da Vinci

  • "Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.

    Bob Marley

  • "He who knows enough is enough will always have enough."

    Lao Tzu

  • "Colors are the smiles of nature."

    Leigh Hunt

  • "People can only meet you at the depths at which they have met themselves."

    Matt Kahn

  • "Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience."

    Ralph Waldo Emerson

  • "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

    Aristotle

  • "Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent."

    Joe Sparano

  • “In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful.”

    Alice Walker

  • "A happy life must be a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live."

    Bertrand Russell

  • "Nature is orderly. That which appears to be chaotic in nature is only a more complex kind of order."

    Gary Snyder

  • "How difficult it is to be simple."

    Vincent van Gogh

  • "Art isn't in the tools, materials, or equipment you use. It's in the way you see the world."

    Rick Rubin

  • "Question everything."

    Albert Einstein

  • "True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing."

    Socrates

  • "Nature always wears the colors of the spirit."

    Ralph Waldo Emerson

  • "Good design is as little design as possible."

    Dieter Rams

  • "A ship is always safe at shore, but that's not what it's built for."

    Albert Einstein

  • "Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom."

    Aristotle

  • "Love the life you live. Live the life you love.

    Bob Marley

  • "No artist tolerates reality."

    Nietzsche

  • "A loving heart is the truest wisdom."

    Charles Dickens

  • "Nature is not a place to visit. It's home."

    Gary Snyder

  • "Designing a product is designing a relationship."

    Steve Rogers

  • "Less is more."

    Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

  • "The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts."

    Marcus Aurelius

  • "Don't gain the word and lose your soul. Wisdom is better than silver or gold."

    Bob Marley

  • "It takes a lot of hard work to make something simple."

    Steve Jobs

  • "Quality is not an act, it is a habit."

    Aristotle

  • "Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth."

    Albert Einstein

  • "If you want to fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."

    African Proverb

  • "It is vain to do with more what can be done with less."

    William of Ockham

  • "There are four natural sanctuaries: silence, solitude, stillness and simplicity."

    Brianna Wiest

  • "The quieter you become, the more you hear."

    Ram Daas

  • "Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible God and destroys a visible nature. Unaware that this Nature he's destroying is this God he's worshipping."

    Hubert Reeves

  • "Accomplishing goals is not success. How much you expand in the process is."

    Brianna Weist

  • "Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable."

    Cesar A. Cruz

  • "The fears we don't face become our limits."

    Robin Sharma

  • "If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough."

    Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

  • "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."

    Mahatma Gandhi

  • "When life gives you lemons, make apple juice."

    Ying Stock-Bordnick

  • "If you want to learn what someone fears losing, watch what they photograph."

    Anonymous

  • "Smart people learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences, stupid people already have the answers."

    Socrates

  • "The unexamined life is not worth living."

    Socrates

  • "A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something."

    Plato

  • "There is beauty in that which is stronger than we are."

    Alain de Botton

  • "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all."

    Helen Keller

  • "One must not wish first to understand and then to feel. Art does not tolerate reason."

    Albert Camus

  • "Life was never meant to be understood. It was meant to be felt."

    Alan Watts

  • "Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced."

    Søren Kierkegaard

  • "To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, that is to have succeeded."

    Ralph Waldo Emerson

  • "If you think the price of success is too high, wait until you get the bill for regret."

    Tim Grover